SWEET SPRINGS, Mo. — White flag in the air, one-fifth of a mile remaining. Kale Drake had reeled-in leader Taylor Reimer from over a full second behind in 10 laps and was staring down an opportunity at the biggest win of his young career.
Drake, the 18-year-old national micro sprint champion from Collinsville, Okla., drove it in deep on the bottom in turn one while Reimer – the 24-year-old from Tulsa, Okla., who had led most of the race – gassed it through the middle.
Drake dove low with speed into the corner, hugging the dirt mound that separated the track from the infield as he rounded turns three and four. Reimer tried the top lane one more time in an effort to keep her speed up, but it was not enough.
Drake pulled even with Reimer off turn four and beat her in the drag race to the finish line by .020 seconds to steal the win and his first career national Midget series victory with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota Saturday night at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex.
“I honestly don’t have words for it at the moment,” Drake said. “It’s pretty surreal, to be honest.”
“I didn’t come here to run second,” Reimer said. “I’m pretty pissed off. Couldn’t get around the lapped car. Gave it up on the last lap.”
Drake joined the Keith Kunz Motorsports team as a driver for the first time at the Chili Bowl Nationals in January – where he was named Rookie of the Year after his 14th-place finish in the A-Main – and was hired soon after as a full-time crew member with a few opportunities to do more midget racing included.
When Xtreme Outlaw full-timer Gavin Miller was injured in a crash at a micro sprint event in California three weeks ago, Drake was given the nod to step into Miller’s ride for this weekend’s events while Miller continues to heal in recovery and did not forget to acknowledge his teammate after the big moment.
“He’s one of my really good friends and it sucks not having him here to race against because he is an amazing competitor, super good driver and only getting better as well,” Drake said about Miller. “I wish him a speedy recovery. We want to see him back at the track with us, and the season’s gonna be fun together.”
Drake crossed the finish line .020 seconds ahead of Reimer, followed by fellow KKM teammate Ryan Timms, making for an all Oklahoma-born podium.
McIntosh crossed the stripe in fourth and kept his points lead, while Chase McDermand completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 97-Kale Drake[3]; 2. 25K-Taylor Reimer[5]; 3. 67-Ryan Timms[4]; 4. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[1]; 5. 40-Chase McDermand[6]; 6. 16-Kyle Jones[2]; 7. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[7]; 8. 21K-Karter Sarff[8]; 9. 89-Todd McVay[11]; 10. 43-Gunnar Setser[9]; 11. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[17]; 12. 13-Elijah Gile[15]; 13. 5U-Peter Smith[12]; 14. 1K-Brayton Lynch[13]; 15. 44-Branigan Roark[18]; 16. 66-Jayden Clay[22]; 17. 55-Trevor Cline[14]; 18. 41-Brad Wyatt[21]; 19. 11A-Andrew Felker[20]; 20. 14S-TJ Smith[10]; 21. 88A-Austin Torgerson[19]; 22. 98-Luke Drotschie[16]; 23. 11J-Todd Jackson[23]