Seavey Sweeps through Oklahoma City Portion of Turnpike Challenge
The Wheatley Chronicles
Lonnie Wheatley, OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (March 23, 2019) – Logan Seavey enjoyed victory lane at I-44 Riverside Speedway on Friday night that de drove the Toyota-powered Keith Kunz Motorsports Mobil 1 No. 67 Midget right back to the same place on Saturday night.
This time, he battled past Jerry Coons, Jr., for the lead on the 11th round of the 30-lap Lucas Oil POWRi Midget feature event and held off teammate Tucker Klaasmeyer and then Tyler Thomas over the final rounds to post the win while hometown hero Christopher Bell rallied from the tail of the field to round out the podium in third.
“It was another fairly physical racetrack. You’re out of breath and bouncing through the holes, it makes it a lot of fun and has a lot of character,” the Sutter, CA, shoe said of the 1/5-mile clay oval that absorbed significant overnight rain. “Once we got up front, this thing was just so good.”
With Seavey gridding the feature field in third, 16-year-old Cannon McIntosh and Tucson native Jerry Coons, Jr., led the way to the green flag. Coons, Jr., grabbed the early advantage when McIntosh clipped the berm exiting turn four and lost a handful of positions as the green flag flew.
Seavey immediately began pressuring Coons, Jr., for the point and finally raced by in turns one and two on the 11th circuit to take command with Coons, Jr., collected by a spinning lapped car a half-lap later to move Klaasmeyer into second and McIntosh back up to third.
Klaasmeyer challenged several times with Tyler Thomas moving into third over the next handful of laps and then sliding into second by the 19th round. Thomas tried to mount a charge on Seavey over the closing ten rounds but had had to settle for runner-up honors.
Meanwhile, Christopher Bell wasted little time rallying from the 22nd starting position after snaring the night’s final transfer from “B” Main action. Bell cracked the top ten within the opening handful of laps and was up to seventh by the race’s midway point.
Bell continued to pick off spots one-by-one, following Thomas’ lead past McIntosh and then Klaasmeyer to capture third. That was as far as could make it through the field though.
McIntosh slid past Klaasmeyer for fourth on the race’s final restart with three laps to go only to lose power on the final round. Klaasmeyer recaptured fourth with Jake Neuman rounding out the top five.
The Vitals
Series: POWRi National / POWRi West Midgets
Track: I-44 Riverside Speedway (Oklahoma City, OK)
Car Count: 52
Heat Winners (starting position in parentheses): Jerry Coons, Jr. (4), Logan Seavey (5), Christopher Bell (1), Tyler Thomas (2), Ace McCarthy (1), Holley Hollan (4), Karter Sarff (2).
Heat Moments: Coons, Jr., took advantage of a lap six restart to battle past race-long leader Wesley Smith in the first heat as Smith got shuffled back to fourth on the final round; In the second heat, Zeb Wise bounced to a stop and on then on his side in turn two before Seavey battled past Alex DeCamp on the fifth round to take the win; Trying to mount a charge for the lead in the sixth heat, Brady Bacon got upside down in turn four coming to the white flag; Hollan took advantage of that late caution to race past Andrew Felker for the heat race win.
“C” Main Winner: Noah Gass.
Qualifying Race Winners (starting position in parentheses): Cannon McIntosh (5), Jesse Colwell (1), Daison Pursley (1), Cole Bodine (1).
Qualifier Moments: McIntosh charged from fifth to win the first qualifier, earning the pole position for the feature in the process; Kaylee Bryson nearly makes it a Dave Mac Motorsports sweep of the opening two qualifiers only to surrender the point to Jesse Colwell in the closing rounds; Bell cuts down a left rear tire in the second qualifier to mire himself deep in “B” Main action; Pursley gets another KKM qualifier win in the third one with Petry rep Bodine bouncing back from a rough Friday to win the fourth qualifier; Hank Davis had command of the fourth qualifier until his mount lost power.
“B” Main Winners (starting position in parentheses): Ace McCarty (1), Zach Daum (3).
“B” Main Moments: Blake Edwards gets upside down in turn two a couple of laps into the first “B” Main; Sarff and Wesley Smith get tangled up exiting turn four as Matt Sherrell narrowly escapes the melee in the battle for a transfer position; Wise bounced it to a stop again in turn two a few laps in but rallies back to capture the third and final transfer on the final round; Layser spins with three to go in the second “B” Main; Up to fourth from the eighth starting position, Bell cashes in on that final caution to slide into the final transfer.
“A” Main Cautions: Four
11 Laps – Ace McCarthy spin in turn three and collects Jerry Coons, Jr., who had just been passed for the lead by Seavey in the previous pair of corners; Under caution, Bryson’s car loses power and she is forced pitside.
16 Laps – Turn two chaos finds six cars (Sterling Cling, Jody Rosenboom, Holley Hollan, Brady Bacon, Zach Daum and Matt Sherrell) all tangled up in turn two. Bacon was the only one unable to rejoin the action at the tail.
17 Laps – The red flag flies when Zeb Wise’s already rough night got rougher after a wild ride down the backstretch and into turn three.
27 Laps – Sherrell’s race is cut short with another turn two stoppage.
“A” Main Hard Charger: Christopher Bell worked his way from 22nd to finish third.
The Box Score…
Heat 1: 1. 25-Jerry Coons Jr, [4]; 2. 71K-Tanner Carrick, [7]; 3. 71-Jesse Colwell, [3]; 4. 44-Wesley Smith, [1]; 5. 19S-Gavin Stout, [5]; 6. 95-Chris Andrews, [6]; 7. 88W-Dustin Weland, [2]; 8. 17-Austin Brown, [8]
Heat 2: 1. 67-Logan Seavey, [5]; 2. 84M-Alex DeCamp, [1]; 3. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer, [6]; 4. 19J-Sam Johnson, [4]; 5. 47BC-Andrew Layser, [3]; 6. 39BC-Zeb Wise, [8]; 7. 17B-Ryan Bickett, [7]; 8. 9H-Emilio Hoover, [2]
Heat 3: 1. 21-Christopher Bell, [1]; 2. 56-Alex Bright, [4]; 3. 15-Cole Bodine, [2]; 4. 42-Hank Davis, [6]; 5. 10-Matt Sherrell, [3]; 6. 17E-Blake Edwards, [5]; 7. 4M-Michelle Decker, [7]; 8. 9X-Tyler Shoemaker, [8]
Heat 4: 1. 91T-Tyler Thomas, [2]; 2. 08-Cannon McIntosh, [6]; 3. 4C-Luke Howard, [1]; 4. 5T-Presley Truedson, [7]; 5. 96-Cody Brewer, [3]; 6. 15L-Merril Lamb, [4]; 7. F5-Tye Mihocko, [5]
Heat 5: 1. 28-Ace McCarthy, [1]; 2. 14X-Jody Rosenboom, [2]; 3. 14E-Kyle Jones, [4]; 4. 8M-Kade Morton, [6]; 5. 7M-Chance Morton, [7]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn, [5]; 7. 77B-Olivia Bennett, [3]
Heat 6: 1. 67K-Holley Hollan, [4]; 2. 44S-Andrew Felker, [1]; 3. 3N-Jake Neuman, [5]; 4. 35-Sterling Cling, [7]; 5. 56X-Mark Chisholm, [2]; 6. 21H-Brady Bacon, [3]; 7. 3H-Mitchell Davis, [6]
Heat 7: 1. 21KS-Karter Sarff, [2]; 2. 11B-Kaylee Bryson, [1]; 3. 9-Daison Pursley, [3]; 4. 32-Trey Marcham, [5]; 5. 5D-Zach Daum, [7]; 6. 10B-Lance Bennett, [4]; 7. 20G-Noah Gass, [6]
C Feature 1: 1. 20G-Noah Gass, [6]; 2. 4M-Michelle Decker, [4]; 3. 3H-Mitchell Davis, [5]; 4. 10B-Lance Bennett, [1]; 5. F5-Tye Mihocko, [7]; 6. 17B-Ryan Bickett, [3]; 7. 88W-Dustin Weland, [11]; 8. 77B-Olivia Bennett, [8]; 9. 9X-Tyler Shoemaker, [10]; 10. 9H-Emilio Hoover, [12]; 11. 21H-Brady Bacon, [2]; 12. 17-Austin Brown, [9]
Qualifier 1: 1. 08-Cannon McIntosh, [5]; 2. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer, [4]; 3. 67-Logan Seavey, [6]; 4. 44S-Andrew Felker, [2]; 5. 19J-Sam Johnson, [8]; 6. 32-Trey Marcham, [7]; 7. 47BC-Andrew Layser, [9]; 8. 8M-Kade Morton, [1]; 9. 5T-Presley Truedson, [3]; 10. 95-Chris Andrews, [10]
Qualifier 2: 1. 71-Jesse Colwell, [1]; 2. 11B-Kaylee Bryson, [2]; 3. 91T-Tyler Thomas, [5]; 4. 35-Sterling Cling, [3]; 5. 39BC-Zeb Wise, [8]; 6. 71K-Tanner Carrick, [6]; 7. 10-Matt Sherrell, [9]; 8. 17E-Blake Edwards, [10]; 9. 4C-Luke Howard, [7]; 10. 21-Christopher Bell, [4]
Qualifier 3: 1. 9-Daison Pursley, [1]; 2. 25-Jerry Coons Jr, [6]; 3. 14X-Jody Rosenboom, [3]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn, [10]; 5. 28-Ace McCarthy, [4]; 6. 21KS-Karter Sarff, [5]; 7. 44-Wesley Smith, [8]; 8. 14E-Kyle Jones, [2]; 9. 7M-Chance Morton, [7]; 10. 96-Cody Brewer, [9]
Qualifier 4: 1. 15-Cole Bodine, [1]; 2. 3N-Jake Neuman, [4]; 3. 56-Alex Bright, [5]; 4. 84M-Alex DeCamp, [3]; 5. 5D-Zach Daum, [7]; 6. 67K-Holley Hollan, [6]; 7. 56X-Mark Chisholm, [9]; 8. 19S-Gavin Stout, [8]; 9. 15L-Merril Lamb, [10]; 10. 42-Hank Davis, [2]
B Feature 1: 1. 28-Ace McCarthy, [1]; 2. 10-Matt Sherrell, [6]; 3. 39BC-Zeb Wise, [4]; 4. 19J-Sam Johnson, [3]; 5. 42-Hank Davis, [11]; 6. 20G-Noah Gass, [13]; 7. 21KS-Karter Sarff, [2]; 8. 5T-Presley Truedson, [8]; 9. 3H-Mitchell Davis, [14]; 10. 7M-Chance Morton, [10]; 11. 44-Wesley Smith, [5]; 12. 17E-Blake Edwards, [9]; 13. 14E-Kyle Jones, [7]; 14. 95-Chris Andrews, [12]
B Feature 2: 1. 5D-Zach Daum, [3]; 2. 44S-Andrew Felker, [2]; 3. 21-Christopher Bell, [8]; 4. 32-Trey Marcham, [4]; 5. 84M-Alex DeCamp, [1]; 6. 8M-Kade Morton, [7]; 7. 4M-Michelle Decker, [13]; 8. 56X-Mark Chisholm, [6]; 9. 10B-Lance Bennett, [14]; 10. 19S-Gavin Stout, [10]; 11. 4C-Luke Howard, [9]; 12. 47BC-Andrew Layser, [5]; 13. 15L-Merril Lamb, [11]; 14. 96-Cody Brewer, [12]
A Feature 1: 1. 67-Logan Seavey, 28:30.373[3]; 2. 91T-Tyler Thomas, 28:31.889[5]; 3. 21-Christopher Bell, 28:32.008[22]; 4. 27-Tucker Klaasmeyer, 28:33.612[4]; 5. 3N-Jake Neuman, 28:33.953[6]; 6. 56-Alex Bright, 28:34.142[7]; 7. 9-Daison Pursley, 28:34.832[9]; 8. 71-Jesse Colwell, 28:35.076[8]; 9. 71K-Tanner Carrick, 28:35.231[12]; 10. 44S-Andrew Felker, 28:35.597[20]; 11. 25-Jerry Coons Jr, 28:36.372[2]; 12. 5D-Zach Daum, 28:36.427[18]; 13. 15-Cole Bodine, 28:36.950[11]; 14. 67K-Holley Hollan, 28:38.110[13]; 15. 52-Blake Hahn, 28:38.231[21]; 16. 35-Sterling Cling, 28:39.371[16]; 17. 08-Cannon McIntosh, 28:23.504[1]; 18. 10-Matt Sherrell, 25:59.514[17]; 19. 14X-Jody Rosenboom, 24:29.274[14]; 20. 39BC-Zeb Wise, 17:25.346[19]; 21. 21H-Brady Bacon, 06:27.077[23]; 22. 11B-Kaylee Bryson, 06:33.148[10]; 23. 28-Ace McCarthy, 06:27.077[15]
