By Cody Morris
Saturday, August 9th
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The Western arm of Performance Open Wheel Racing, Inc. invaded Oklahoma City’s for the seventh time this season to stage their 12th overall affair.
Sixteen teams checked into I-44 Riverside pits, but only one emerged as the first three time POWRi West winner.
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Alex Sewell earned the pole position via a sensational heat race win from the final row and was joined on the front row of the 25 lap main event by Guthrie, Oklahoma’s Michelle Decker, herself the second highest racer in passing points after a savvy last lap, last turn move from 4th to 2nd in the second heat race.
Sewell has been dynamite as of late, picking up the first two Midget wins of his career in POWRi West action at I-44 Riverside Speedway on June 21st and July 12th.
Sewell powered into the early lead before the first caution fell for a Jason McDougal / Kevin Bayer dust up on lap 2. Sewell powered away once more following the restart, building his advantage to 8 car lengths by lap 8.
The race behind Sewell intensified with Washington, Oklahoma’s Travis Scott and a early season POWRi West/I-44 Riverside Midget winner Cody Brewer advancing on Decker for first challenger rights’.
Just shy of the midway point, Scott became slightly overzealous and got the nose of his #17 glued to the tail of Decker’s Royal Purple #4m. Decker tried several times to shake Scott loose, but to no avail as the second yellow was shown and the pair moved to the rear of the field.
Cody Brewer moved into the two spot with Olathe, Kansas’ Tyler Nelson inheriting third. What a racer Tyler Nelson is. This 17 year old hauls all the way from northeast Kansas to southwest Oklahoma City, a SEVEN hour ONE WAY haul.
Tyler has a spate of Midget wins this season, but those came in Kansas and Missouri. Tyler made his POWRi West Midget trip to OKC back in late June and followed it up with a visit in the last race on July 12th where he made fans of many Sooner State patrons when he was first to find the cushion and proceeded to throw a series of wicker slide jobs and low side comebacks over the last half of the race. He scored his first top five with POWRi West that night.
Even with an early season winner and another blossoming young racer lurking in the shadows, Sewell smoked them all on the restart, quickly moving out to a commanding advantage in the midway stages of the race.
Brewer gained ground in the closing laps, but ran out of time to seriously challenge the leader as Alex Sewell climbed his Esslinger powered Sewell Mechanical, AME Electrical, and Action Auto Collision #8 Spike in celebration of his third Lucas Oil POWRi West Midget triumph in just six weeks.
Sewell entered event 12 of 16 with a commanding 240 point lead and with win #3 is a giant step toward clinching the first full season Lucas Oil POWRi West Midget Championship.
Cody Brewer was on a mission to catch the leader, but fell short for the runner up finish with Tyler Nelson clinging to his first POWRi West podium finish ahead of Tulsa’s Johnathon Halford.
Broken Arrow’s Factor One Racing and Boss Chassis rising star Jason McDougal rebounded from his early race misfortune to snare fifth in the closing laps.
Pauls Valley’s Steven Shebester battled up from outside row six to finish sixth with July 12th Feature winner Kevin Bayer advancing up to 7th. Michelle Decker, Eric Fenton, and Ty Hulsey completed the top ten finishing order.
Official Results
Heat One (8 laps): 1. 8L Jerry Tucker (1); 2. 96 Cody Brewer (3); 3. 17 Travis Scott (5); 4. 73 Jason McDougal (7); 5. 23A Hannah Adair (6); 6. 51 Steven Shebester (4); 7. 14E Eric Fenton (8); 8. 9u Doug McCune (2)
Heat Two (8 laps): 1. 8 Alex Sewell (7); 2. 4m Michelle Decker (5); 3. 83 Johnathon Halford (2); 4. 88 Tyler Nelson (3); 5. 29s Brian Harvey (6); 6. 1 Bobby Brewer (1); 7. DNS: 21H Ty Hulsey, 91B Kevin Bayer
A Feature (25 laps): 1. 8 Alex Sewell (1); 2. 96 Cody Brewer (4); 3. 88 Tyler Nelson (8); 4. 83 Johnathon Halford (7); 5. 73 Jason McDougal (6); 6. 51 Steven Shebester (12); 7. 91B Kevin Bayer (16); 8. 4m Michelle Decker (2); 9. 14E Eric Fenton (11); 10. 21H Ty Hulsey (14); 11. 8L Jerry Tucker (3); 12. 9u Doug McCune (15); 13. 17 Travis Scott (5); 14. 23A Hannah Adair (9); 15. 29s Brian Harvey (10); DNS: 1 Bobby Brewer
Lap Leaders: Alex Sewell 1-25
Stoppages: 2 yellows
The Lucas Oil POWRi West Midget Series returns to action on Saturday, September 6th at I-44 Riverside Speedway.
The Lucas Oil POWRi West promoting team, racers, and fans all extend our heartfelt thanks to the partners that have supported us in becoming the premier wingless open wheel series in the region, special thanks to IRaceTv, Factor One Racing, Fenton Graphics, Boss Chassis, MudX, Rod End Supply, KBR Performance, Tulsa Gas Technologies, The Dirty Knuckle Tavern, and of course our premier sponsor Lucas Oil.
For more information regarding the Lucas Oil POWRi West Midget Series please visit www.powri.com or Like and Follow POWRi West on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.