Belleville, IL. (04/24/2021) The Diamond of the Dirt Tracks would not disappoint Saturday Nights as the Lucas Oil POWRi Wingless Auto Racing Sprint League would visit Lucas Oil Speedway for the Tenth Annual Open Wheel Showdown presented by Impact Signs, Awnings, and Wraps. Great battles on the premier racing surface all evening would see Wesley Smith claim the feature victory after the twenty-five-lap racing battle.

With an outstanding field of thirty-five POWRi WAR sprinters flocking to Wheatland Missouri, four heat races were required with passing points of the up-most importance to help set the field for the main event. Heat race winners included Wesley Smith, Mario Clouser, Mitchell Moore, and Xavier Doney. After the Top-16 in heat-race passing-points were locked into the A-Feature, the rest of the competitors would try to race their way into the A-Main, with Joe B. Miller grabbing the Semi-Feature victory.

High-Point Qualifier Wesley Smith and fellow heat race winner Xavier Doney would make up the front-row with Doney riding the high-side into the top spot on the initial green-flag start, separating himself from the talented twenty-three other POWRi WAR feature competitors.  

As the feature laps ticked away Xavier Doney would lead the pack with Smith and Colten Cottle battling it out for the second spot along with Mario Clouser close behind and Mitchell Davis keeping pace with the top-four drivers. Lap traffic would come into play for the front-running rookie Doney as the second-place Smith would close the gap on the leader with ten laps remaining when the caution flag would fly. 

After a late-race restart bunched the field back together the leader Xavier Doney would run a little too high in turns one and two, spinning the car and bringing out another caution. An extremely fast Wesley Smith would benefit, inheriting the lead with less than ten laps remaining. Smith would show the way in the final closing laps, holding off a great charge by runner-up finisher Quinton Benson. Mario Clouser and the hard-charging Joe B. Miller would race hard to the line with Clouser edging Miller for third as Wyatt Burks rounded out the features top-five finishers.   

“We worked for this one, I feel bad for Doney, I think we would have had a great race in the end with him as well as Clouser and Benson coming up on the bottom,” exclaimed Smith in a celebratory victory lane. “We had a fast car all night, I can’t thank this team enough” added Wesley.

Hoosier Racing Tire Top Hot Lap Time: 6 – Mario Clouser (15.376)
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat 1 Winner: 44 – Wesley Smith
MVT Services Heat 2 Winner: 6 – Mario Clouser
Auto Meter Heat 3 Winner: 9H – Mitchell Moore
Rod End Supply Heat Race 4 Winner: 74 – Xavier Doney
Super Clean Semi-Feature Winner: 31 – Joe B. Miller
Max Papis Innovations High Point: 44 – Wesley Smith
TRD Hard Charger: 31 – Joe B. Miller (+13)
Lucas Oil Feature Winner: 44 – Wesley Smith

Lucas Oil POWRi WAR Feature Results at Lucas Oil Speedway on April 24th, 2021:
1. 44-Wesley Smith[1]; 2. 15B-Quinton Benson[4]; 3. 6-Mario Clouser[5]; 4. 31-Joe B Miller[17]; 5. 11W-Wyatt Burks[10]; 6. 54-Trey Gropp[19]; 7. 16-Anthony Nicholson[8]; 8. 24C-Craig Carroll[7]; 9. 24H-Ty Hulsey[9]; 10. 91-Riley Kreisel[21]; 11. 56-Mitchell Davis[6]; 12. 9H-Mitchell Moore[11]; 13. 26-Zach Clark[14]; 14. 5D-Zach Daum[20]; 15. 53-Brett Wilson[13]; 16. 41-Brad Wyatt[16]; 17. 74-Xavier Doney[2]; 18. 5C-Colten Cottle[3]; 19. 28-Kory Schudy[18]; 20. 7R-JD Black[22]; 21. 93-Taylor Walton[12]; 22. 76-Dustin Clark[15]; 23. 18-Wyatt Siegel[23]

Up next for the Lucas Oil POWRi WAR Sprint League will be a trip to Valley Speedway on Sunday, April 25th for the Mid-State Nationals. Pit-Gates open at noon with Driver’s Registration scheduled from 2:30-4:30 PM, Drivers Meeting at 5:00 PM, Hot-Laps at 5:30 PM, and great racing action to follow.

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