TROUTMAN, N.C. – Nineteen-year-old Briley Pompe may be moving back to his home state of Oregon over the weekend, but he’ll have some extra hardware to pack for the trip back home.
Pompe took a surprise victory during the Finale at the Fairgrounds on Wednesday night, the last race of HMS Motorsport NC Race Week presented by CookOut at the Iredell County Fairgrounds, banking the $1,000 winner’s check that came with the win in the headlining Open division feature in the process.
Though he initially crossed the line third, Pompe was elevated to the top step of the podium after initial race-winner Tom Hubert and runner-up Kyle Beattie were disqualified for failing post-race technical inspection.
The win was Pompe’s first in nearly two years of trying since moving to the East Coast to chase his racing dreams.
“I can’t believe this; I don’t even know right now,” said Pompe. “I’ve been trying for a year and a half, two years and haven’t gotten one … but we finally came to a short track that’s more of what I’m used to and got it done! It was flat, slick-ish and I guess third was the place to be tonight.
“There were some hyper people back in front of me. I saw three flips and each time, I was like, ‘that doesn’t need to be me,’” Pompe added. “I was just biding my time on the bottom, just trying to be smart and stay clean, and it paid off tonight.”
Joey Robinson and Hubert, the two heat race winners for the night, led the field off the initial start, but it wasn’t even a full lap before Adam Stewart went flipping in turn three to set up a complete restart.
After two aborted attempts to get the race back going, Robinson finally timed the launch he needed to take the lead on the bottom, pulling out to just under a second’s advantage before the yellow flag returned on the fourth round for a scary incident involving Ben Studer.
Studer was running the top lane in turns one and two when he caught air and flipped over the barriers in the second turn, the kart coming to rest behind the wall on its side. However, Studer quickly clambered out and walked away under his own power.
“That was crazy,” admitted Studer. “I’m not sure quite what happened, but when I realized I was in the air I was like, ‘this probably isn’t going to be good’ … and it wasn’t! But we move on to fight another day. The car was fast before that happened.”
Under the red flag, Robinson was heartbreakingly pushed to the work area with overheating issues, dropping him to the tail of the field and out of contention for the win. He did return to the track, however, and continue on.
That left Hubert out front with a lead that he would seemingly not relinquish, despite a flip by Carson Kvapil with nine to go and then a spin by Robinson in turn two that set up a green-white-checkered finish.
Hubert crossed the line first by .871 of a second, but his tech issues meant he was denied a clean sweep of NC Race Week after winning twin features on Saturday night at Millbridge Speedway and a third feature on Sunday night at the fairgrounds.
With fourth-place Nick Tucker also being disqualified for technical inspection issues, Dillon Latour was elevated to second in the official results after initially crossing the line fifth.
Charlie McDonnell, Alex Bodine and Robinson completed the top five in the adjusted finishing order, followed by Ryan Millington, who was the last car on the lead lap in sixth.
Caden Kvapil scored a clean sweep of the $200 to win Intermediate division program, setting fast time and winning the heat race before recording a wire-to-wire victory in the caution-free, 20-lap main event.
Matt Francis hounded Kvapil the entire distance, but settled for second ahead of Reed Whitney, Gavan Boschele and Laci Ferno.
The finishes:
Open Division (unofficial): Briley Pompe, Dillon Latour, Charlie McDonnell, Alex Bodine, Joey Robinson, Ryan Millington, Carson Kvapil, Ben Studer, Adam Stewart, Andrew Wehrli, Tom Hubert, Kyle Beattie, Nick Tucker.
Intermediate Division: Caden Kvapil, Matt Francis, Reed Whitney, Gavan Boschele, Laci Ferno, Eli Bodine.
