Kos 8862 (3)
Kevin Thomas Jr. (Ken Simon photo)

KTJ Wings It At Lake Ozark

ELDON, Mo. — Kevin Thomas Jr. rode away with the $7,000 payday after leading the final four laps of the feature to win in the Championship Night running of the Lake Ozark Speedway Triple Sprint Showdown for the POWRi 410 Bandit Outlaw Sprint Series.

Going into the initial green flag start with Zach Hampton and Blake Hahn lined up in the front row, Hahn would speed into the early racing advantage as Hampton, Garet Williamson, Thomas and Lachlan McHugh battled within the top five.

Setting a blistering pace and occurring lapped traffic at a rapid rate, Hahn would click away laps while leading as Hampton and Thomas stayed within striking distance and action aplenty flowed behind the leading trio throughout the pack of competitors.

Using late-race heroics, Thomas would use a deep drive into turn three to slide by Hahn on the exit of four for the preferred position as Hahn maintained momentum to keep pace and battle back on the new leader.

Preserving the front of the field for the final four revolutions around a beautifully prepared surface of the feature event, Thomas would not be denied in earning his first career POWRi 410 BOSS feature victory in an action-packed caution-free 25-lap feature. 

“This felt really good out there, I knew we had a good car this weekend and that I had to get up on the wheel and go,” said Thomas. “I’ve never won a winged show like this before so this one feels special.”

Contending intently behind the leader would find one-time leader of 21 laps Hahn finishing runner-up from starting second with Garet Williamson placing on the final podium placement from the starting fourth.

Polesitter Hampton would be among the frontrunners all feature to finish fourth as Lachlan McHugh was fifth.

The finish:

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 16TH-Kevin Thomas Jr[3]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 3. 12X-Garet Williamson[4]; 4. 35-Zach Hampton[1]; 5. 25-Lachlan McHugh[6]; 6. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[7]; 7. 74-Xavier Doney[8]; 8. 1JR-Steven Russell[14]; 9. 51B-Joe B Miller[11]; 10. 87J-Jace Park[9]; 11. 91-Riley Kreisel[15]; 12. 23B-Brian Bell[13]; 13. 93-Taylor Walton[16]; 14. 7A-Will Armitage[12]; 15. 79-Gage Montgomery[18]; 16. 00-Broc Elliott[22]; 17. 37-Bryce Norris[10]; 18. 6-Corey Nelson[20]; 19. 3P-Russell Potter[24]; 20. 2H-Ivan Glotzbach[21]; 21. 16THH-Kevin Newton[19]; 22. 7B-Hunter Barron[23]; 23. 118-Jacob Bloodworth[25]; 24. 9-Tyler Duff[5]; 25. 15-Jack Potter[17].