Quick Results: Powell Survives Blind Date Night

December 10, 2019  – Lake George, NY…Keith Powell survived a wild Blind Date Night and was able to come home a big winner at the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), opening round of the 2019-20 Empire State Super Series Tuesday night at Diamond Speedway.

It was the first time the SUPRS racers had ever raced at the track, but Powell, driving the Icings on Top Mayfield Missile, was able to figure the tricky, off-camber turn four out pretty quickly which helped propel him into the lead and kept him in front of Gangwer. Gangwer though, found his sweet spot at the other end of the track, and worked the outside groove coming out of turn two multiple times to stay glued to Powell’s rear nerf-bar during the second half of the race.

Passing pole sitter Carl Becker on lap nine for the lead, Powell was never too far out front, but ran comfortably until encountering traffic around lap 15. From there it was as nerve-racking as a real blind date. Powell, dodged, swerved, and danced his way through a rash of cars that, at some times, were setting sideways on the track.

The most harrowing incident came just as the lead pair came out of turn four to complete the half-way point of the 50 lap feature. Somehow both were able to miss Nelson Rodrigues and Rick Walls who had both spun out on the front stretch.

Bob Gangwer established a one lap speed record after pushing his RW Woodworking, Hyder Hawk chassis to a time of 14.561 seconds. Keith Powell and Carl Becker won the 13 lap heat races.

Powell’s win helped him to gain a substantial amount of championship points on current leader Rob Warren who dropped out of the race after a crash.

The SUPRS competitors head to Pennsylvania next week for the last race of the year. The Sixteenth Christmas Special is taking place at SUPRS Pantucky Speedway for the first time in the races history. The winner after 25 fast feature laps receives a Burgers’ Smokehouse Christmas Ham.

SUPRS RACE RESULTS:

Blind Date Night

• December 10, 2019
• Race 15 of 43
• 2019-20 Empire State Super Series Regional Tour – Race 1
• SUPRS NASCAR Heat W v6 mod
• Diamond Speedway
• 50 Laps

Time Trials (showing car number, driver name, hometown, sponsors, lap 1, lap 2, fastest lap highlighted)

1. 25-Bob Gangwer; Goshen, IN; RW Woodworking, Wing Side Up Enterprises: 14.669, 14.561 TR
2. 41-Keith Powell; Carrollton, OH; Icings on Top, CPR Motorsports: 14.687, 14.610
3. 35-Rob Warren; Pulaski, NY; 1^st to Finish Race Servers, Designs of Elegance: 14.703, 14.739
4. 3-Brad Keysor; Liverpool, NY; Southern Hills Storm Football, Justice League: 15.372, 14.849
5. 42-Carl Becker; Lansing, MI; Wholesale Diamond Exchange, Michigan Hill Gang: 15.156, 14.948
6. 22-Zach Sears^(R); Round Lake Beach, IL; Midwest Supermodified Series, Adkin’s Glass: 15.184, 15.078
7. 7-Nelson Rodrigues; Stoneham, MA; Star Speedway: 15.152, 15.493
8. 92-Rick Walls; Warsaw, IN; NH Autosport: 15.443, 15.164
9. 33-Matt Germain; Oswego, NY; MBG Motorsports: NT

Heat Race 1-13 Laps (showing car number, driver name)

1. 41-Keith Powell
2. 25-Bob Gangwer
3. 35-Rob Warren
4. 3-Brad Keysor

Time of Race: 4:13.532

Heat Race 2-13 Laps (showing car number, driver name)

1. 42-Carl Becker
2. 22-Zach Sears^(R)
3. 92-Rick Walls
4. 7-Nelson Rodrigues
5. 33-Matt Germain

Time of Race: 5:04.861

Feature-50 Laps (showing car number, driver name, bonus, starting position, fastest lap, distance behind winner)

1. 41-Keith Powell; * | ** | P3 | 14.559
2. 25-Bob Gangwer; ! | P4 | 14.481 | +0.236
3. 42-Carl Becker; * | P1 | 14.688 | +7.725
4. 3-Brad Keysor; P7 | 14.688 | +1 Lap
5. 22-Zach Sears^(R); P1 | 14.704 | +1 Lap
6. 92-Rick Walls; P6 | 14.749 | +1 Lap
7. 33-Matt Germain; P9 | 14.756  | +2 Laps
8. 7-Nelson Rodrigues; P8 | +8 Laps
9. 35-Rob Warren; P5 | 14.572 | DNF-Crash

Time of Race:  12:38.483

• * Denotes Lap Led
• ** Denotes Most Laps Led
• ! Denotes Fastest Lap of Race