Spencer Bayston earned his fifth consecutive national midget feature win in dominating fashion as he led all 30 laps in the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s feature event at the Jacksonville Speedway in Jacksonville, Illinois, on Friday night.
The victory is Bayston’s eighth national feature win this season. He continues to lead the National Midget Driver of the Year standings. Toyota-powered drivers now have registered 33 national feature wins in 2017.
Starting on the outside of row one, Bayston moved to the lead coming off turn two on the opening lap. After a red flag on lap four, Bayston went relatively unchallenged through much of the first two-thirds of the race before second-place Tyler Courtney started to gain on him late.
Bayston adjusted to the changing track, moving down to the bottom and pulled away from Courtney in the final laps to take the victory. Fellow Toyota-powered drivers Logan Seavey and Tucker Klaasmeyer finished third and fourth, respectively.
“I think that was (Courtney) showing me a nose there on the bottom, so I figured I should at least try it down there,” relayed Bayston. “In the last few laps, I figured I should probably stay down there and we brought home the win. I’ve got to thank my guys. They work really hard on this thing and keep making it better and better. It’s a pretty good night.”
With his third-place finish, Seavey gained 10 points on Klaasmeyer to stretch his POWRi point lead to 240 with just two races remaining.
“We were really good tonight,” Seavey said. “The track was pretty hooked up in the beginning and then got really racy. By the time we got the third caution we were already up to fourth place. I can’t say enough about the car. We just needed some cautions so we could race with these guys.”
Holly Shelton made it four Toyotas in the top 10 with a seventh-place finish, with Ryan Robinson (11th), Tanner Carrick (13th) and Tanner Thorson (20th) rounded out the Toyota contingent in Friday’s feature.
POWRi concludes its weekend double-header in Jacksonville on Saturday night.
Toyota Racing PR
