Lewis prevails in All Star Midgets
ANDErSON, IN – Michael Lewis had the Midget to beat when the All Star National Midgets made their first appearance at Anderson Speedway.
Lewis set fast time during qualifying and started from the pole position following the invert on Saturday.
He took the lead at the start over Jake Trainor and Joe Liguori with driver on the move Kyle Hamilton advancing from the seventh starting spot to move into the top five after ten laps.
Using lapped traffic to his advantage, Lewis opened up a sizable lead with Hamilton moving into the second spot on lap 33 with Kyle O’Gara advancing from the 11th starting position to run in the top five.
The last of three caution flags waved on lap 63 for a spin by Issac Stutesman which bunched up the lead pack of cars.
Lewis pulled away from Hamilton with O’Gara moving into the second spot on the restart. Dakoda Armstrong started a late race charge passing O’Gara, Hamilton and Trainor.
Once in the second spot Armstrong started to cut into Lewis’s lead and with ten lap remaining the two leaders were running almost nose to tail as they closed on lapped traffic.
Several times in the final five laps Armstrong looked for a way in the high and low grooves to grab the lead but came up .134-seconds short after 100 laps.
Hamilton, O’Gara and Nathan Byrd rounded out the top five.
“I’ve had four seconds in a row,” Lewis said in the Hoosier Lottery Victory Lane. “The lapped guys were having their own race and you can’t expect them to move.
“This is great,” he said. “I was treading lightly to catch the lappers and then there was nowhere to go. Then I saw Dakoda and did the best I could.”
Lewis said he didn’t know how big a lead he had when the caution flag waved.
“I was happy to get the lapped cars away from me,” he continued. “On the restarts they put the lapped cars on the tail.”
Armstrong said he was concerned about running out of fuel in the final ten laps.
“We didn’t fill it with fuel because we were coming from the back,” he said after starting eighth in the 25-car field. “The car was good at the end. We had a shot when he got caught in traffic.”
Hamilton said his car got really tight toward the end of the race and lost brakes.
“The brakes came back to me, but I had to wait about 20 laps,” he said. “First time we’ve run these midgets for 100-laps. My car went away a little bid, take the third place finish.”
Hamilton said he knew he had to get up to third early in the race to keep Lewis and Trainor from running away from the field.
Beaver Contracting Legends
The two drivers that were in contention for wins all season in the Legends Division battled for the victory in the final race of the season.
The early lead was taken by Derik Giacom chased by Elvin Acree Jr. and Xavier King.
King moved into the second spot on the second lap with track champion John Robbins starting to work his way to the front of the field.
King took the lead on a restart on lap 15 with Robbins moving into the second spot a lap later.
Despite two more caution periods, King was able to hold off Robbins to win by three-tens of a second for his third feature win of the year.
Giacom held on for third followed by Alex Hess and Blaine Withers
Knapp Supply Ford Division
The final Ford Division race became a family affair with Ron and Ronnie Phipps running on the point for the entire 25 laps.
Ron Phipps took the lead on the opening lap chased by Nick Warner and Dalton Owen.
Ronnie Phipps moved into the third spot on lap eight with the only caution flag waving on lap 10 when Warner and Owen got together in turn three, sending both to the tail of the field.
Ron Phipps took the lead on lap 12 and went on to win by 3.9-seconds over Ronnie Phipps with Colllin Sutton, Curtis Chapman and JD Blankenship Jr. rounding out the top five.
