By Ken de la Bastide
USSA photo
ANDERSON – Indianapolis driver Dameron Taylor captured his third win in four races during UAW American Made Mel Kenyon Midget Series action in dominating fashion at Anderson Speedway.
In a break from the normal Kenyon Midget Series events on the high-banked quarter-mile oval Taylor pulled away from the field to win the Parallax Power Supply 30.
Helped by a two-car inversion Taylor started on the outside of the front row with Logan Huggler on the pole but the yellow flag waved before a lap could be completed when three cars tangled on the front straight.
The incident started in the middle of the pack when Anderson’s Colin Grissom and Nate Foster made contact, sending Grissom into the outside retaining wall and collecting Kent Kreigbaum. Only Kreigbaum was able to continue in competition.
At the start it was Logan Huggler taking the point but it only took Taylor a lap to move into the lead with an outside pass coming off the second corner.
With Taylor out front there were five drivers running in a tight pack for the second spot including Logan Huggler, Alexandria’s Clayton Gaines, Tommy Kouns, Trey Osborne and Ryan Huggler. A scramble coming off turn four on the fourth circuit sent Kouns to the second spot followed by Osborne with Logan Huggler dropping to fifth.
That shunt allowed Taylor to open a comfortable lead. Osborne, the fast qualifier, passed Kouns on lap nine with an inside pass entering turn one and on lap 27 Ryan Huggler passed Gaines for the fourth spot.
Following Taylor to the checkers were Osborne, Kouns, Ryan Huggler and Gaines.
The win marked Taylor’s 12th with the series and allowed him to extend the point lead over Ryan Huggler as he seeks back-to-back championships.
“That’s the hardest I’ve ever driven into the corners here,” Taylor said in the winner’s circle. “The car was really sticking in the corners. I was hoping for a track record tonight.”
Taylor didn’t know about the action taking place behind him early in the race that gave him a comfortable lead.
“I’m glad I wasn’t involved,” he said.
During qualifying the top five drivers were within two-tenths of a second of each other led by the lap of 12.772-seconds turned by Osborne followed by Taylor’s circuit at 12.802-seconds and Ryan Huggler at 12.861-seconds. Clayton Gaines had a left rear tire go down and made contact with the outside retaining wall on turn four during his qualifying attempt.
Osborne won the first heat race making an inside pass of Logan Huggler on the back straight with four laps remaining.
He was followed at the finish by Logan and Ryan Huggler.
Gaines took the lead from Foster on the second lap with an inside pass entering turn one to record the win in the second heat.
Taylor passed Kouns for the second spot on the eighth lap and that was the running order at the finish.