TULSA, Okla. — Kale Drake would continue his dream run of on-track excellence in the ‘Ride-or-Cash’ Eibach Racing Championship Night of the yearly installment of the Keith Kunz Motorsports Giveback Classic to claim his second seasonal victory with the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro League at Port City Raceway by leading 16 of the 67-lap race.
“Literally none of this would be possible without the people that believed in me since day one and this big check really helps out,” said Drake taking the “Cash” in victory lane ceremonies.
Progressing through a strong full field of ninety-three entries set by preliminary night points to form lineups would find Gavin Miller set the quick non-lock-in hot lap time with 9.830 seconds. Going through an alphabet soup of semi-features, Jake Andreotti and Brecken Reese would gain the B-feature wins with Brian Carber and Justin Simpson taking the C-feature checkers, as well as Matt Moore and Cody Jessop victorious in D-features and Ashley Afdahl earning the top spot in the e-feature.
Automatically locking into the main event through top three placements in preliminary night competitions as well as KKM Challenge event wins, setting the first four starting rows through a King of Port Pole-Shuffle with Jake Nail victorious over Steven Snyder Jr., Drake, Kole Kirkman, Cruz Dickerson, Kris Carroll, Johnny Boland and K.J. Snow.
Increasing adrenaline onto the smooth Port City surface, Nail battle outside front-row contender and point-leader Snyder as the green flew as Nail holding the front of the field with Snyder, Drake, Dickerson and Boland all staying close inside the early contending top as the first caution would wave on lap seven to regroup the field.
Refiring smoothly in the Honest Abe Choose Cone to restart early in the feature, Nail would set sail at the front of the field with Drake maneuvering into the runner-up spot as Kirkman followed behind in third as the quarter-way point on the feature approached rapidly as lap traffic began to come into play.
Increasing the drama with a lap twenty-eight caution to bunch the field back together, Nail would continue to set a blistering pace at the point with Drake and Kirkman keeping pace as the top three began to separate from the field with Snyder, Colby Sokol, Cannon McIntosh, Dickerson, Andreotti, Jett Barnes and Reese within the top 10 around the middle of the prestigious event.
Covering the coveted top spot, Nail would continue to set the pace until heavy lap traffic occurred when Drake would shoot to the top of the field with Sokol following in the tire tracks into position two just as the leader of 51 laps, Nail, would clip an infield tractor tire sending him flipping, driver would be OK, yet unfortunately taking the speedster from competition.
Resuming racing with Drake leading would witness Miller running from a C-Feature advancement to battling into the runner-up spot with less than 10 laps remaining as McIntosh rounded out the late podium of front-running contenders ahead of Sokol and Kirkman inside the opposing top five.
Adding to the spectacular feature, a late race caution would regroup the field with only a trio of laps remaining with Drake holding steady up front for his fifth career POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro victory as Miller would finish in the closely contended second spot from starting 18th with 19th-starting McIntosh finalizing the podium placements.
“This is unbelievable, this place means so much to me with the support of everyone that makes this possible,” said Drake. “It was a super dominate bottom track and I happened to see them move the tires down before the feature and knew I had to keep my nose down and not make as many mistakes as I could and it paid off.”
Feature Finish (67 Laps)
1. 71M-Kale Drake[3]; 2. 71K-Gavin Miller[18]; 3. 14-Cannon McIntosh[19]; 4. 24S-Colby Sokol[14]; 5. 20Q-Brecken Reese[10]; 6. 29-Jake Andreotti[9]; 7. 39-Russ Disinger[20]; 8. 78-Kole Kirkman[4]; 9. 81-Frank Flud[11]; 10. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[2]; 11. 33-Cruz Dickerson[5]; 12. 86-Daison Pursley[22]; 13. 34-Colton Robinson[24]; 14. 28H-Chelby Hinton[13]; 15. 5-Kris Carroll[6]; 16. 12J-Brant Woods[16]; 17. 1H-Connor Lee[12]; 18. 72-Jett Barnes[23]; 19. 89-KJ Snow[8]; 20. 14R-Jake Nail[1]; 21. 24G-Greyson Springer[17]; 22. 1V-Johnny Boland[7]; 23. 4-Jett Yantis[15]; 24. 11C-Darren Brown[21].