BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Braden Chiaramonte would sweep the night to win Rush Race Gear Preliminary Night Two of the Lil’ Texas Micro Mania KKM Challenge with the POWRi Outlaw Micro League presented by Rush Race Gear to claim his first seasonal league victory after leading the final eight laps.
Entering a stout field of 42 entries in the POWRi Outlaw Non-Wing Micro split-field division preliminary night two would find Chiaramonte setting the quickest qualifying lap with a time of 12.304 seconds. Heat Race Winners would include Chiaramonte, Justis Sokol, Kaden Weger, Nikko Panella and Justin Robison. Qualifier Winners would be Chiaramonte, Chase Cabre, Sam Johnson and Sokol with Robby Brockman and Johnny Boland gaining the hard-fought semi-feature victories.
Flying onto the track for Rush Race Gear Preliminary Night Two feature racing for the Micro Mania KKM Challenge would see nightly High Point Qualifier earner Chiaramonte and outside front-row contender Johnson leading the field to green as Johnson would hold the front of the field for the first few fast-paced laps around Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway.
Solidifying the lead through early race restarts would find Johnson protecting the front of the field through the opening stages of the feature event from Chiaramonte as mechanical issues would take the Sweet Springs event winner and third place contender Steven Snyder Jr. from competition on lap five with Sokol, Austin Saunders and Jett Nunley moving into the top-five pack.
Setting a blistering pace around the finely prepared Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway would find Johnson separating from the field by nearly a two-second advantage over a smooth-running Chiaramonte with Sokol and Saunders wheel-to-wheel for third and fourth as Isaiah Garcia quickly moved into the contending top five.
Using precision and patience on lap 17, Chiaramonte would overtake for the lead off turn four after Johnson misjudged the exit and jumped the cushion with a caution flag waving right as the lap clicked away to set the stages for late-race dramatics.
Perfecting the choose-cone restart as well as the preliminary night, Chiaramonte would defend the top spot for the final seven laps to earn his first career POWRi Outlaw Non-Wing Micro victory as Garcia would use the late restart to finish in the closely guarded second spot with leader of seventeen laps Johnson finalizing the podium placements.
“It was a great night and we should be sitting good in point for Saturday, I knew Sam was better in the beginning but I was there when he made a mistake to capitalize,” said a celebratory Chiaramonte in the Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway victory lane for Rush Race Gear Preliminary Night Two of the Micro Mania KKM Challenge. Adding, “Big win for Hyper they built a great car and I can’t thank everyone on my team enough for this great win.”
Keeping a solid showing all night, Saunders would place fourth in the final lock-in spot for Saturday as hard-charger Jadan Bowling advanced sixteen spots to round out the top-five finishers.
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. 73B-Braden Chiaramonte[1]; 2. 17G-Isaiah Garcia[16]; 3. 19-Sam Johnson[2]; 4. 82S-Austin Saunders[4]; 5. 21-Jadan Bowling[21]; 6. 29-Chase Cabre[5]; 7. 5M-Ryder McCutcheon[11]; 8. 1V-Johnny Boland[18]; 9. 99K-Seth Stenzel[12]; 10. 51G-Grant Schaadt[22]; 11. 01KW-Kaden Weger[8]; 12. 1E-Eric Braundmeier[7]; 13. 25S-Justis Sokol[6]; 14. 938-Bradley Fezard[20]; 15. 19J-Justin Robison[14]; 16. 15-Brody Brown[13]; 17. 14J-Jett Nunley[10]; 18. 44-Cory Kelley[19]; 19. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[3]; 20. 11-Laydon Pearson[15]; 21. 74R-Robby Brockman[17]; 22. 73-Nikko Panella[9].