Brenham Crouch took the lead on lap 11 and then held off a late charge from Ryan Timms to earn his first POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League victory in the series Sunday night feature at Lake Ozark Speedway.
Crouch becomes the second first-time POWRi winner in a row after Timms earned the victory on Friday with Crouch earning runner-up honors. The 15-year-old Crouch is the 12th different Toyota driver to earn a national midget feature victory this season.
Pole-sitter Ace McCarthy took the early lead with Chance Crum moving into second, followed by Bryant Wiedeman, Emerson Axsom and Brent Crews rounding out the top-five, while Crouch drove from ninth to sixth on the opening lap.
Crum stayed right on McCarthy’s tail in the early going and eventually made his move past him for the lead on lap three. He would hold the top spot for three laps before McCarthy regained the lead on lap six with Crouch having moved up to third. One lap later, he would take over second from Crum.
At that point, he would close quickly on McCarthy and make a big run on him on lap 11 on the way to the third lead change in the first 11 laps.
As Crouch settled into the race lead, Timms was the driver on the move, climbing from his 12th starting position up to third by lap 15 and into second on lap 19.
Timms, who became the youngest national midget feature winner ever on Saturday, started to close as the laps began to wind down in the 30-lap feature. Timms made his move on lap 29, pulling up beside Crouch coming through turn three only to have a bobble, letting Crouch extend his lead.
Timms wasn’t done, yet, though as he closed back up and made a big run at Crouch through turns three and four, pulling up right on his tail as they came to the finish line, but Crouch would take the checkered flag with a margin of victory of 0.156 seconds. Behind the two Toyotas was Trey Gropp in third.
Axsom finished fifth, followed by Gavan Boschele in sixth in just his second midget car start and Ace McCarthy in seventh. With his top-five finish, Axsom moved into the series point lead.
The Toyota national midget car turns its focus to USAC and Indiana Midget Week, which will kick off an eight races in 10 days stretch at Paragon Speedway on Thursday night.
TRD PR
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