By Kasey Kreider

If racing is like riding a bike in the sense that once you learn, you never forget, then Collegeville, PA’s Alex Bright put that on full display during the second night of the POWRi-sanctioned KKM Challenge at the Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway.

Despite limited races in a micro over the past couple of years, Bright proved that readapting to his old stomping grounds would be no challenge whatsoever, as he kept Christian Bruno at bay and led all 25 laps of Friday night’s A-Main event.

Non-Wing Outlaw 600

Bright’s night started off by laying down the fourth quickest time amongst the 26 entries in qualifying. It was Castro Valley, CA native Jake Andreotti who turned the fastest lap of anyone, clocking in a time of 11.019 seconds.

Even through heat races, Bright proved to be strong – but not dominant – as he ran second to Brian Carber in the first heat race of the evening. Christian Bruno and James Morris were the other two drivers to score heat race wins in the Non-Wing Outlaw division.

It was in qualifier action where Bright began to flex the muscle behind the Rodota Trucking and Excavating No. 20, as he charged from fourth to claim the win of the third and final qualifier. That performance was good enough to make Bright the high-point man entering the Friday night A-Main, in front of fellow qualifier winners Andreotti and Braden Jones.

On a track that was gripped up around the bottom, track position would prove to be key, and Bright was in prime position to take advantage of his fast Hummer Motorsports mount in the feature.

After a rash of early cautions, the race finally got into a rhythm, and Bright was able to establish a lead of a couple car lengths over Bruno while the two leaders were whizzing around the bottom of the racetrack.

A lap 12 caution provided the chance for a reset, and prolonged the amount of time it would take for the frontrunners to potentially reach lapped traffic. On the restart that followed, Bruno kept Bright within arm’s length, and continued his pursuit of the No. 20 Hyper Chassis. Although Bruno seemed to rotate the corner well, Bright excelled on corner exit and maintained his advantage.

Bright caught the tail of the field with two laps to go, giving Bruno one last hope of getting within striking distance. Although Bruno got just about to the back bumper through the final set of corners, it was too little, too late for the pilot of the No. 5, as Bright led him across the finish line.

“We felt pretty good all night,” Bright said in victory lane. “We rolled this car right out of the shop just the way that it went back in, and it was fast the last time we put it away… we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. It’s gonna be a lot tougher and I’m sure we’ll have to improve a little bit to keep it up front tomorrow night too.”

Behind the front two came Andreotti and Jones, as those two drivers claimed the other two lock-in positions to Saturday night’s finale. Chelby Hinton completed the top five.

Results:

1. 20-Alex Bright[1]; 2. 5-Christian Bruno[2]; 3. 29A-Jake Andreotti[3]; 4. 5J-Braden Jones[5]; 5. 95H-Chelby Hinton[6]; 6. 23-Bradley Brown[4]; 7. 50-Jacob Severn[7]; 8. 95-Brian Carber[12]; 9. 126-Autumn Criste[10]; 10. 7L-Chase Layser[8]; 11. 08-Dominic Schmidt[15]; 12. 25-Kenneth Beinhower III[21]; 13. 98-Matthew Warner[16]; 14. 95M-Paige Moss[24]; 15. 12M-James Morris[9]; 16. 2B-Bubba Hughes[23]; 17. 74-Robby Brockman[14]; 18. 16-Logan Dontonville[19]; 19. 91-Nate Freed[20]; 20. 14C-Connor Gross[18]; 21. 14-Jason Swavely[11]; 22. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[17]; 23. 9X-Connor Mirabelli[13]; 24. 32H-Wayne Scott[22]

Alex Bright held off Christian Bruno through lapped traffic to win the second preliminary feature of the KKM Challenge in Non-Wing Outlaw 600 competition. (Photo Courtesy of POWRi/Facebook)

US6A Winged 600

In U6SA Winged 600 competition, Brian Carber entered the night as the favorite, looking to go back-to-back on the first two nights of the KKM Challenge. But when feature time rolled around, it was Ephrata, PA’s Bradley Brown taking the fight to “Big Money” and chalking up a win for the home-track drivers in Friday night’s 20-lap A-Main.

A race that ran green-to-checkered in the span of just three minutes and 38 seconds saw fast and frenzied action around the bottom of the speedway. Brown pulled away to a sizable lead in the early laps of the race, but hit lapped traffic just around the halfway mark, giving Carber the chance to close in.

Although Carber’s machine got closer and closer as the laps wound down, the cushion that Brown built up in the race’s early stages coupled with his ability to work past the lapped cars kept the Pipersville, PA native from getting close enough to make anything happen. Brown’s No. 23 RTS Chassis flashed across the finish line two car lengths in front of Carber to secure the win.

“I knew I had to get a good start, whoever got to the lead first I think was gonna run away with it,” Brown said. “I got a lot of laps around this race track… so I think that played a big role in it. The lapped cars did great, they did exactly what they needed to do and they made the race a little interesting.”

Behind Brown and Carber was Christian Bruno finishing third. Jesse Maurer and Trevor Gach completed the top five.

Results:

1. 23-Bradley Brown[1]; 2. 23B-Brian Carber[2]; 3. 5-Christian Bruno[3]; 4. 3-Jesse Maurer[5]; 5. 1-Trevor Gach[7]; 6. 3B-Dallas Damask[8]; 7. 71B-Brian Kramer[11]; 8. 10-Mason Peters[6]; 9. 5A-Anthony Yerger[10]; 10. 14H-Haelee Nardelli[9]; 11. 29S-Sophya Papp[13]; 12. 32H-Trenton Rivera[15]; 13. 27-Jace Smith[14]; 14. 46-Blayne Mabry[12]; 15. 51-Amanda Onimus[16]; 16. 44-Brent Shearer[4]

Bradley Brown made the home-track fans happy with a feature win in the U6SA Winged 600 A-Main. (Photo Courtesy of POWRi/Facebook)

Junior Sprints

A strong heat race performance put Mooresville, NC’s Brexton Busch back on the pole for Friday night’s A-Main event for the Junior Sprints, and Busch kept his winning streak alive aboard the No. 18B by leading all 15 laps to win the feature.

“The heat race didn’t go how I wanted, I got held back a bit,” Busch said. “Overall my car was good all the time, but I hope I can get another one tomorrow.”

Ashen Glazier improved one spot from Thursday night as he came home in second, while Braylon Morris rounded out the podium in third. Gage Pio and Brantley Floczak completed the top five.

Results:

1. 18B-Brexton Busch[1]; 2. 15G-Ashen Glazier[2]; 3. 15-Braylon Morris[5]; 4. 5G-Gage Pio[4]; 5. 36-Brantley Floczak[6]; 6. 65J-Landon Snyder[7]; 7. 52-Jase Smith[3]

Brexton Busch extended his winning streak to five and kept his perfect weekend going at the KKM Challenge in the Junior Sprints division. (Photo Courtesy of POWRi/Facebook)

The KKM Challenge concludes on Saturday, June 1 with the Finale Night, headlined by the $10,000-to-win A-Main event for the Non-Wing Outlaw 600s. The U6SA Winged 600s and Junior Sprints will also be back in action for what promises to be a thrilling conclusion to the event. Gates will open at 4 p.m., with warmups and racing beginning at 6 p.m. With one driver set to take home a five-figure payday, don’t miss the chance to experience a piece of history and to LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!