SALISBURY, N.C. – Reigning Millbridge Speedway track champion Carson Kvapil raced to his first Open division win of the season Wednesday night at the sixth-mile dirt oval.
Tom Hubert (500 Outlaw), Caden Kvapil (Intermediate), Biscuit Williams (Box Stock) and Coen McDaniel (Beginner Box Stock) were also feature winners during the track’s fourth week of weekly racing.
Kvapil charged past Andrew Wehrli with a lap 11 slide job and held the top spot the rest of the way in the 20-lap main event, despite a chaotic sequence the next time around that nearly took the top three karts out of contention.
Working lap 12, Nick Hoffman – who had to come from the rear after a spin on the third circuit – charged to Kvapil’s inside entering turn one but washed up the race track and into both Kvapil and the outside cushion at the exit of turn two, slowing both cars’ momentum.
At that point, Wehrli nearly got back inside both Hoffman and Kvapil to regain the top spot, but Kvapil was able to gather his car back up, build momentum on the outside and clear Wehrli for the second time exiting turn four.
From there, it was no contest as Kvapil built a huge lead and raced home to the win by 3.015 seconds.
“That was exciting,” admitted Kvapil. “I knew I was dealing with the 54 (Wehrli) but Nick surprised me a bit when he pitched it down there. It was nervous for a minute but we all hung on. I’m sure it looked cool for the fans.
“It feels good to get back to victory lane here in an Open. I won a couple weeks ago in an Intermediate, but this class is the toughest guys around and glad we could pick one up tonight for Keen Parts, CorvetteParts.net and all our sponsors.”
Hoffman dropped to fourth after his failed attempt at grabbing the lead, but raced back to a runner-up finish after a drag race with Clark Houston on the last lap.
Nick O’Dell and Alex Bodine completed the top five. Wehrli ran into problems with six laps remaining and had to retire his kart from competition.
Hubert rallied back from a spin on the initial start to become the first driver to record multiple 500 Outlaw class wins this season, passing Wehrli at halfway and going on to his second victory in four races.
“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen after that first lap,” admitted Hubert. “I was coming at them so fast that I was going to run into somebody, so I spun myself to keep from wrecking a bunch of stuff. We came back, though. The high side is starting to come back to us again.”
Wehrli hung on for a runner-up finish, followed by Nick Tucker, Jimmy Elledge and Ryan Israel.
Caden Kvapil led all the way in the Intermediate class main, starting from the pole and never trailing en route to his second class victory of the season.
Brent Crews kept the younger Kvapil brother honest but had to settle for second, followed by Gray Leadbetter, Eli Bodine and Jordyn Bregoli.
Biscuit Williams rolled to his third Box Stock win in a row with his third different kart number, subbing for Danny Dyszelski and holding off Sam Corry after taking the lead on a restart with four laps to go.
Corry, Lucas Sipka, C.J. Sweatt and Trevor Cline made up the rest of the top five.
In the Beginner Box Stock feature, Coen McDaniel took home his third win of the year and second in a row after a late pass of Carson Allen, holding Allen’s No. 44 at bay on a one-lap dash to end the 15-lap race.
Dallas Griggs, Chase Spaulding and Ryan Zima trailed the top two.
To view full results, advance to the next page.
