NEWMANSTOWN, Pa. — Steven Snyder Jr. used patience and precision to pocket the $10K championship night payday to win his second straight yearly installment of the Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by Start2Finish TV and claim his third seasonal victory with the POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro League at the outstanding hosting Clyde-Martin Memorial Speedway.
Going through a determined field of 56 entries on the championship night of the POWRi Outlaw Non-Wing Micro division in the KKM Challenge, Bradley Brown set the quick hot lap time of non-lock-ins with a time of 11.115 seconds. Bradley Brown and Kole Kirkman each emerged victorious in semi-features with Bubba Hughes gaining the C-feature win.
Flying onto the smooth Clyde-Martin Memorial Speedway surface for championship night racing in the final night of the Pennsylvania Keith Kunz Motorsports Challenge presented by Start2Finish TV saw Snyder Jr. win the ‘King of the Clyde’ dash to earn the feature event pole-starting position.
Bringing the initial field to green would find each prelim night winner, Snyder and Alex Bright, pacing the field as the green flag flew with Snyder taking the early on-track advantages over Bright, only to witness Bright stick to the top of the track and overtake for the lead on the second lap.
Keeping momentum on the top shelf of “The Clyde,” Bright led over the slimmest of margins of Snyder with Christian Bruno clinging close behind as Thomas Kunsman Jr. and Jake Andreotti rounded out the early contending top five.
Running into lapped traffic around the mid-race point, Bright continued to lead the top-five separating pack with Kole Kirkman, Jacob Severn, Neal Allison, Gunnar Pio and Chelby Hinton battled inside the running top ten as the first caution waved on lap 18.
Restarting with the POWRi chose cone in play, Bright elected the low line as the second-running Snyder went to the top shelf with Bright declaring the lead emphatically over Snyder, Kunsman, Bruno and Kirkman.
Overtaking for the top spot on lap 26, Snyder waited until the perfect time to ride the slider line into the lead as Bright maintained the second position with Bruno, Kunsman and the hard-charging Kyle Spence closing late.
Setting the stage for late-race dramatics, a caution waved with less than five laps remaining. Snyder would ultimately not be denied and hold steady up front for his eighth career POWRi Non-Wing Outlaw Micro victory as Bright finished in the closely contended second spot with Spence advancing 19 positions to finalize the podium placements.
“We were just so even and I didn’t know what I could do to catch Alex. In the last half I started getting a rhythm and whatever clicked in the final tens laps it just made me faster,” the delighted Snyder said. “It’s great to have people behind me that I can trust and that gives me the confidence I need just to get out there and drive”.
Driving from 16th, Briggs Danner placed fourth as Kole Kirkman rounded out the top-five finishers.