Colwell finally made his inside slide job stick on the 14th round, surging to the point off turn four and marching away slowly but surely. He eked out a half-second margin by the lap 20 benchmark, but had near-disaster strike three circuits later when he ramped off the left-rear tire of Andrew Neff.
That caused Neff to slow and Caden Kvapil to run square into the back of the No. 20, bringing out a caution flag, but both drivers were able to continue despite wing damage for the younger Kvapil.
At the halfway break, it was Colwell leading Mike Wheeler, Caden Kvapil, Tyler Seavey and Karsyn Elledge, with Kvapil’s team making repairs during the five-minute work period.
The second half kicked off with Wheeler taking a look for the lead on Colwell, but having to drop back in line and regroup before a yellow on lap 29 for the stalled kart of Kyle Hossfeld on top of the fourth turn.
One lap later, Elledge saw her chances at victory fade away when she jumped the inside berm from fourth and stalled in turn two.
Her problems compounded on lap 31, when she was tangled up in a three-kart melee off the second turn that further disadvantaged her, and a spin with 17 to go officially eliminated her from the race.
Following issues for Daniel Whitley with 16 to go, the run to the finish began with Colwell pulling out to a second and a half gap inside of 10 laps left, then blowing it out to a 3.5-second advantage with five to go before second-running Wheeler’s engine expired to draw the final caution of the night.
Even with a chance at Colwell’s bumper, Kvapil could do nothing over the final five-lap dash and had to settle for second in the biggest race of his young career.
“I needed more energy, mostly,” Kvapil admitted about the end of the race. “I was really tired in the last few laps. The start was good, but Jesse just came out of nowhere and really did well.
“This feels like a win. It’s really amazing to come out here and do this tonight on a big stage.”
Dylan Smith came from 10th on the grid to complete the podium, followed by reigning QRC Open winner Tyler Seavey and Jake Park.
A hard-charging Casey McClain came from the tail of the field – 24th starting spot – to finish eighth after 50 laps, an improvement of 16 positions.
Seavey, Anissa Curtice, Elledge, Wheeler, Park, Caden Kvapil, Letarte and Colwell won their respective heat races on Wednesday night, while Scott Fox and Christian Osborne topped the twin 10-lap C mains.
Dayne Amyx and Carson Kvapil dominated their respective 12-lap B mains to lead the transfer cars into the championship feature.
The TRD flip count ended at five rollovers between the two days of racing action.
For complete race results, advance to the next page.
