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Minnesota Missile Monday: Sparks Charges To Seventh Place Finish

Minnesota Missile Monday: Sparks Charges To Seventh Place Finish
Sweet Springs Motorsport Complex; Sweet Springs, MO
By: Stephanie Sparks

With the threatening weather in Wisconsin, the team decided to make the shorter tow to Sweet Springs, MO for their weekly racing program on Saturday. A strong field of 17 drivers entered the restrictor micro division making it the biggest class at the track for the week.

Heat:
KC Sparks lined up on the outside of row three but after a drop, moved to the inside of row three. On the opening lap, Sparks and Andres Jones ended up stuck together at the exit of turn two forcing a complete restart. Sparks took a couple laps to get comfortable in the car after the contact which allowed the field to pull ahead of him. Micah Becker won the heat from the outside of the front row. Logun Lunsford raced from eighth to second with Waylon Phillips also coming from the back row to finish third. Harrison Robards, Landon Jesina, and Sparks were the heat finishers.

The first heat race was won by Peyton White from the pole. Brody Hibdon moved up six positions while Kyle Heflin limped a broken car across the line in third. Hayden Alberson, Abbigale Johnson, Shali Buck, Chris Altis, and Dale Johnston completed the opening heat finishers.

Feature:
The invert draw put Phillips on the pole alongside Lunsford while Sparks was lined up on the outside of row six for the 30 lap feature event. As the field charged into the first set of turns, several drivers tapped bumpers and some got squirrely but everyone pulled through with Phillips leading the pack down the backstretch with Becker running in second. Sparks came out advancing to ninth position at the end of the first lap but in a big group of drivers.

On the second circuit, Johnston was running the bottom just ahead of Sparks and with the close racing, some incidental racing contact was just enough to spin Johnston leaving Sparks with no place to go and he spun to the burm but was lucky as White was also racing the low line and only tagged Sparks' back end while taking a detour through the infield to avoid the incident.

Everyone restarted, but Sparks was sent to the tail with Johnston. When the green flew for the restart, Sparks forgot about the restart cone so when the leaders took off, Sparks jumped to the low side and advanced past four drivers before even hitting the front stretch moving him to eleventh where he ran for several laps. He was later penalized on another restart and warned over the raceceiver communication system. (oops)

At the front of the field, Phillips was maintaining the lead but the battle for runner up was strong. Heflin made his way past Becker and held off Hibdon for half the race with only a car length separating the duo. After a restart, Hibdon used the lapped cars in the field to move ahead of Heflin.

The event was slowed five times for differing incidents on the track but fourteen of the competitors finished the race. Phillips picked up another win with Hibdon, Lunsford, hard charger Jesina, and White in the top five. Heflin, Sparks, Becker, Alberson, and Buck were the top ten.

Upcoming Schedule:
MICRO RACING:
8/12: KAM Raceway; Hastings, NE (tentative)
8/13: Jefferson County Speedway: Fairbury, NE
OR Sweet Springs, MO
8/19: Jefferson County Speedway: Fairbury, NE
8/20:Jefferson County Speedway: Fairbury, NE
8/26: KAM Raceway; Hastings, NE
8/27: KAM Raceway; Hastings, NE
8/28: The New Raceway Park; Jefferson, SD

2022 Partner/Sponsor Appreciation
Autoland; Sioux Falls, SD
Furby’s Auto Repair; Sioux Falls, SD
GRP Motorsports; Stillwater, MN
Last Deck LLC; Jackson, MN
Heser Auto and Detailing; Jackson, MN
Hawk Wings; Jackson, MN
G-Force Chassis; Concordia, MO
Schure Build Suspension; Slater, MO
MyRacePass; #TeamMRP #GetTheApp
TL Racing; Jackson, MN
Living Like Outlaws

YTD MICRO STATS:
Shows: 11
Wins: 1
Top 5: 2
Top 10: 9
Heat Wins: 1

YTD KART Stats:
Shows: 12
Wins: 4
Top 3: 8
Top 10: 12
Heat Wins: 3 out of 10
Quick Times:0 out of 4

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