SALISBURY, N.C. – Carson Kvapil completed a sweep of the top two classes at Millbridge Speedway Wednesday night by picking up the win in the 30-lap non-winged micro sprint main event at the sixth-mile dirt oval.
It was his third micro sprint win of the year at Millbridge. The event was part of the finale to DiaEdge NC Race Week, and Kvapil won the 20-lap Open division outlaw kart feature earlier in the program.
John Nicholson Jr. led the field to green from the pole, but he didn’t keep the top spot long, as Nick Drake soared around the outside to capture the point before a full lap was in the books.
A red flag on lap three stalled the action, however, as Kvapil attempted to slide Sam Corry for third in turn four and made contact with Corry’s left front – sending Corry upside down on corner exit.
The young Corry was uninjured in the incident, but his chance for a solid finish was over at that point.
After two attempts at a restart, Kvapil began making his charge toward the front, taking second on lap five with an outside sweep after Nicholson slipped and lost momentum exiting the fourth corner.
A lap-seven yellow for the spinning Nigel Standish then allowed Kvapil to close up to Drake’s back bumper, leading to a slide job on lap nine that afforded Kvapil the lead for good.
The second-generation driver then paced the final 22 circuits en route to victory, despite a final caution with 11 laps scored that gave Drake one final shot at Kvapil in turn one.
Kvapil never faltered, however, opening up a one-second lead by halfway that expanded to two seconds inside of 10 to go. Though lapped traffic allowed Drake to close back in over the final few laps, he could get no closer than seven tenths of a second before Kvapil took the twin checkered flags.
“They didn’t want to get lapped there at the end, but we made it happen,” Kvapil noted. “I feel really bad about getting into Corry. I definitely didn’t do that on purpose; it was just a bad deal over there in turn four. Nick and I had a really good race for the win, though, so I’m glad to come out on top.
“It’s nice to win two races with a stacked field here. We’ve got one winged now and one non-winged recently, so it has definitely boosted my confidence a bit and reminded me we have a really fast car.”
Behind Kvapil and Drake, Nicholson completed the podium. Chase Wayne and Neal Allison finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Ethan Mitchell was the hard charger, advancing from 16th to eighth.
Millbridge Speedway will take a week off before returning to action on Saturday, Sept. 19.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.