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Clauson Takes 30th Career POWRi National win, Galusha Makes it a Career-First, Bruns Goes Two-in-a-Row

Jacksonville, IL– Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Indiana utilized the bottom side of the high-banked ¼ mile to overtake Tyler Thomas in route to his 30th career Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget Series victory. The Lincoln, Nebraska native, Frank Galusha, was able to keep Nathan Benson at bay in the final laps to claim a career-first Speedway Motors POWRi 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature victory. Patrick Bruns of Champaign, Illinois doubled down and made it two-in-a-row in the Lucas Oil POWRi ILLINI Division II Midget Series.

In Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget Series competition, Bryan Clauson overcame pole-sitter Tyler Thomas on the bottom coming off turn four on lap six, leading the remaining 24 laps in convincing fashion. Tanner Thorson moved into the second position one lap later and was the only realistic challenge to knock down Clauson, but could never reach striking distance even after Daniel Robinson brought out the only one red bringing the action to a halt on lap 22. Coming back to green, Clauson would check out and never look back on the way to claiming top honors. Clauson’s victory in the Rusty Kunz Racing/Joe Dooling Stanton SR-11 powered Spike became his 30th career victory in 77 starts with the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget Series.

Tanner Thorson of Minden, Nevada would follow Clauson to the stripe in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports Toyota-powered Bullet, while Tyler Thomas held onto third in the Brian Thomas/BT Machine Esslinger-powered Spike. Rico Abreu drove up to fourth after starting ninth and Zach Daum rounded out the top five after starting in the eighth position.

“I can’t thank these guys enough for giving me a great racecar,” said a victorious Bryan Clauson. “It’s a lot of fun to be out here on the road racing every night and just living the dream. These little bullrings seem to fit me pretty well.”

“We were really good,” said Tanner Thorson. “Keith and the guys in the shop put this new car together this week and it was working great. Congratulations to Bryan Clauson. I just can’t thank this whole team enough.”

“I didn’t make a very smart decision going to the top there at the beginning,” explained Tyler Thomas. “I let Bryan by and Tanner drove by me in the middle. The car was really close. It was just a little frustrating to see it on the bottom. I’ve never seen this place like this. It was a little disappointing, but I hope the fans enjoyed the race.”

Frank Galusha of Lincoln, Nebraska started on the outside front row for the 20 lap feature event, getting the jump at the drop of the green and never looked back on the way to his first-career Speedway Motors POWRi 600cc Outlaw Micro Series victory. Piloting the EMI/Stallard Chassis house car with Yoshimura power, Galusha was able to keep the hard-charging Nathan Benson at bay as the laps wound down. Benson charged from the eighth position before running out of laps and being forced to settle for the second position. Alec Long of Mount Vernon, Illinois finished a career-best third place after running in second for over half the feature. Aaron Andruskevitch raced up to fourth after starting 11th while Nic Harris fell back to fifth after starting third.

“It felt good. I can’t say enough about the guys at EMI who built this brand new Stallard SST,” explained Frank Galusha. “This car is awesome and we’re excited to get a win at this level and solidify our product. This car was a pleasure to drive.”

“I wish I would have committed to the top a little earlier instead of tip-toeing around on it,” said Nathan Benson. “Finally there in the last five laps, I just got up in it. It was on the wall, but it was rolling pretty good there. Eighth to second, we’ll take it.”

“A career-best, by far,” said Alec Long. “It feels great. I showed [Galusha] my hand a little too early on the start. I jumped to the outside and showed him the middle and he ran with it. Then Nathan passed me on the outside and there’s no way we could go up there; we were pushing too much oil.”
Patrick Bruns took the Lucas Oil POWRi ILLINI Division II Midget Series feature event after gaining the lead on lap 10. Tyler Vantoll narrowly inched Mitchell Davis for second right at the line. Adam Taylor finished fourth, while Jake Neuman rounded out the top five.

“We have had a phenomenal year so far,” said Patrick Bruns. “We’ve won every heat and feature so far. We had a good restart there and got under Gedd Ross. I thought I had him cleared there, but he kind of came down on us.”

“We came here after last week at Lincoln,” explained Tyler Vantoll. “The car was kind of loose, so we made some changes this week. We came here just hoping to get good momentum after the last race and ended up second. The car was still pretty loose, so we’re going to have to work on that for tomorrow night at Macon.

“We were struggling a little bit with getting the motor to run in the midrange, but I was bound and determined to not finish where I started,” Mitchell Davis said.

National Midgets

Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 11A - ANDREW FELKER, Heat 2: 67 - TANNER THORSON, Heat 3: 63 - BYRAN CLAUSON, Heat 4: 5D - ZACH DAUM

Semi Feature Winners: 91 - DERECK KING

Great Clips Feature Winner: 63 - Bryan Clauson

POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 63 - Bryan Clauson 2. 67 -Tanner Thorson 3. 91T - Tyler Thomas 4. 97K - Rico Abreu 5. 5D - Zach Daum 6. 32 - Garrett Aitken 7. 11A - Andrew Felker 8. 11AG - Dave Darland 9. 97 - Spencer Bayston 10. 71 - Ryan Robinson 11. 3N - Jake Neuman 12. 5X - Justin Peck 13. 91 - Dereck King 14. 41 - Austin Prock 15. 7 - Austin Brown 16. 67K - Holly Shelton 17. 9K - Kyle Schuett 18. 1K - Brayton Lynch 19. 31 - David Budres 20. 22 - Andy Malpocker 21. 88 - Terry Babb 22. 56Y - Daniel Robinson 23. 71K - Carson Macedo

Micros

Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 3 - AYRTON GENNETTEN, Heat 2: 51B - JOE B. MILLER, Heat 3: 8H - MATT HOWARD, Heat 4: 12 - FRANK GALUSHA

Semi-Feature Winners: 3B - SHELBY BOSIE

Great Clips Feature Winner: 12 - FRANK GALUSHA

POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series Feature Results (20 laps): 1. 12 - FRANK GALUSHA 2. 2B - NATHAN BENSON 3. 99 - ALEC LONG 4. 51B - JOE B MILLER 5. 21 - AARON ANDRUSKEVITCH 6. N2 - NIC HARRIS 7. 8H - MATT HOWARD 8. 14X - CHRISTIAN RAY 9. 7H - LINDSEY HOWARD 10. 3 - AYRTON GENNETTEN 11. 72 - LEVI CURRY 12. 12C - CARLEE GRESS 13. 3B - SHELBY BOSIE 14. 83B - JEFF BEASLEY 15. 9S - AUSTIN STEWART 16. 37H - NICHOLAS HOWARD 17. 22S - SLATER HELT 18. 42 - ANDY BISHOP 19. 65E - CHAD ELLIOTT 20. 15U - WILLY URISH 21. 9 - AYRTON OLSEN 22. M2 - MICHAEL BUSTAMANTE

D II Midgets

Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 38 - KURT MAYHEW, Heat 2: 22 - ANDY MALPOCKER, Heat 3: 10B - PATRICK BRUNS

Great Clips Feature Winner: 10B - PATRICK BRUNS

POWRi Lucas Oil ILLINI Division II Midget Series Feature Results (20 laps): 1. 10B - PATRICK BRUNS 2. 30T - TYLER VANTOLL 3. 56 - MITCHELL DAVIS 4. 7 - ADAM TAYLOR 5. 31 - JAKE NEUMAN 6. 6B - ANDY BAUGH 7. 0A - HUNTER LANE 8. 40 - CHASE MCDERMAND 9. 38 - KURT MAYHEW 10. 15M - SHANE MORGAN 11. 73 - BROC HUNNELL 12. 11 - BRANDON SMITH 13. 84 - TAD ROACH 14. 51R - GEDD ROSS 15. 0 - JOHNNY MURDOCK 16. 10R - JACK ROUTSON 17. 0B - LARRY KNOWLES 18. 10A - JIMMY CLARK 19. 22 - ANDY MALPOCKER 20. 13 - DANIEL ROBINSON 21. 122 - JOHN HEYDENREICH 22. 64 - CARTER ROACH 23. 3 - JOHN SPRINGER

For more information, visit www.powri.com.
Contact:
Derek Schuett
POWRi Media
info@powri.com

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