By Richie Murray
Canton, Illinois (July 17, 2021)………Will Armitage raced to the front of the field for good at the halfway point and finished off his first IMRA SpeeD2 Midget victory of the season on Saturday night at Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Ill.
The 20-lap race featured five lead changes among three drivers with Adam Taylor (Dwight, Ill.) leading the first four circuits before briefly giving way to Tyler Roth (Springfield, Ill.) on lap five. Taylor raced his way back to the lead for laps six, seven and eight until Armitage (Athens, Ill.) made a run to edge ahead on the ninth lap.
Taylor refused to go away, fighting back into the top spot on lap 10. That’s where Armitage surged ahead for good, assuming the top spot on the 11th trip around the 3/8-mile dirt oval.
Armitage led the remaining 10 laps to score the win over Taylor, point leader Mark McMahill (Peoria, Ill.), and Roth, with reigning series champion Bryan Stanfill (Bakersfield, Calif.) rounding out the top-five in his first start of the season.
USAC ENGLER IMRA SPEED2 MIDGET RACE RESULTS: July 17, 2021 – Spoon River Speedway – Canton, Illinois
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. 24-Bryan Stanfill, 2. 18-Tyler Roth, 3. 15-R.J. Corson, 4. 51R-Will Armitage, 5. 5-Jake Sollenberger, 6. 15m-Shane Morgan, 7. 77A-Aaron Roell. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. 57-Mark McMahill, 2. 7-Adam Taylor, 3. 4K-Kayla Roell, 4. 7x-Doug Canham, 5. 7B-Dave Baugh, 6. 11-Cody Meyer. NT
FEATURE: (20 laps) 1. Will Armitage, 2. Adam Taylor, 3. Mark McMahill, 4. Tyler Roth, 5. Bryan Stanfill, 6. Shane Morgan, 7. R.J. Corson, 8. Dave Baugh, 9. Kayla Roell, 10. Jake Sollenberger, 11. Cody Meyer, 12. Aaron Roell, 13. Doug Canham. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Adam Taylor, Lap 5 Tyler Roth, Laps 6-8 Adam Taylor, Lap 9 Will Armitage, Lap 10 Adam Taylor, Laps 11-20 Will Armitage.
USAC ENGLER IMRA SPEED2 MIDGET POINTS: 1-Mark McMahill-627, 2-Will Armitage-523, 3-Brent Burrows-516, 4-Tyler Roth-479, 5-Jake Sollenberger-472, 6-Kevin Battefeld-386, 7-Charles Kunz-320, 8-Bart Andrews-234, 9-Cody Meyer-219, 10-Adam Taylor-216.
NEXT USAC ENGLER IMRA SPEED2 MIDGET RACE: July 24, 2021 – Champaign County Fairgrounds – Urbana, Illinois