Logansport, IN. (8/8/24) Kale Drake would fly from starting fifth to win Preliminary Night One of the third yearly installment of the Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by Start2Finish TV to claim his fourth career victory with the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro League while battling at the outstanding hosting US-24 Speedway.
Going through a strong split-field of twenty-eight entries on prelim night one of the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro division in the KKM Challenge would find Steven Snyder Jr set the quick qualifying time with a time of 11.727 seconds. Cale Cannon, Robbie Smith, Daniel Robinson, and Russell Gamester would each emerge victorious in heat racing action with Gunnar Setser, Kale Drake, and Greyson Springer all earning wins in qualifier competitions as Steven Snyder Jr would gain the semi-feature win after mechanical malfunctions in his heat race.
Flying onto the smooth US-24 Speedway surface for Preliminary Night One feature racing for the opening night of the Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by Start2Finish TV would see high-point qualifier Aiden Purdue battle outside front-row contender Robbie Smith as the green flew with Aiden Purdue holding the early front of the field with Robbie Smith, Kole Kirkman, Kale Drake, and Gunnar Setser all staying close inside the early contending top five.
Breaking away from the rest of the field, Aiden Purdue would mount nearly a two-second advantage over the nearest competitor as Kale Drake moved into the runner-up spot with Kole Kirkman and Gunnar Setser keeping Robbie Smith at bay inside the top five as the first caution waved on lap nine.
Restarting the field with Honest Abe’s POWRi Choose Cone in play, Kale Drake would slide into the lead out of turn four using the high-side speed with Aiden Purdue keeping pace in second place as a major wreck behind the leading pair would halt the action in turn one on the following lap; all drivers involved were okay but altering the top-ten running order.
Bringing the field back to green on a lap eleven restart, Kale Drake would protect the lead from Aiden Purdue with Gunnar Setser moving into a podium running spot as Colby Sokol and Thomas Kunsman Jr rounded out the top five as caution would bunch the field back together once again on lap sixteen.
Firing back into close-quarters driving displays in the waning laps, Kale Drake would not be denied in capturing his first seasonal POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro victory as Gunnar Setser would finish in the closely contended second spot with the leader of nine laps Aiden Purdue finalizing the podium placements.
“Aiden did a great job to get out front early, but I knew I was given this great car and I had to just hit my marks,” said Kale Drake in the US-24 Speedway victory lane for Preliminary Night One of the Indiana KKM Challenge. Adding, “I’m super happy to put the team in a good position and pull off the win”.
Driving from starting eighth, Thomas Kunsman Jr would place fourth as Frank Flud rounded out the top-five finishers in the POWRi Outlaw Micro League feature in Preliminary Night One of the Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by Start2Finish TV at US-24 Speedway.
POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro | KKM Challenge | 5/30/24:
Eibach Racing Quick Qualifying Time: 21S-Steven Snyder Jr(11.727)
Hyper Racing Heat Race One Winner: 11-Cale Cannon
Victory Fuel Heat Race Two Winner: 99B-Robbie Smith
Rush Race Gear Heat Race Three Winner: 10-Daniel Robinson
Hoosier Racing Tire Heat Race Four Winner: 49- Russell Gamester
Driven Midwest Qualifier One Winner: 71G-Gunnar Setser
Engler Machine and Tool Qualifier Two Winner: 71-Kale Drake
Eibach Racing Qualifier Three Winner: 24G-Greyson Springer
Victory Fuel Semi-Feature Winner: 21S-Steven Snyder Jr
Hyper Racing High Point Qualifier: 25P-Aiden Purdue
Hoosier Racing Tire Hard Charger: 83-Brant Woods
Eibach Racing Feature Winner: 71-Kale Drake
Eibach Racing A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 71-Kale Drake[5]; 2. 71G-Gunnar Setser[4]; 3. 25P-Aiden Purdue[1]; 4. 21K-Thomas Kunsman Jr[8]; 5. 81-Frank Flud[10]; 6. 24S-Colby Sokol[13]; 7. 83-Brant Woods[18]; 8. 10-Daniel Robinson[9]; 9. 11C-Darren Brown[11]; 10. 16W-Hunter Walker[20]; 11. 40-Caleb Shietze[14]; 12. 25-Kenneth Beinhower III[21]; 13. 11-Cale Cannon[12]; 14. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[17]; 15. 12C-Chase Spicola[22]; 16. 126-Autumn Criste[16]; 17. 99B-Robbie Smith[2]; 18. 22-Kole Kirkman[3]; 19. 24G-Greyson Springer[6]; 20. 49-Russell Gamester[7]; 21. 94-Hayden Wise[15]; 22. 99-Cole Bodine[19].
Victory Fuel B Feature (12 Laps): 1. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[3]; 2. 83-Brant Woods[1]; 3. 99-Cole Bodine[5]; 4. 16W-Hunter Walker[4]; 5. 25-Kenneth Beinhower III[6]; 6. 12C-Chase Spicola[9]; 7. 25AU-Brady Argles[8]; 8. 12-Jacob Ruppe[7]; 9. 14K-Kyle Hooper[10]; 10. 81G-Giancarlo Ramessar[11]; 11. 5-Robert Parish Jr[12]; 12. 9-Brad Sutton[2].
Hyper Racing Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Cale Cannon[1]; 2. 126-Autumn Criste[2]; 3. 11C-Darren Brown[3]; 4. 94-Hayden Wise[5]; 5. 99-Cole Bodine[6]; 6. 9-Brad Sutton[7]; 7. (DNS) 21S-Steven Snyder Jr.
Victory Fuel Victory Fuel Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99B-Robbie Smith[2]; 2. 81-Frank Flud[3]; 3. 21K-Thomas Kunsman Jr[4]; 4. 24G-Greyson Springer[5]; 5. 24S-Colby Sokol[1]; 6. 12C-Chase Spicola[6]; 7. 5-Robert Parish Jr[7].
Rush Race Gear Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 10-Daniel Robinson[1]; 2. 22-Kole Kirkman[3]; 3. 40-Caleb Shietze[2]; 4. 71G-Gunnar Setser[4]; 5. 12-Jacob Ruppe[5]; 6. 16W-Hunter Walker[6]; 7. 14K-Kyle Hooper[7].
Hoosier Racing Tire Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 49-Russell Gamester[2]; 2. 25P-Aiden Purdue[4]; 3. 71-Kale Drake[3]; 4. 83-Brant Woods[1]; 5. 25-Kenneth Beinhower III[6]; 6. 25AU-Brady Argles[5]; 7. 81G-Giancarlo Ramessar[7].
Driven Midwest Qualifier 1 (10 Laps): 1. 71G-Gunnar Setser[1]; 2. 99B-Robbie Smith[3]; 3. 25P-Aiden Purdue[4]; 4. 11C-Darren Brown[2]; 5. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[10]; 6. 83-Brant Woods[6]; 7. 40-Caleb Shietze[5]; 8. 12-Jacob Ruppe[7]; 9. 12C-Chase Spicola[8]; 10. 5-Robert Parish Jr[9].
Engler Machine Tool Qualifier 2 (10 Laps): 1. 71-Kale Drake[1]; 2. 22-Kole Kirkman[3]; 3. 24S-Colby Sokol[6]; 4. 21K-Thomas Kunsman Jr[4]; 5. 9-Brad Sutton[8]; 6. 94-Hayden Wise[5]; 7. 25-Kenneth Beinhower III[7]; 8. 14K-Kyle Hooper[9]; 9. 126-Autumn Criste[2].
PageKC Qualifier 3 (10 Laps): 1. 24G-Greyson Springer[5]; 2. 10-Daniel Robinson[1]; 3. 49-Russell Gamester[3]; 4. 11-Cale Cannon[2]; 5. 81-Frank Flud[4]; 6. 16W-Hunter Walker[8]; 7. 99-Cole Bodine[6]; 8. 25AU-Brady Argles[7]; 9. 81G-Giancarlo Ramessar[9].
Eibach Racing Qualifying: 1. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr, 00:11.727[7]; 2. 21K-Thomas Kunsman Jr, 00:11.803[6]; 3. 71G-Gunnar Setser, 00:11.877[2]; 4. 25P-Aiden Purdue, 00:11.896[23]; 5. 11C-Darren Brown, 00:11.898[8]; 6. 81-Frank Flud, 00:11.901[27]; 7. 22-Kole Kirkman, 00:11.915[1]; 8. 71-Kale Drake, 00:11.918[24]; 9. 126-Autumn Criste, 00:11.948[19]; 10. 99B-Robbie Smith, 00:11.950[16]; 11. 40-Caleb Shietze, 00:11.964[17]; 12. 49-Russell Gamester, 00:12.034[20]; 13. 11-Cale Cannon, 00:12.046[28]; 14. 24S-Colby Sokol, 00:12.082[26]; 15. 10-Daniel Robinson, 00:12.092[10]; 16. 83-Brant Woods, 00:12.094[18]; 17. 94-Hayden Wise, 00:12.112[9]; 18. 24G-Greyson Springer, 00:12.136[25]; 19. 12-Jacob Ruppe, 00:12.158[5]; 20. 25AU-Brady Argles, 00:12.179[12]; 21. 99-Cole Bodine, 00:12.194[21]; 22. 12C-Chase Spicola, 00:12.210[11]; 23. 16W-Hunter Walker, 00:12.270[14]; 24. 25-Kenneth Beinhower III, 00:12.290[3]; 25. 9-Brad Sutton, 00:12.326[22]; 26. 5-Robert Parish Jr, 00:12.379[4]; 27. 14K-Kyle Hooper, 00:12.416[13]; 28. 81G-Giancarlo Ramessar, 00:12.491[15].
For additional information including times, prices, point fund, support divisions, payouts, updates, the broadcast schedule, yearly agenda, and full format of the KKM Challenge events visit http://www.powri.com/kkm/.
Winners of the $10K-to-win finale events at each of the KKM Challenge Races will receive automatic entry into the “Challenge Champions Dash” at the KKM Giveback Classic at Port City Raceway on October 19th, with that winner earning automatic entry into the King of Port pole-shuffle and prized starting position in the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw feature event for the KKM Giveback Classic.
For more information about Keith Kunz Motorsports and their racing endeavors, visit their website at www.keithkunzmotorsports.com. Also, follow the Keith Kunz Motorsports pages on leading social media platforms.
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- Cassy Staley on Aug 09, 2024
- Article Date: 8/9/2024