TULSA, Okla. — Gavin Miller 26 laps in the 67-lap feature to win Eibach Championship Night of the fifth annual Keith Kunz Motorsports Giveback Classic presented by Max Papis Innovations with the POWRi Outlaw Micro League presented by Rush Race Gear to claim his second seasonal league at Port City Raceway.
“Oh, I’m taking the money,” said Miller regarding the $15,000 or Chili Bowl ride question upon winning.
Going through a strong field of 105 entries, saw Brandt Twitty set the quick ime in non-lock-in hot laps with a time of 9.843 seconds.
Locking in the top-three finishers from each preliminary night in Daison Pursley, Frank Flud, Jeffrey Newell, Gavin Miller, Chris Andrews and Joe B Miller as well as the feature winner at Lil’ Texas Micro Mania KKM Challenge Chelby Hinton, and the Giveback Classic’s event highest-point gatherer remaining Brody McLaughlin all contending to win the ‘King of Port’ single elimination pole shuffle dash with Daison Pursley gaining the victory and earning the pole-starting spot for the main event
Pursley battled outside front-row contender Miller as the green flag waved with Pursley holding the front of the field for the first seven fast-paced laps around Port City Raceway.
Grabbing the lead with a lap-eight pass for the front, Miller would stick to the low line to overtake for the preferred position with Pursley rebounding to maintain second as Flud, Miller and T.J. Smith all battled for the final podium placement.
Overtaking the top spot by gaining speed on the top side of the track, Flud emerged the leader on lap 26 with Gavin Miller and Joe B Miller rapidly gaining as Smith fended off the hard-charging efforts of Kale Drake upon the mid-event point of the feature race.
Pacing with near perfection out front, Flud proved why he is one of the premier micro drivers in the nation by continually showing the fastest path around Port City Raceway as the laps began to wind down with Gavin Miller over a second behind in the runner-up spot with Drake overtaking K.J. Snow for third as Cannon McIntosh made his way into the contending top five.
Adding late-race flair, Gavin Miller would slide into the lead using a daring turn-four sweeping move on lap 62 to lead the pack of drivers into the final five laps with Flud, Drake, Snow and McIntosh all in the mix.
Restarting with four laps remaining, Miller held steady up front for his second career POWRi Outlaw Micro victory as Drake would finish in the closely contended second spot with leader of 36 laps Flud finalizing the podium placements.
“I have to thank this whole KKM crew every time this car hits the track because 67 laps is a long race,” said Miller. “Track was getting a little tricky towards the end but I knew I had the car to win tonight and I just had to hang on up top.”
Keeping a solid showing all night, Cannon McIntosh was fourth and Sam Johnson rounded out the top five.
Grayson Cooksey would use late-race dramatics and a daring move off turn four to notch the feature victory with the POWRi Jr. Sprint League.
The finish:
Feature (67 Laps): 1. 71K-Gavin Miller[4]; 2. 26K-Kale Drake[15]; 3. 95-Frank Flud[3]; 4. 14X-Cannon McIntosh[13]; 5. 72-Sam Johnson[14]; 6. 1V-Johnny Boland[19]; 7. 11L-Laydon Pearson[22]; 8. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[20]; 9. 44-Cameron Paul[17]; 10. 84-Jesse Love[16]; 11. 59-Brody Mclaughlin[6]; 12. 71-Daison Pursley[1]; 13. 51B-Joe B Miller[2]; 14. 28-Chelby Hinton[8]; 15. 24-KJ Snow[21]; 16. 14-TJ Smith[10]; 17. 3-Cole Roberts[24]; 18. 14C-Chris Andrews[7]; 19. 1H-Connor Lee[18]; 20. 12-Jeffrey Newell[5]; 21. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[12]; 22. 14R-Jake Nail[9]; 23. 24S-Colby Sokol[11]; 24. 5K-Kris Carroll[23].