TULSA, Okla. — Michael “Buddy” Kofoid picked up where he left off with the series and earned his Keith Kunz team the annual Donnie Ray Crawford Sooner State 55 victory at Port City Raceway on Thursday night.
Kofoid started 19th and charged to his eighth Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget League victory of the year.
On the opening lap of the 55-lap feature, polesitter Cannon McIntosh jumped out to an early lead on the bottom side of the track. McIntosh immediately took command and caught the beginning of the lapped traffic.
With only six laps down, McIntosh tangled with a lapped car and comes to a stop. Tanner Berryhill assumed the lead as the field got brought back to green.
As the drivers settled in for the long run, Berryhill found himself with a big advantage over the rest of the field and continued to grow his lead. Jake Neuman, Ryan Timms, Tanner Thorson, and Christopher Bell slid each other for positions two through five.
After a few cautions bunched back up the field, on a restart Ryan Timms slid Berryhill for the lead and prevailed shortly as they make contact and Timms stopped on the track.
On the restart with 33 laps to go, Berryhill re-assumed the lead with Christopher Bell following in second, Tanner Thorson in third, and Buddy Kofoid in fourth.
Kofoid slowly made his way up to third and then set his sights on the top two. As Berryhill and Bell were battling close for the top spot, Kofoid split them in turns one and two and leaped from third to the point.
As soon as Kofoid found himself in the lead, he never looked back and went on to victory. Bell finished in second, followed by McIntosh, Bryant Wiedeman and Berryhill.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 67-Buddy Kofoid 2. 67W-Christopher Bell 3. 08-Cannon McIntosh 4. 01-Bryant Wiedeman 5. 17-Tanner Berryhill 6. 5-Gavan Boschele 7. 21K-Karter Sarff 8. 71K-Daison Pursley 9. 3N-Jake Neuman 10. 97-Brenham Crouch 11. 71-Kaylee Bryson 12. 26R-Chance Crum 13. 86-Brent Crews 14. 32-Trey Marcham 15. 91T-Tyler Thomas 16. 8J-Jonathan Beason 17. 25-Taylor Reimer 18. 19AZ-Tanner Thorson 19. 11A-Andrew Felker 20. 85T-Ryan Timms 21. 00C-Chase McDermand 22. 83-Dominic Gorden 23. 7U-Kyle Jones 24. 21-Emilio Hoover 25. 44-Branigan Roark