MATTOON, Ill. — Steven Snyder Jr. would set sail and blanket the field by leading the full feature in the $10K-to-Win Eibach Racing Championship Night 35-lap main event of the sixth yearly installment of the Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by Start2Finish TV to claim his 12th career victory with the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro League at the speedy and smooth Coles County Speedway.
Proceeding through a concentrated field of 62 entries on Championship Night of the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro division in the KKM Challenge would find Russ Disinger set the quick non-lock-in hot lap time with 10.958 seconds. Jeffrey Newell and Justis Sokol would gain the semi-feature wins with Jake Cheatham and Brian Carber taking the C-feature checkers.
Automatically locking into the main event through top-four placements in preliminary night competitions, setting the first four starting rows through a King of Coles Pole-Shuffle with Snyder victorious over Kole Kirkman, Chelby Hinton, Gavin Miller, Jake Andreotti, Frank Flud, Neal Allison and Brecken Reese.
Mounting momentum would see Snyder battle outside front-row contender Kirkman as the green flew with Snyder holding the front of the field.
Bunching the field back together for an Honest Abe’s Choose Cone restart on lap six, low-line re-firing Snyder would again take a commanding lead over Kirkman as Miller maneuvered into third with Flud shooting into fourth and Hinton rounding out the top five. Another caution waved on lap 13.
Bringing the field back to green flag conditions after another thrilling Honest Abe’s Choose Cone restart, Snyder would launch on the low line to the lead while keeping Kirkman in second as Miller and Hinton battled for third with Newell moving past Flud and into the leading pack through a flurry of fast-paced motions with caution bringing the action to a halt once again.
Smoothly staying out front through the lap 16 restart, Snyder would continue to lead as second-place running Kirkman would pull to the infield with mechanical issues as green flag conditions continued and Newell found speed to shoot into the runner-up spot ahead of Miller. A lap 23 caution bunched the field again.
Continually sticking to the low line through restarts, Snyder would appear to be the top of the class as the laps began to tick away at a rapid pace with Jeffrey Newell stalking in second with Miller battling a quickly gaining Sokol and Flud inside the top five with caution conditions bringing late race dramatics into play.
Single-file restarting with only a trio of trips around the track remaining, Snyder would continue to lead and hold steady up front for his seventh seasonal POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro victory as Newell would finish in the closely contended second spot from starting ninth with Flud finalizing the podium placements in the closing laps.
“Cautions fell into our favor and lap traffic raced me clean allowing me to keep my rhythm. I saw Jeffrey show his nose down low, but I knew as long as I hit my marks, I would be fine,” said Snyder. “It feels really good just how fast this program has been this year. This place gets pretty crazy and for being my first time here I’d say we did pretty well.”
Miller would be in the mix for the full event to place fourth as Sokol showed speed late to round out the top-five finishers.
Feature Finish (35 Laps)
1. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[1]; 2. 71-Jeffrey Newell[9]; 3. 81-Frank Flud[6]; 4. 71K-Gavin Miller[4]; 5. 25S-Justis Sokol[10]; 6. 24G-Greyson Springer[12]; 7. 83W-Brant Woods[23]; 8. 28-Chelby Hinton[3]; 9. 29-Jake Andreotti[5]; 10. 11C-Darren Brown[11]; 11. 10-Daniel Robinson[22]; 12. 8-Brian Carber[20]; 13. 12J-Brecken Reese[8]; 14. 15N-Neal Allison[7]; 15. 39-Russ Disinger[21]; 16. 88M-Max Crabdree[24]; 17. 71IRP-Biscuit Williams[19]; 18. 24S-Colby Sokol[14]; 19. 34-Colton Robinson[15]; 20. 41-Colton Hardy[17]; 21. 22-Kole Kirkman[2]; 22. 87-Mack Leopard[13]; 23. 28P-Gunnar Pio[16]; 24. 8J-Josh Marcham[18].