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Loyet wins 4th POWRi Midget feature of 2011, extends
championship lead at Macon
MACON, Ill. (Sept. 24, 2011) - Brad Loyet drove to his fourth feature
victory of the season and increased his lead in the championship Saturday in
the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series at Macon Speedway.
Loyet has a 70-point advantage over Nick Knepper, who finished sixth at
Macon, going into the season finale next Saturday (Oct. 1) at Belle-Clair
Speedway in Belleville, Ill. In POWRi’s scoring system, each position in the
feature from one through 20 is separated by 10 points.
Loyet is attempting to win two championships in 2011 and his team took a
calculated gamble in deciding to race at Macon. The 23-year-old from Sunset
Hills, Mo., extended his lead to 230 points in the Speedway Motors American
Sprint Car Series Warrior Region on Friday night at Lucas Oil Speedway in
Wheatland, Mo. The ASCS Warriors ran Saturday at Wheatland and has one more
event, Oct. 7 at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Mo.
If Loyet Motorsports hadn’t made the trek across Missouri and part of
Illinois to Macon, he would likely have had a 100-point deficit in POWRi
Midgets.
“We made the call to come to Macon,” Loyet said. “We’re trying to win two
championships. Hopefully, we locked up one championship (ASCS Warrior)
tonight (depending upon results in Wheatland) and we gained some points
here. We had to capitalize on it. If you win a race, nobody can score more
points than you.”
Loyet started from sixth position in his Vacuworx Spike-Esslinger and
steadily climbed, passing Derrick Myers for the lead with a slide job
exiting Turn Four on the 14th of 30 laps on the 1/5th-mile track.
“I tried to be patient because of the points race,” Loyet said. “I didn’t
want to throw it into a slide job and get into trouble.”
Loyet led the final 17 laps, interrupted by one caution.
“I put it into cruise control and ran a good pace,” Loyet said.
Daniel Adler of Columbia, Ill., finished second, his best of the season. He
started in 14th position in the Ted Kirkpatrick-owned 401k Edward Jones
Stealth-Essingler.
“It feels fantastic,” Adler said. “It wasn’t’ what I was expecting starting
deep in the field. A hole opened up and I shot to the bottom and it stuck.
It worked out.”
Brett Anderson of Belleville, Ill., finished third in his first race since
July 29. He’d been out because of an engine failure and budget problems that
prevented rebuilding it. Anderson was driving a different car, owned by
Willie Campbell.
“It was a good finish for us,” Anderson said. “We’ll take third.”
Knepper had a rough night. His Spike-Esslinger lost its brakes at the start
of his heat and he finished sixth, forcing him into the semi. Knepper won
the semi, but started from 17th position.
The 24-year-old from Belleville, Ill., kept his title hopes alive by
finishing sixth in the feature.
“He did a great job to get from 17th to sixth,” father and crew chief Steve
Knepper said.
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series feature results (30 laps): 1. Brad
Loyet, 2. Daniel Adler, 3. Brett Anderson, 4. Donnie Lehmann, 5. Tim Siner,
6. Nick Knepper, 7. Chett Gehrke, 8. Dave Camfield Jr., 9. Austin Brown, 10.
Chris Bell, 11. Tyler Robbins, 12. Colten Cottle, 13. Kyle Neal, 14. Rich
Camfield, 15. Taylor Ferms, 16. Ryan Blakeman, 17. Derek Rossio, 18. Derrick
Myers, 19. Andrew Felker, 20. Jeff Felcher, 21. Gavin Galbraith, 22. Jake
Blackhurst.
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