KOKOMO, Ind. — The O’Connor family hosted the opening night of the two-day 19th annual Kokomo Klash at its Kokomo Speedway Friday with Cale Coons, Dillan Baldwin and Sheldon Oberle scoring feature victories.
Coons came home the winner of the 25-lap feature race for non-wing, ‘410’ sprint cars at the quarter-mile, banked, dirt oval. Coons, the 16-year-old son of longtime open-wheel speedster Jerry Coons, wheeled his Curb Records No. 63 sprinter to the checkered flag after battling Jadon Rogers for the win. The Greencastle, Ind., resident nailed down his fifth sprint car win of the season.
Coons, coming from his third-place starting spot in the 21-car field, raced around early leader Shane Cottle for the top spot with Cottle and Rogers giving chase.
The race was red flagged when Beau Brandon got into the outside wall coming off of turn four and flipped several, landing on all four wheels. A shaken Brandon got out of his wrecked car with assistance from the track safety crew.
After the restart, Rogers moved to second and close the gap on Coons as the duo battled, sliding and diving for the lead. At the checkered flag, it was Coons the winner, followed by Rogers, Cottle Rylan Gray, Chance Crum and Tye Mihocko.
“Probably when we had clean air and no one in front of us and no lapped cars, we were the one to beat,” said Coons. “Once we got to lapped traffic, Jadon was a little better at passing. I probably cleared the way for him a little bit when there was a couple of lapped cars side-by-side in front of me.
“Me and Jadon definitely had a good battle there. I think we got together once. I ran him close off a (turn) two a couple of times.”
Another 16-year-old Dillan Baldwin, from Taylorsville, Ky., was the winner of the 25-lap headliner for RaceSaver Sprint Cars.
Starting fourth in the 20-car lineup for 305 winged sprinters, Baldwin scored the win in front of Jordan Welch, Matthew McDonald, Rod Henning and John Paynter Jr.
Sheldon Oberle, racing out of Battleground, Ind., claimed top honors in the 25-lap main event for Thunder Cars. Leading from flag-to-flag in a race that was marked by numerous yellow flags and a red flag-causing, multi-car accident, Oberle defeated Trevor Bitterling, Hayden Lomax, Jesse Simmons and Bradley Roundtree, who were the top finishers among the 24 starters.
The finish:
Cale Coons, Jadon Rogers, Shane Cottle, Rylan Gray, Chance Crum, Tye Mihocko, Keith Sheffer Jr., Zack Pretorius, Kole Kirkman, Cody Trammell, Devan Myers, Brandon Spencer, Matt Goodnight, Andrew Prather, Glen Saville, Kyle Gunkel, Harley Burns, Beau Brandon, Dave Gross, Steve Irwin, Tony Helton
