Garrett Aitken Wins the POWRi WAR Portion of the Hockett/McMillin Memorial

Garrett Aitken. (Mark Funderburk photo)

From POWRi

WHEATLAND, MO (September 19, 2020) — Completing two previous nights of outstanding open-wheel action the POWRi Lucas Oil Wingless Auto Racing Sprint League drivers would hold nothing back on the final night of the Tenth Annual Jesse Hockett Daniel McMillin Memorial. With fifty-five competitors vying for a shot of glory as Garrett Aitken would find the smooth surfaces of the “Diamond of the Dirt Track” perfect winning the thirty-lap main event feature.

Early on-track racing action would see #311 of Quinton Benson put down the fast lap time in hot lap sessions with a lap time of 16.109 seconds. The previous two-night’s top eight in overall points would be locked into the feature event with the other forty-seven drivers having to race their way in through one of four qualifying races where the top two finishers would advance, or one of three semi-features with the top two advancing as well. Qualifying races would be won by Terry Babb, Zach Daum, Landon Simon, and RJ Johnson. Semi-Feature winners would be Xavier Doney, Wesley Smith, and Quinton Benson setting the field for the main event on the weekend.

Capturing the first two night’s feature wins, #6 Mario Clouser would earn the pole starting spot with the extremely fast and unrelenting #32 Garrett Aitken completing the front row. Leading the pack of non-wing sprinters to the line on the initial launch, Aitken would fly from the exit of turn two with the lead and hold the prime position for the first revolution.

Pacing the field in the prime position, Garrett Aitken would slip high in turn four to open the door for Mario Clouser to attack. Clouser would take the lead from Aitken around the mid-way point until turn four would once again cause issues for the front-runner. With the lead Mario Clouser would also slide high from four, bouncing off the exit of the corner Clouser would loose out on the drag race down the front-stretch to Aitken. Clouser would try to recover but would be sidelined for the finish of the event with a severe vibration.

With a late race caution bunching the field back together, Garrett Aitken would not be denied in the grand finale of the Tenth Annual Jesse Hockett Daniel McMillin Memorial leading the remain circuits to gain his second career POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League feature victory. Flying through the field from a fifteenth starting position, Colten Cottle #5c would not only nab the runner-up position but also grab the Hard Charger Award to boot.

Wyatt Burks #11w would be in mix among the front-runners all weekend rounding out the podium finishers as #31 Joe B Miller and #28 Kory Schudy would race side by side for several laps with Miller finishing fourth with Schudy finishing fifth.

Celebrating the perhaps the biggest win of his career, an emotional Garrett Aitken would state in victory lane that “The track was treacherous and tricky tonight, I had to throw it in a little more sideway and feather the throttle a little bit more”.

Hockett/McMillin Memorial – Night #3
POWRi WAR Sprint Car League
Lucas Oil Speedway
Wheatland, Missouri
Saturday September 19, 2020

Schure Built Suspensions Qualifier #1:
1. 8D-Terry Babb[2]
2. 33M-Matt Westfall[1]
3. 1-Paul White[6]
4. 77K-Katlynn Leer[3]
5. 73V-Blake Vermillion[5]
6. 15-Jeremy Jonas[8]
7. 90X-Mitchell Moore[9]
8. 57-Chase Parson[7]
9. 2-Jason Billups[11]
10. 73-Samuel Wagner[4]
11. 52-JD Fry[10]
12. DNS: 2K-Kyle Lewis

Auto Meter Qualifier #2:
1. 5D-Zach Daum[2]
2. 28-Kory Schudy[1]
3. 12-Wesley Smith[4]
4. 1ST-Lane Stone[8]
5. 74-Xavier Doney[3]
6. 90-Patrick Budde[6]
7. 27-Steve Thomas[5]
8. 118-Scott Evans[9]
9. 41-Brad Wyatt[7]
10. 26B-Nick Rasa[12]
11. 96-Taylor Peterson[11]
12. DNS: 21C-Chris Desselle

KSE Racing Products Qualifier #3:
1. 24-Landon Simon[3]
2. 5C-Colten Cottle[2]
3. 311-Quinton Benson[1]
4. 89-Todd McVay[7]
5. 77-Jack Wagner[4]
6. 18-Terry Richards[5]
7. 9W-Justin Zimmerman[11]
8. 66M-Max Grogan[10]
9. 2C-Zach Clark[6]
10. 6X-Frank Rogers[9]
11. 44-Jason Howell[8]
12. 48-Nathan Moore[12]

Advanced Racing Suspensions Qualifier #4:
1. 77M-RJ Johnson[2]
2. 20G-Noah Gass[3]
3. 22S-Slater Helt[4]
4. 54-Trey Gropp[6]
5. 2H-Luke Howard[8]
6. 7S-Wade Seiler[7]
7. 24LCR-Chris Morgan[1]
8. 7JR-JD Black[11]
9. 00-Jaden Brown[9]
10. 00E-Broc Elliott[12]
11. 97-Kevin Cummings[10]
12. 11X-Tom Curran[5]

Super Clean B-Main #1:
1. 74-Xavier Doney[4]
2. 1-Paul White[1]
3. 15-Jeremy Jonas[5]
4. 22S-Slater Helt[2]
5. 7S-Wade Seiler[6]
6. 2-Jason Billups[9]
7. 96-Taylor Peterson[12]
8. 6X-Frank Rogers[11]
9. 89-Todd McVay[3]
10. 118-Scott Evans[8]
11. 9W-Justin Zimmerman[7]
12. DNS: 00-Jaden Brown
13. DNS: 2K-Kyle Lewis
14. DNS: 11X-Tom Curran

Super Clean B-Main #2:
1. 12-Wesley Smith[1]
2. 54-Trey Gropp[3]
3. 77K-Katlynn Leer[2]
4. 24LCR-Chris Morgan[7]
5. 90-Patrick Budde[5]
6. 77-Jack Wagner[4]
7. 44-Jason Howell[12]
8. 90X-Mitchell Moore[6]
9. 41-Brad Wyatt[9]
10. 00E-Broc Elliott[11]
11. DNS: 66M-Max Grogan
12. DNS: 73-Samuel Wagner
13. DNS: 21C-Chris Desselle

Super Clean B-Main #3:
1. 311-Quinton Benson[1]
2. 73V-Blake Vermillion[3]
3. 27-Steve Thomas[6]
4. 18-Terry Richards[5]
5. 1ST-Lane Stone[2]
6. 7JR-JD Black[8]
7. 2H-Luke Howard[4]
8. 26B-Nick Rasa[10]
9. 57-Chase Parson[7]
10. 97-Kevin Cummings[12]
11. 48-Nathan Moore[13]
12. 52-JD Fry[11]
13. 2C-Zach Clark[9]

Lucas Oil A-Main:
1. 32-Garrett Aitken[2]
2. 5C-Colten Cottle[15]
3. 11W-Wyatt Burks[3]
4. 31-Joe B Miller[5]
5. 28-Kory Schudy[14]
6. 33M-Matt Westfall[13]
7. 77M-RJ Johnson[12]
8. 24X-Casey Shuman[4]
9. 12-Wesley Smith[18]
10. 16-Anthony Nicholson[7]
11. 8D-Terry Babb[9]
12. 54-Trey Gropp[21]
13. 311-Quinton Benson[19]
14. 1-Paul White[20]
15. 37-Brian Beebe[6]
16. 73V-Blake Vermillion[22]
17. 20G-Noah Gass[16]
18. 6-Mario Clouser[1]
19. 5D-Zach Daum[10]
20. 24-Landon Simon[11]
21. 77-Jack Wagner[23]
22. 91-Riley Kreisel[8]
23. 74-Xavier Doney[17]