By Steven Blakesley
MOHAVE VALLEY, ARIZ. (March 18, 2023) – Drake Edwards of Surprise, Ariz. drove the Kevin Felkins-owned No. 4 Western Midget to victory in Saturday’s debut appearance for WMR at Mohave Valley Raceway. A series-best 22 car field assembled for the 25-lap feature, serving as round two for the Western Midget Racing championship season.
“We got to the lead pretty fast. I was able to slide (AJ Hernandez). A couple laps later Isaiah showed me the bottom, then the power steering went out. He tried a couple of different times but we got lucky enough to get the win,” Edwards said. “This track is awesome. We will definitely be back.”
Edwards drove from seventh to win the opening eight lap heat race. Henderson, Nevada’s Racin Silva drove the No. 5s Spike to victory in heat two while AJ Hernandez of Phoenix won heat three in Mike McCluney’s No. 11 Triple-X Chassis.
Kyle Huttenhow of Surprise, Ariz. in the No. 57 Triple-X shared the front row with Hernandez on the one-third mile dirt track before a vocal and excited crowd. Hernandez grabbed the lead at the start. Brian Corso suffered a flip in Cameron Beard’s No. 42 but was uninjured. Edwards slid past Hernandez on the restart for the lead. The caution came out a lap later for Tyler and Chloe High tangled in turn four.
Hernandez fell backwards with Isaiah Vasquez of Rio Linda moving up to second position. Lodi’s Nate Wait charged from 14th to third by lap 18. Tyler High flipped in turn three for a red flag on lap 18. Vasquez briefly challenged Edwards to no avail. Edwards topped Vasquez, Wait, Peoria’s Cory Brown, and 12th starting Kyle Hawse of Las Vegas.
Western Midget Racing has its first NorCal double header slated for March 31 at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville and April 1 at Antioch Speedway.
For more information on Western Midget Racing, visit them at www.WesternMidgetRacing.com or follow them on Facebook!
March 18, 2023 – Mohave Valley Raceway (Mohave Valley, Ariz.) Results
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 4-Drake Edwards[4]; 2. 7-Isaiah Vasquez[6]; 3. 76-Nate Wait[14]; 4. 29-Cory Brown[5]; 5. 20-Kyle Hawse[12]; 6. 50S-Rocky Silva[16]; 7. 21-Brody Wake[9]; 8. 57-Kyle Huttenhow[1]; 9. 28-JR Wood[17]; 10. 31-Todd Hawse[13]; 11. 3AZ-Chloe High[10]; 12. 81K-Rickey Kinney Jr[18]; 13. 66-Darin Horton[22]; 14. 01-Nathan High[11]; 15. 33-Tyler High[8]; 16. 11-AJ Hernandez[2]; 17. 48-Gary DeWitt[20]; 18. 68-Gene Sigal[21]; 19. 96X-Logan Mitchell[7]; 20. 5S-Racin Silva[3]; 21. 42-Brian Corso[15]; 22. (DNS) 50K-Patrick Kop
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Drake Edwards[7]; 2. 57-Kyle Huttenhow[3]; 3. 96X-Logan Mitchell[4]; 4. 3AZ-Chloe High[5]; 5. 31-Todd Hawse[1]; 6. 50S-Rocky Silva[6]; 7. 68-Gene Sigal[8]; 8. 48-Gary DeWitt[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5S-Racin Silva[2]; 2. 29-Cory Brown[3]; 3. 33-Tyler High[5]; 4. 01-Nathan High[6]; 5. 76-Nate Wait[1]; 6. 28-JR Wood[7]; 7. 50K-Patrick Kop[4]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 11-AJ Hernandez[2]; 2. 7-Isaiah Vasquez[6]; 3. 21-Brody Wake[5]; 4. 20-Kyle Hawse[1]; 5. 42-Brian Corso[3]; 6. 81K-Rickey Kinney Jr[4]; 7. 66-Darin Horton[7]