VENTURA, Calif. — The outstanding championship battle for Western Midget Racing presented by Masters Design and Construction reached its high point during a thrilling feature at Ventura Raceway on Saturday night.
David Prickett outdueling points leader Blake Bower for his seventh points-paying win of the year.
The narrow victory in the penultimate round gives Prickett control of his championship destiny at Adobe Mountain Speedway in Glendale, Ariz., on Nov. 13. A win would tie Prickett in the total points with Bower, with the tiebreaker for the $1,000 championship then going in Prickett’s favor.
Bower or any other driver in WMR, can play spoiler in the finale by keeping Prickett out of victory lane.
Cory Brown and Bower split the heat races for the 16 cars on hand for the stock production Midget series. Prickett lined up for the 20-lap feature in fifth ahead of Bower in sixth and Brown in seventh.
Terry Nichols led the first five laps of competition before Bower and Bakersfield’s Brody Fusion entered the mix. Nichols then retook the lead until lap 12 when Bower took over the top position. Prickett and Bower exchanged the lead multiple times over the final eight laps.
Prickett made the decisive maneuver on the final lap, winning by just .158 seconds. Bower finished second followed by Fuson. Brody Petrie charged from 10th on the grid for a fourth-place performance with Brown rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (20 laps) – 1. 22q David Prickett, 2. 9 Blake Bower, 3. 20w Brody Fuson, 4. 35SR Brody Petrie, 5. 32 Cory Brown, 6. 35 Terry Nichols, 7. 11 Randi Pankratz, 8. 35x Jake Hodges, 9. 20 Kyle Hawse, 10. 31 Todd Hawse, 11. 7 Frankie Politelli, 12. 12k Jeremy Stout, 13. 5 Justin Bishop, 14. 55 Tyler Rodriguez, 15. 12H David Raquenio
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