Austin Torgerson Takes Checkers in POWRi Outlaw Micro KKM Challenge Prelim Night Two
Visalia, CA. (3/21/24) Austin Torgerson would celebrate his twenty-first birthday in style by leading all twenty-five feature laps of Preliminary Night Two of the K1 Race Gear Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by S2F TV to claim his first career feature victory with the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro League at the premier hosting Plaza Park Raceway powered by Keller Auto Center.
Proceeding through a strong split-field of forty-one entries on K1 Race Gear prelim night two of the POWRi Outlaw Non-Wing Micro division in the KKM Challenge would find Austin Torgerson set the quick qualifying time with a time of 11.689 seconds. Jake Andreotti, Broedy Graham, Cole Schroeder, Stefan Sidur, and Eric Botelho would each emerge victorious in heat racing action with Gavin Miller, Chelby Hinton, Cole Schroeder, and Darren Brown all earning wins in qualifier competitions as Brain Carber and Brant Woods would gain the semi-feature wins.
Soaring onto the track for K1 Race Gear Preliminary Night Two feature racing for the opening weekend of the west coast swinging Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by Start2Finish TV would see high-point qualifier Gavin Miller battle outside front-row contender Austin Torgerson as the green flew with Torgerson using the high line to hold the front of the field around Plaza Park Raceway as Daison Pursley, Gavin Miller, Broedy Graham, and Chelby Hinton all stayed close behind racing inside the early contending top five.
Quickly clicking away laps at a rapid rate while experiencing lap traffic, Austin Torgerson would continue to show the fastest route around with Daison Pursley and Gavin Miller ever so slightly gained on the leader as caution would bunch the field back together with twelve laps remaining with Broedy Graham, Chelby Hinton, Jett Barnes, Brian Carber, Russ Disinger, Brant Woods, and Sammy McNabb ran inside the top ten on the multi-grooved track.
Protecting the lead through a flurry of front-of-the-field battles, Torgerson would hold steady with Daison Pursley and Gavin Miller right there every step of the way with a late-race caution coming into the mix with only a handful of laps remaining as Broedy Graham Brian Carber, and Brant Woods battled behind the lead pack.
Restarting with perfection would witness Austin Torgerson celebrate up front for his first career POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro victory as Daison Pursley would finish in the closely contended second spot from starting third with Brody Graham in the final podium placement.
“I know things got a little dicey there in those last couple restarts for the lead but I knew Daison was going to run clean,” said the winning Austin Torgerson in the Plaza Park Raceway victory lane for Preliminary Night Two of the KKM Challenge. Adding, “I can’t thank all my guys enough for putting me in this great position for tomorrow night”.
Gavin Miller would grab the final championship night lock-in of fourth place as Brian Carber hard-charged his way from the semi-feature win to rounding out the top-five finishers in the POWRi Outlaw Micro League feature in Preliminary Night Two of the K1 Race Gear Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by S2F TV at Plaza Park Raceway powered by Keller Auto Center.
Plaza Park Raceway | POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro | KKM Challenge | 3/21/24:
K1 Race Gear Quick Qualifying Time: 88-Austin Torgerson(11.689)
Hyper Racing Heat Race One Winner: 28A-Jake Andreotti
Victory Fuel Heat Race Two Winner: 66-Broedy Graham
Rush Race Gear Heat Race Three Winner: 3-Cole Schroeder
Hoosier Racing Tire Heat Race Four Winner: 11X-Stefan Sidur
Max Papis Innovations Heat Race Five Winner: 2B-Eric Botelho
Driven Midwest Qualifier One Winner: 71K-Gavin Miller
Engler Machine and Tool Qualifier Two Winner: 95H-Chelby Hinton
Eibach Racing Qualifier Three Winner: 3-Cole Schroeder
Max Papis Innovations Qualifier Four Winner: 11C-Darren Brown
Victory Fuel Semi-Feature Winner: 41C-Brian Carber
Rush Race Gear Semi-Feature Two Winner: 12W-Brant Woods
Hyper Racing High Point Qualifier: 71K-Gavin Miller
Hoosier Racing Tire Hard Charger: 41C-Brian Carber
K1 Race Gear Feature Winner: 88-Austin Torgerson
K1 Race Gear A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 88-Austin Torgerson[2]; 2. 86-Daison Pursley[3]; 3. 66-Broedy Graham[4]; 4. 71K-Gavin Miller[1]; 5. 41C-Brian Carber[17]; 6. 12W-Brant Woods[18]; 7. 39-Russ Disinger[6]; 8. 55-Jett Barnes[12]; 9. 21-Cash Lovenburg[16]; 10. 4-Jett Yantis[14]; 11. 95-Nathan Ward[15]; 12. 3-Cole Schroeder[8]; 13. 55C-Brandon Carey[20]; 14. 28A-Jake Andreotti[10]; 15. 63-Caden Stoll[21]; 16. 11C-Darren Brown[11]; 17. 28-Jake Smith[19]; 18. 22M-Sammy McNabb[7]; 19. 11X-Stefan Sidur[13]; 20. (DNF) 95H-Chelby Hinton[5]; 21. (DNF) 65-Michael Faccinto[22]; 22. (DNF) 24S-Colby Sokol[9].
Victory Fuel B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 41C-Brian Carber[1]; 2. 28-Jake Smith[2]; 3. 63-Caden Stoll[3]; 4. 61-Eli Bookout[8]; 5. 3L-Jimmy Leal[4]; 6. 74-Robby Brockman[12]; 7. 28X-Trevor Cline[10]; 8. 11-Keaton Martella[5]; 9. 55J-Jayden Huppert[9]; 10. 171-Alex Caldwell[13]; 11. 8X-Michael Manhire[7]; 12. (DNS) 2E-Mariah Ede; 13. (DNS) 88X-Paul Javaux.
Rush Race Gear B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 12W-Brant Woods[2]; 2. 55C-Brandon Carey[8]; 3. 65-Michael Faccinto[1]; 4. 15D-Dylan Schaadt[10]; 5. 69-Isaiah Vasquez[5]; 6. 3J-Jonny Mederos[12]; 7. 21S-Raio Salmon[6]; 8. 3S-Brandon Stidham[4]; 9. 2B-Eric Botelho[3]; 10. 48-Koen Crawford[7]; 11. 22-Zack Williams[9]; 12. 23C-Cody Samuels[11].
Hyper Racing Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28A-Jake Andreotti[1]; 2. 95-Nathan Ward[2]; 3. 88-Austin Torgerson[4]; 4. 21-Cash Lovenburg[3]; 5. 48-Koen Crawford[8]; 6. 3L-Jimmy Leal[6]; 7. 61-Eli Bookout[7]; 8. 3J-Jonny Mederos[9]; 9. 2E-Mariah Ede[5].
Victory Fuel Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 66-Broedy Graham[2]; 2. 4-Jett Yantis[4]; 3. 95H-Chelby Hinton[3]; 4. 88X-Paul Javaux[1]; 5. 55C-Brandon Carey[5]; 6. 3S-Brandon Stidham[7]; 7. 22-Zack Williams[6]; 8. 55J-Jayden Huppert[8].
Rush Race Gear Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 3-Cole Schroeder[1]; 2. 55-Jett Barnes[2]; 3. 39-Russ Disinger[4]; 4. 65-Michael Faccinto[6]; 5. 24S-Colby Sokol[3]; 6. 63-Caden Stoll[5]; 7. 69-Isaiah Vasquez[7]; 8. 74-Robby Brockman[8].
Hoosier Racing Tire Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 11X-Stefan Sidur[2]; 2. 22M-Sammy McNabb[3]; 3. 71K-Gavin Miller[4]; 4. 28-Jake Smith[1]; 5. 12W-Brant Woods[6]; 6. 28X-Trevor Cline[7]; 7. 23C-Cody Samuels[5]; 8. 171-Alex Caldwell[8].
MPI Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 2B-Eric Botelho[2]; 2. 86-Daison Pursley[4]; 3. 41C-Brian Carber[5]; 4. 11C-Darren Brown[3]; 5. 21S-Raio Salmon[8]; 6. 11-Keaton Martella[1]; 7. 15D-Dylan Schaadt[6]; 8. 8X-Michael Manhire[7].
Driven Midwest Qualifier 1 (10 Laps): 1. 71K-Gavin Miller[3]; 2. 24S-Colby Sokol[5]; 3. 55-Jett Barnes[1]; 4. 65-Michael Faccinto[6]; 5. 63-Caden Stoll[7]; 6. 8X-Michael Manhire[10]; 7. 21S-Raio Salmon[8]; 8. 4-Jett Yantis[4]; 9. 15D-Dylan Schaadt[9]; 10. 171-Alex Caldwell[11]; 11. 2B-Eric Botelho[2].
Engler Machine Tool Qualifier 2 (10 Laps): 1. 95H-Chelby Hinton[2]; 2. 66-Broedy Graham[3]; 3. 86-Daison Pursley[4]; 4. 41C-Brian Carber[5]; 5. 21-Cash Lovenburg[1]; 6. 3S-Brandon Stidham[8]; 7. 55J-Jayden Huppert[10]; 8. 48-Koen Crawford[7]; 9. 2E-Mariah Ede[9]; 10. 55C-Brandon Carey[6].
Eibach Racing Qualifier 3 (10 Laps): 1. 3-Cole Schroeder[1]; 2. 88-Austin Torgerson[4]; 3. 22M-Sammy McNabb[3]; 4. 12W-Brant Woods[6]; 5. 95-Nathan Ward[2]; 6. 3L-Jimmy Leal[7]; 7. 61-Eli Bookout[9]; 8. 74-Robby Brockman[10]; 9. 22-Zack Williams[8]; 10. 88X-Paul Javaux[5].
MPI Qualifier 4 (10 Laps): 1. 11C-Darren Brown[1]; 2. 28A-Jake Andreotti[2]; 3. 39-Russ Disinger[4]; 4. 28-Jake Smith[5]; 5. 11X-Stefan Sidur[3]; 6. 69-Isaiah Vasquez[9]; 7. 11-Keaton Martella[6]; 8. 3J-Jonny Mederos[10]; 9. 28X-Trevor Cline[8]; 10. 23C-Cody Samuels[7].
K1 Race Gear Qualifying: 1. 88-Austin Torgerson, 00:11.689[1]; 2. 4-Jett Yantis, 00:11.891[14]; 3. 39-Russ Disinger, 00:11.952[5]; 4. 71K-Gavin Miller, 00:11.997[9]; 5. 86-Daison Pursley, 00:12.010[20]; 6. 21-Cash Lovenburg, 00:12.011[23]; 7. 95H-Chelby Hinton, 00:12.088[15]; 8. 24S-Colby Sokol, 00:12.094[4]; 9. 22M-Sammy McNabb, 00:12.116[7]; 10. 11C-Darren Brown, 00:12.116[26]; 11. 95-Nathan Ward, 00:12.123[11]; 12. 66-Broedy Graham, 00:12.129[30]; 13. 55-Jett Barnes, 00:12.141[31]; 14. 11X-Stefan Sidur, 00:12.145[38]; 15. 2B-Eric Botelho, 00:12.156[34]; 16. 28A-Jake Andreotti, 00:12.165[41]; 17. 88X-Paul Javaux, 00:12.176[24]; 18. 3-Cole Schroeder, 00:12.194[16]; 19. 28-Jake Smith, 00:12.203[6]; 20. 11-Keaton Martella, 00:12.225[3]; 21. 2E-Mariah Ede, 00:12.240[21]; 22. 55C-Brandon Carey, 00:12.277[13]; 23. 63-Caden Stoll, 00:12.287[40]; 24. 23C-Cody Samuels, 00:12.302[8]; 25. 41C-Brian Carber, 00:12.303[28]; 26. 3L-Jimmy Leal, 00:12.326[17]; 27. 22-Zack Williams, 00:12.343[27]; 28. 65-Michael Faccinto, 00:12.365[29]; 29. 12W-Brant Woods, 00:12.396[22]; 30. 15D-Dylan Schaadt, 00:12.427[2]; 31. 61-Eli Bookout, 00:12.472[18]; 32. 3S-Brandon Stidham, 00:12.507[32]; 33. 69-Isaiah Vasquez, 00:12.617[36]; 34. 28X-Trevor Cline, 00:12.627[33]; 35. 8X-Michael Manhire, 00:12.636[37]; 36. 48-Koen Crawford, 00:12.640[35]; 37. 55J-Jayden Huppert, 00:12.655[39]; 38. 74-Robby Brockman, 00:12.687[10]; 39. 171-Alex Caldwell, 00:12.778[25]; 40. 21S-Raio Salmon, 00:12.893[12]; 41. 3J-Jonny Mederos, 00:12.918[19].
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 Non-Wing Outlaw feature event for the KKM Giveback Classic.
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