HOHLBEIN SHINES IN FIRST USAC REGIONAL MIDGET WIN AT KOKOMO KLASH
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Kokomo, Indiana (October 16, 2021)………Abby Hohlbein led the final five laps to score her first career USAC Midwest Regional Midget feature victory Saturday night at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway, as part of the Kokomo Klash.
Hohlbein, who competes regularly with the USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget series, took the lead late in the 25-lap feature following race leader Adam Taylor’s spin in turn four on lap 21. Taylor had held a five-plus second lead at that juncture.
With the victory, Hohlbein (Cloverdale, Ohio) became just the ninth woman to win a full USAC Regional Midget feature, joining Bev Griffis, Stephanie Mockler, Sondi Eden, Shannon McQueen, Alison MacLeod, Taylor Ferns, Michelle Decker and Maria Cofer.
Hohlbein was followed to the line by Travis Berryhill (American Canyon, Calif.), Jack Routson (Waterman, Ill.), Jeff Schindler (Evansville, Ind.) and Kayla Roell (Dillsboro, Ind.).
Defending series champion and point leader Chett Gehrke (Broken Arrow, Okla.) finished 6th and extended his point lead to 50 over Bryan Stanfill (Bakersfield, Calif.) entering the final event on Friday, Oct. 22, at Indiana’s Gas City I-69 Speedway.
Stanfill led laps four and five before a turn two incident caused him to stop. He restarted and continued briefly, dropping out with a 16th place finish.
Routson led twice, including the opening three laps as well as lap six when he took over the lead from Stanfill. Routson led one more additional lap before being overtaken by Taylor on the 7th circuit (Dwight, Ill), who led a race-high 14 laps.
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USAC MIDWEST REGIONAL MIDGET RESULTS: August 28, 2021 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana
GROUP ONE QUALIFYING: 1. Adam Taylor, 5x, Jones-13.541; 2. Bryan Stanfill, 75AU, Griffiths-:13.630; 3. Ben Varner, 25v, Gladish-14.007; 4. Blake Brannon, 40, Brannon-14.100; 5. Travis Berryhill, 77s, Sturgeon-14.333; 6. Glenn Waterland, 11c, Waterland-14.811; 7. Garrett Mitchell, 001x, Mitchell-15.026; 8. Jon Watson, 20x, Watson-NT.
GROUP TWO QUALIFYING: 1. Jack Routson, 57A, RAB-13.939; 2. Abby Hohlbein, 11H, Hohlbein-14.251; 3. Cory Guingrich, 42, Guingrich-14.428; 4. Kayla Roell, 11K, Martin-14.547; 5. Greg Mitchell, 001, Mitchell-14.735; 6. Jim Jones, 97, Jones-16.548; 7. Rich Drangmeister, 76, Drangmeister-18.048; 8. Kevin Blue, DW7, Blue-NT.
GROUP THREE QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-14.137; 2. Chett Gehrke, 10, Moore-14.279; 3. Zach Boden, 57K, RAB-14.325; 4. Jeff Schindler, 11, Martin-14.340; 5. Alex Nalon, 18, Dickerson-14.887; 6. Wes Pinkerton, 9p, Pinketon-17.414; 7. Dave Fetsch, 3, Drangmeister-18.867.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Adam Taylor, 2. Bryan Stanfill, 3. Blake Brannon, 4. Travis Berryhill, 5. Glenn Waterland, 6. Garrett Mitchell, 7. Ben Varner. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Jack Routson, 2. Abby Hohlbein, 3. Kayla Roell, 4. Cory Guingrich, 5. Greg Mitchell, 6. Rich Drangmeister, 7. Jim Jones, 8. Kevin Blue. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Dickerson, 2. Chett Gehrke, 3. Jeff Schindler, 4. Alex Nalon, 5. Dave Fetsch, 6. Zach Boden, 7. Wes Pinkerton. NT
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Abby Hohlbein, 2. Travis Berryhill, 3. Jack Routson, 4. Jeff Schindler, 5. Kayla Roell, 6. Chett Gehrke, 7. Cory Guingrich, 8. Adam Taylor, 9. Alex Nalon, 10. Greg Mitchell, 11. Garrett Mitchell, 12. Glenn Waterland, 13. Jim Jones, 14. Wes Pinkerton, 15. Justin Dickerson, 16. Bryan Stanfill, 17. Rich Drangmeister, 18. Blake Brannon, 19. Dave Fetsch. NT
**Ben Varner flipped during the first heat. Blake Brannon flipped on lap 5 of the feature. Wes Pinkerton flipped on lap 21 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Jack Routson, Laps 4-5 Bryan Stanfill, Lap 6 Jack Routson, Laps 7-20 Adam Taylor, Laps 21-25 Abby Hohlbein.
USAC MIDWEST REGIONAL MIDGET POINTS: 1-Chett Gehrke-588, 2-Bryan Stanfill-538, 3-Chance Crum-408, 4-Kayla Roell-328, 5-Glenn Waterland-319, 6-Tyler Nelson-310, 7-Abby Hohlbein-242, 8-Shane Cottle-228, 9-Jeff Beasley-190, 10-Jeff Schindler-176.
NEXT USAC MIDWEST REGIONAL MIDGET RACE: October 22, 2021 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana