PC: 357's World of Dirt
(9/26/20) Fairfield, IL... Aiden Purdue was triumphant at Wayne County Speedway (IL) on Saturday night for the Trump 45 and the PureMax RacingOil HART Non-Wing Micro Series presented by EMi. Purdue won his A-Main on Friday night to lock himself into the Show on Saturday night for a chance at $4,500. Crew Chief Brad McDaniel had the Hyper Racing #37 hooked up on Friday and continued the same success all 45 laps on Saturday evening.
Despite his success on Friday night Purdue had to start 8th in the Dash on Saturday. Starting further back in the Dash than he would have prefered gave him more motivation to go after the big win. Purdue gained two spots in the dash to start 6th in the A-Main.
Matt Veatch who was the Outlaw Non-Wing track champion at Wayne County last year started on the pole for the Show. Veatch led the opening few laps, until the first caution of the race. Joe B Miller then made his move to the lead after starting second. He put a slider on Veatch two laps after the restart to take the lead going down the backstretch.
Purdue moved in on Veatch for second near lap 15. The two traded sliders for multiple laps until Purdue started to pull away and go after the leader. Joe B had started to build his lead while Purdue and Veatch battled but a caution came out for Alex Burgener. The field regrouped and the top 5 was Joe B Miller, Aiden Purdue, Matt Veatch, J.B. Gilbert, and LeRoy Carley.
The top two of Joe B and Purdue had separated themselves from the rest of the field around lap 30. They were soon going to enter lap traffic.
With 5 to go the leaders reached the tail end of the field. Joe B made contact with slower car Cale Goodwin heading into turn 1. This caused Joe B to check and Aiden Purdue to go flying around the outside to take the lead. With Purdue now in the lead did the veteran driver have anything for the teenager.
You bet he did, with the white flag out going into turns three and four. Joe B Miller threw a huge slider on Purdue. Purdue turned back underneath on the exit of turn four and took the win by half a car length over Joe B. The win is not Purdue's first at Wayne County, he also won the Fall Non-Wing Brawl last year for $3K to Win with the HART Non-Wing Micros.
The 15-year-old from Clinton, Illinois drove one heck of a race and had this to say about the win. "That was probably the most intense race ever, I knew Joe B was going to be fast early on, we kept that in mind. We got throwing sliders with Matt Veatch, it was fun, kept calm and my head low...". "Joe B got hung up on that lap car with a little bit of luck. That's what got it done, you run up front and good things happen."
Joe B Miller is an experienced driver, running everything from sprint cars to micros, to midgets. Aiden knew that the last-ditch slider was coming in the final corner. "That was the most heartbeat racing moment ever, your setting there, you know its coming, we all want it. I prepared for the worst and prepared for the best. He threw the slider and I crossed under him to get the win."
-Lucas Halbert
Results
A-Main Results (45 Laps):
1. (37) Aiden Purdue [6], 2. (51B) Joe B Miller [3], 3. (44T) J.B. Gilbert [2], 4. (57V) Matt Veatch [1], 5. (2) Jaxon Bishop [10], 6. (99) Zach Daum [4], 7. (8C) LeRoy Carley [5], 8. (3X) Charlie Allen [14], 9. (22) Daniel Robinson [19], 10. (5) Ben Browder [18], 11. (10) Tyler Rust [13], 12. (16W) Cody Williams [20], 13. (20V) Mike Valette [17], 14. (40C) Cale Goodwin [16], 15. (94) Jordan Clary [7], 16. (38M) Koert Mehler [11], 17. (32) Austin Schaeffer [8], 18. (96) Alex Burgener [12], 19. (3M) Tres Mehler [15], 20. (71) Jake Cheatham [9]