MARION, Ill. — Kole Kirkman would lead all 25 laps to win Eibach Racing Preliminary Night Two of the fourth yearly installment of the Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by Start2Finish TV to claim his first career victory with the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro League at Southern Illinois Raceway.
Going through a strong split-field of 33 entries on prelim night Two would find Brian Carber set the quick qualifying time with a lap of 10.041 seconds.
Brody Mclaughlin, Grayson Springer, Mack Leopard and Russ Disinger would each emerge victorious in heat racing action with Gavin Miller, Kirkman and Johnny Boland all earning wins in qualifier competitions as Autumn Criste would gain the semi-feature win.
Flying onto the smooth Southern Illinois Raceway surface would see high-point qualifier Jeffrey Newell battle outside front-row contender Kirkman. As the green flew with Kirkman holding the front of the field by .004 seconds over Justis Sokol on the opening lap.
Restarting under an Honest Abe’s Choose Cone restart, low-line firing Kirkman would continue to show the point of the field as Sokol and Newell battled behind with Carber, Boland, Miller, Disinger, Cruz Dickerson, Greyson Springer and Brecken Reese running inside the top 10.
Continuing the rapid pace up front would find Kirkman protecting the lead from Sokol as Boland moved into a podium placement around the mid-race point with Newell and Carber maintaining a top-five contention.
Separating from the field by over a two-second lead, Kirkman would appear to be in a different gear as lap traffic began to come into the picture with Boland, Sokol, Newell and Carber bunched back together after a lap 21 caution.
Single-file restarting with less than five laps remaining would find Kirkman holding steady up front for his first career POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro victory as Boland would finish in the closely contended second spot from starting fourth with okol finalizing the podium placements.
“We went to work after the qualifier and made the car really good to where I was able to put the car anywhere,” said Kirkman. “The last two weeks have been awesome from winning last week to locking into the $10K race tomorrow, this place is going to be fun.”
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. 22-Kole Kirkman[2]; 2. 1V-Johnny Boland[4]; 3. 25S-Justis Sokol[3]; 4. 39-Russ Disinger[8]; 5. 12X-Jeffrey Newell[1]; 6. 8-Brian Carber[6]; 7. 24G-Greyson Springer[10]; 8. 59-Brody Mclaughlin[9]; 9. 20Q-Brecken Reese[11]; 10. 33-Cruz Dickerson[13]; 11. 11R-James Kelly[19]; 12. 34-Colton Robinson[18]; 13. 126-Autumn Criste[17]; 14. 44-Gunner Shroyer[20]; 15. 8C-LeRoy Carley[16]; 16. 87-Mack Leopard[7]; 17. 5P-Luke Porter[22]; 18. 71K-Gavin Miller[5]; 19. 12K-Dylan Kadous[15]; 20. 25R-Nathan Rector[21]; 21. 99B-Robbie Smith[12]; 22. 5-Ryder McCutcheon[14].