Keith Powell Celebrates Winning SUPRS 17th Anniversary Special Win
November 3, 2020 – Lehigh, SC…The Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), celebrated its 17th Anniversary of supermodified sim racing on Election Day and at the end of the 75 lap feature at South Carolina Speedway Keith Powell was doing the victory celebration dance. Powell narrowly beat second place finisher Rob Warren to the line, winning the race by just .088 of a second. Dave Ohh finished third.
Powell Honored to Win
“I’m honored, I really am,” Powell said. “I love being a part of this league and I’ve seen it come a long way as technology stuff grew and gaming stuff grew, we all kind of grew with it. I’m just really honored to win this.”
Powell then dedicated the win to his teamate who has more SUPRS starts than any other driver, and has the longest continuous membership at SUPRS. “I have to dedicated this to my teammate Steve, (Callahan),” he said. “He’s been a member longer than me, (Callahan first joined SUPRS in March of 2005, just five months after SUPRS began), and he’s the reason I got started in SUPRS. He likes a lot of these old (NASCAR) Heat places and I know he would have been tough to be if he could have been here tonight.”
Fun Race
To go an run an old place like this with an old mod, it’s pretty fun,” said Powell who got his start at SUPRS nearly 15 years ago to the date of his win. I think just about everybody went into tonight with “this is a fun race” i hope that’s the mindset everyone had. That’s the mindset I had ya know? “This is a fun race, what happens happens.”
“You know NASCAR Heat is a tough game,” continued Powell “This mod is pretty tough too. The cars run in packs and that’s what I was seeing all night, and that’s what I was seeing all night.”
Lapped Cars Diminish Lead
Those packs of hard racing lapped cars put Powell in a tough spot trying to hang onto the gap he had built to second place after taking the lead on lap three. “I hit one or two lapped cars then there was nothing,” explained Powell. I think Gary, (Waldron), was still second and then Rob, (Warren), and I was able to build up a lead. I knew I’d need it hitting lapped traffic.”
Powell built that lead up while Waldron, Warren and Dave Ohh played bumper tag trying to find an advantage on each other. Then it all started to unravel for Powell. He picks up the story, “I started hitting wads of lapped cars, and it went from 2.5 to 1.6 seconds. Once I got through the lapped cars it jumped again. It’s the same for everyone, we all have to pass the same lapped cars but there at the end the car started to go away and I had a little bit of damage and struggled at that point to get by lapped cars. Before I knew it the lead was gone.”
The Big One
Last year Powell took advantage of his pole starting spot to win the Anniversary Special by over six seconds. This year he didn’t start on the pole, and had to fight to the finish, and through a big crash that wiped out several cars to win the race.
As Powell fought to put a lap on a trio of cars, led by sixth place running Zach Sears, Dave Ohh was able to blast his way past the slower machines, and eventually Powell, to take the lead with less than 10 laps to go. “I don’t know if he ran me down because he had a cleaner car at the end was faster, or just had less damage than me,” said Powell of Ohh. “All I know is he was there and Rob was right with him.. He was able to get by me in three and four and I followed him for a lap then, just as i was getting back into the throttle off two, I saw a bunch of smoke ahead of him, and I thought maybe a lapped car got up on the wall.
Powell’s guess was right as SUPRS oldest driver Carl Becker had pounded the wall and was stuck against it nose first. Just as the leaders came off of turn two, Becker attempted to get the car turned around and had rolled down the backstretch banking right into the path of leader Ohh who had no place to go resulting in a spectacular crash that wasn’t over until three more cars were involved and Becker ended up in the infield. Powell had luck on his side and somehow missed the catastrophe that befell Ohh. “I guess I must have blipped the throttle because i was able to duck low and miss that,” he said. “It kinda suck for Dave, but that’s kind of the nature of this mod.
I just want to thank SUPRS, 1st to Finish Race Servers, KT and Hairbag Studios, and Icings on Top, it’s just an awesome sponsor that I have there.”
Paying Tribute to Veterans
The SUPRS racers move to New River Valley Speedway next week to honor the men and women of the United States Armed Forces veterans, with the Veterans Day Special on Tuesday, November 10. The NASCAR Heat supermodified sim racing event gets underway with Hot Laps at 8:00pm on the high-banked 1/2 mile in Radford, VA. Racing starts at 9:05 with the Fast Car Dash.
This SUPRS/HeatFinder.net Supermodified Challenge Race and is open to the public for driver that has registered and filled out a SUPRS Join Form. Fans can watch it all with SUPRS LIVE! @ 9pm est.
Learn More
Online sim racers, gamers, and supermodified racing fans alike, can learn more about the original supermodified sim racing sanction by visiting www.SUPRS.net, “Liking” SUPRS on Facebook, Following @SUPRSOnline on Twitter, and Viewing SUPRS videos on YouTube. SUPRS is on Instagram @suprs_online, and don’t forget to check out live streaming video throughout the season via SUPRS LIVE! page and on Twitch. Fans and sim racers are invited to join the SUPRS Discord for chat.
SUPRS Race Results-Box Score
- SUPRS 17th Anniversary Special
- Tuesday, November 3, 2020
- South Carolina Speedway
- Lehigh, SC
- Race 9 of Season
- SUPRS NASCAR Heat NHSM mod
Feature – 75 Laps (showing finishing position, car number, driver name, hometown, sponsors, bonus, starting place/best lap time/distance behind winner)
- 41-Keith Powell; Crestline, OH; Icings on Top, CPR Motorsports: P3 / * / ** / 11.919
- 35-Rob Warren; Pulaski, NY; 1st to Finish Race Servers, Designs of Elegance: P5 / 11.939 / +0.088
- 11-Dave Ohh; Union, CT; TMS Wolfpack: P8 / * / ! / 11.858 / +1.813
- 02-Kyle Perry; Fulton, NY; Bellinger Auto, Orange Crate Brewing: P6 / 11.942 / +3.957
- 10-Gary Waldron; Wyoming, MI; Kenowa Auto Supply, Michigan Hill Gang: P1 / * / 11.958 / +4.863
- 3-Brad Keysor; Liverpool, NY; Southern Hills Storm Football, Chasing Cameras: P7 / 12.025 / +9.348
- 25-Bob Gangwer; Goshen, IN; B&G Racing Photos, RW Woodworking: P14 / 11.970 / +1 Lap
- 13-Ryan CloonanR; Oswego, NY; Simability: P12 / 11.925 / +1 Lap
- 28-Steven VincentR; Cicero, NY; Creative Assistant: P13 / 12.127 / +1 Lap
- 22-Zach Sears; Elyria, OH; Midwest Supermodified Series, Adkins Glass: P9 / 11.949 / +1 Lap
- 08-Danny Ray; Goshen, IN; Smokie Bone’s Down Home Kitchen, Masterbrand: P10 / 12.281 / +3 Laps
- 14-Bobby Hayduk; Brook Park, OH; American Heart Assoc., American Diabetes Assoc.: P2 / 12.341 / +3 Laps
- 42-Carl Becker; Lansing, MI; Wholesale Diamond Exchange, Michigan Hill Gang: P4 / 12.279 / DNF-Accident
- 56-Dick Schuler; Chisago City, MN; Gooby Beer, Schu Racing: P11 / 12.366 / DNF-Dropped
Time of Race: 17:23.009
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Race Notes:
- Lap Leaders: Dave Ohh-50
- Top Speed: Ryan CloonanR-156.2 mph
- Most Positions Gained: Bob Gangwer-7
