Bell Doubles Down, Sweeps Fourth Annual Turnpike Challenge Weekend in Front of Hometown Crowd
Oklahoma City, OK – In fan-thrilling fashion, Christopher Bell stole the checkers in the opening night of the Fourth Annual Turnpike Challenge at I-44 Riverside Speedway and then backed it up with a dominant victory for night two, claiming a weekend sweep with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget and West Midget Leagues. Bell’s 23rd career victory moved him solidly into the third position on the all-time win list with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League.
Starting outside front row to defending POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League champion Zach Daum, Bell was simply outpaced on the start by Daum. Falling in line for second and doing his best to pursue Daum, Bell’s Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Spencer Bayston hounded the duo. With the top three drivers working every inch of the high-banked red clay track, the action was slowed a total of three times.
Fending off several advances by Bell, Daum charged towards lap traffic as laps wound down. It wouldn’t be until less than a dozen laps were left that Bell capitalized on a moment and powered past Daum for the top position. With the 30 lap feature event coming to a close, Spencer Bayston began to challenge Daum for second. Coming to the line for all the marbles, Bayston would narrowly edge Daum for the second position by a mere three thousandths of a second.
“That was really, really tough,” commented a victorious Christopher Bell. “The track got extremely physical with the ledge there. I was huffing and puffing. I need a drink of water real bad. But, that was a lot of fun. Thank you to all the fans that come out, they’re the reason we’re out here.”
“That was not an easy track,” Spencer Bayston said. “It was really curby. Going single file there on the top, one, two, three behind Bell, I was really just waiting on him to make a move so we could all race a little bit. I didn’t want to make a move and then fall back, but then he threw a move and I fell back. I wasn’t able to race for the lead.”
“We were pretty good there for a while, but then the curb got built up bigger and bigger and we just got too tight,” stated Zach Daum. “That’s what we normally are, we worked all winter trying to free the car up and I think we stumbled on something there. I can’t thank everybody enough.”
Midgets
Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 1K – BRAYTON LYNCH, Heat 2: 5D – ZACH DAUM, Heat 3: 9$ – KYLE CLARK, Heat 4: 77S – DANNY STRATTON, Heat 5: 97 – SPENCER BAYSTON, Heat 6: 52 – ANDREW DEAL, Heat 7: 9 – MATT MOORE, Heat 8: 7 – AUSTIN BROWN
C Feature Winners: 28 – ACE MCCARTHY, 08 – CANNON MCINTOSH
Semi Feature Winners: 4A – LOGAN SEAVEY, 71 – RYAN ROBINSON
Great Clips Feature Winner: 21 – CHRISTOPHER BELL
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 21 – CHRISTOPHER BELL 2. 97 – SPENCER BAYSTON 3. 5D – ZACH DAUM 4. 27 – TUCKER KLAASMEYER 5. 71 – RYAN ROBINSON 6. 4A – LOGAN SEAVEY 7. 44 – WESLEY SMITH 8. 32 – TREY MARCHAM 9. 9 – MATT MOORE 10. 37 – ANDREW FELKER 11. 67K – HOLLY SHELTON 12. 3N – JAKE NEUMAN 13. 77S – DANNY STRATTON 14. 82M – STEVEN SHEBESTER 15. 1K – BRAYTON LYNCH 16. 96 – CODY BREWER 17. 7 – AUSTIN BROWN 18. 52 – ANDREW DEAL 19. 57D – DANIEL ROBINSON 20. 10 – GEO WHITE 21. 9$ – KYLE CLARK 22. 28 – ACE MCCARTHY 23. 71K – TANNER CARRICK 24. 73 – JASON MCDOUGAL
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