PRYOR CREEK, Okla. — A night off from racing on the Lucas Oil ASCS National tour turned into an unexpected payday for Blake Hahn Saturday at Salina Highbanks Speedway.
Driving in his first AmeriFlex / OCRS IMCA Sprint Car feature, Hahn charged from 13th starting position and rolled into the lead with nine laps remaining on the way to winning the AmeriFlex Challenge VI main event.
Hahn became the fifth driver in six years to win the AmeriFlex Challenge and it paid him $3,000 from a $27,000 purse.
Hahn drove alone up against the cushion which allowed him to quickly advance through the field of drivers.
“The track was great from top to bottom and it worked out good for me as it seemed like everyone was on the bottom early on,” Hahn said of his move to the top.
“Starting 13th you can try more things than the guys up front. I was moving around quite a bit. I was running the bottom the first couple of laps. I felt like I did not really have a lot of miles per hour so I went to the top and got the car going. Once I did it got better and I started picking off some cars.
“They left me the lane on top so it was good and as the race wore on and got into lapped traffic the car would go anywhere I needed it too.”
Friday night winner Whit Gastineau finished second, with Jordan Knight, Danny Smith and Sheldon Barksdale following.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 08E-Blake Hahn[13]; 2. 2C-Whit Gastineau[3]; 3. 10-Jordan Knight[2]; 4. 5$-Danny Smith[9]; 5. 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[6]; 6. 78-Tanner Conn[11]; 7. 8-Alex Sewell[10]; 8. 5-Joe Bob Lee[5]; 9. 88-Terry Easum[7]; 10. 50Z-Zach Chappell[1]; 11. 55-Johnny Kent[14]; 12. 22-David Stephenson[17]; 13. 7F-Noah Harris[20]; 14. 9$-Kyle Clark[18]; 15. 22M-Rees Moran[19]; 16. 31-Casey Wills[16]; 17. 6-Alison Slaton[21]; 18. 30X-Larry Bratti[22]; 19. 4-Robert Sellers[4]; 20. 55W-Danny Wood[8]; 21. 11-Avery Goodman[12]; 22. 3C-Roy Larkin[15]