Beason Best in POWRi West Summer Showdown Opener

LAWTON, Okla. (August 17, 2016) – Jonathan Beason led a Hard Eight Racing sweep in Wednesday night’s opening round of the POWRi West Midgets Summer Showdown atop the ¼-mile Lawton Speedway.

Taking the green flag from the second row outside, Beason slid past Hard Eight Racing teammate Frank Flud for the lead on a lap four restart and paced the field the rest of the way in the 25-lapper for his first career triumph among the POWRi West ranks.

“I can’t thank Jon Kantor enough, it was a last minute thing to put this new car together and it worked great,” Beason said in victory lane.

Beason’s take for the night was $1,550 including $550 in lap money for leading the final 22 circuits after Flud set the pace for the opening three rounds.

Flud gunned into the initial lead with Beason making the move to second on the opening circuit. After a couple of early cautions, Beason took advantage of an early restart and took command for keeps.

“I thought he might shut the door on me, but I guess that’s what teammates are for,” Beason commented.

From there, Beason was untouchable as he raced to the stripe with Flud fighting off the rest of the field for second. Michelle Decker took advantage of an R.J. Johnson misstep in lapped traffic to snare the show position with Johnson settling for fourth. Matt Sherrell rounded out the top five with pole starter Ryan Hall, Andrew Deal, Kyle Jones, Steven Shebester and Travis Scott completing the top ten.

Johnson, Decker and Beason topped heat race action for the 23 car field.

The POWRi West Midget Summer Showdown resumes with Round Two on Thursday night at Creek County Speedway near Sapulpa, OK, before shifting to Wichita’s 81 Speedway on Friday night and then wrapping up at Dodge City Raceway Park on Saturday night.

Lawton Speedway “A” Main Results: 1. 8J-Jonathan Beason (4), 2. 8k-Frank Flud (2), 3. 4m-Michelle Decker (6), 4. 51-R.J. Johnson (3), 5. 35-Matt Sherrell (8), 6. 2-Ryan Hall (1), 7. 15d-Andrew Deal (7), 8. 54-Kyle Jones (14), 9. 82m-Steven Shebester (10), 10. 2s-Travis Scott (9), 11. 17e-Blake Edwards (19), 12. 23-Hannah Adair (13), 13. 6-David Ferguson (18), 14. 4c-Shane Sellers (15), 15. 14-Grady Chandler (21), 16. 9-Matt Moore (5), 17. 19-Doug McCune (20), 18. 27k-Kyle Keeler (17), 19. 28m-Ace McCarthy (11), 20. 69J-Logan Scherb (12).