SAPULPA, Okla. — It had been a while coming, but the smile on the face said it all.
Running a mix of midgets and sprint cars in recent years, Coweta’s Kade Morton finally snared his first American Sprint Car Series feature win by topping Friday night’s Sooner Region event at Creek County Speedway.
After starting from the pole, Morton led the way throughout and took the checkered flag that flew after 26 laps as the rain fell upon the scheduled 30-lapper.
“This is the first feature win I’ve had since an OCRS race at Muskogee in 2013,” Morton explained afterward of his first win in nine years.
After a pair of aborted starts for a Rees Moran flip in turn one and then Zach Chappell’s off-road excursion off turn two, Morton got the best of fellow front row starter Kyle Clark at the outset and then denied a Blake Hahn bid for the point in the closing laps before the skies opened.
“I really wish it had gone the whole way,” Morton commented. “I didn’t know if there was anyone close or not, but I wanted to finish it.”
Morton landed the pole position after winning the night’s opening heat race for the 27-car field and with legendary racer Johnny Herrera in place as crew chief, there was no stopping him aboard the Morton Excavating No. 8m sprint car.
While Morton was in command ahead of Clark and then Jeffrey Newell in the early going, it was Blake Hahn that ultimately was on the move.
Mired in fifth after a lap 19 red flag for Steven Shebester who got upside down in turn four, reigning ASCS National champion Hahn put the whip to the No. 52 machine and rallied past Brandon Anderson, Chance Morton and then Jeffrey Newell in short order to take over second by the time a final caution flew for Charlie Crumpton after 22 laps.
But Hahn had nothing left in the tank for Morton, who kept Hahn at bay until the race was declared complete.
Hahn settled for runner-up honors after starting ninth while Newell posted his top Sprint Car effort yet aboard the newly-formed No. 12 Sprint Car team in third. Anderson was fourth with Chance Morton rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (26 Laps – Shortened from 30 laps due to Rain): 1. 8M-Kade Morton[1]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[9]; 3. 12-Jeffrey Newell[3]; 4. 55B-Brandon Anderson[11]; 5. 7M-Chance Morton[7]; 6. 87-Sean McClelland[12]; 7. 26M-Fred Mattox[14]; 8. 15D-Andrew Deal[18]; 9. 7F-Noah Harris[10]; 10. 31-Casey Wills[16]; 11. 50Z-Zach Chappell[4]; 12. 5T-Ryan Timms[13]; 13. 24-Craig Carroll[17]; 14. 90-Lance Norick[20]; 15. 22C-Charlie Crumpton[19]; 16. 777-Bailey Hughes[5]; 17. 23X-Steven Shebester[15]; 18. 9$-Kyle Clark[2]; 19. 22M-Rees Moran[8]; 20. 95-Matt Covington[6]