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It’s cliché but this is very much nearly everything that Blake Hahn has dreamed about over a lifetime spent coming to the Tulsa Expo Center.

The grandson of event founder Emmett Hahn has made the Championship Saturday main event five times over the past decade with a best finish of eighth in 2020 but had yet to win a preliminary night.

As it turns out, winning one in epic fashion, and then celebrating in front of a packed house of friends and family was everything he possibly imagined.

“So, this means the world to me,” Hahn said as his grandfather stepped into the media center and took a seat next to the podium. “To have him here and to see it with my friends and family means the world.

“I am literally living a dream come true right now. I am just so thankful to be here.”

The win was epic because Hahn surgically drove from eighth to the lead in 25 laps, making the decisive moves in traffic and driving away from Hank Davis. By the way, the same Davis who now has three lock-ins over the past four years.

In other words, this was a statement victory in every sense of the concept and Davis himself was thrilled to lock in together with Hahn.  

“I have raced a lot with Blake over the years and never had a run-in with the guy so I can appreciate him getting a win, you know what I mean,” Davis said. “It’s a good position to be here pissed off to finish second.”

Again, this night was about Hahn, who celebrated in Turns 3 and 4 like he had won a Golden Driller and soaked up the adoration during his cage stand. Again, this is a moment he wanted to preserve in his memories for as long as he can hold them.

“To climb out, and look at the lights and the fans in the stands, you can’t describe it, truthfully,” Hahn said. “There’s nothing like it and if you haven’t lived it, you can’t explain it.”

For much of this week, Emmett Hahn is the affable showman promoter of the event but on Tuesday all of that was pushed aside to be the 84-year-old race winning team owner and grandfather.

“I've always felt like and Blake's a good smooth driver,” said Emmett. “Anytime we can come in on four wheels and roll it in the trailer, we're a winner. Now, he done an outstanding job tonight.

“I was watching him and uh what was great was that he got faster as the race went along. I think I know how much a win in this place means. I know I do. Blake has been good here before too but to win a prelim, that’s a good feeling.”

The 30-year-old has scaled his racing back this past year, making this the time he breaks through all the more impressive, going up against racers with dozens of starts across 2025.

Of course, it also came against a 14-year-old making just his third overall start in a Midget in Jett Barnes. As Davis put it, he will spend the rest of the week checking on the kid at the local establishments where his peers are likely to be hanging out.

“Yeah, I would say it's probably pretty obvious that Jett's going to go to Chuck-E-Cheese,” Davis said to laughter in the room. “No, I might join, actually.”

It’s actually incredible to think that Barnes, driving a Swindell Speedlab sister car to the one Logan Seavey has taken to two wins here, has podiumed so quickly in this building. It took a decade for Hahn to do it.

As emotional as Hahn was winning, it’s fair to wonder if Barnes even recognized the impact of what he accomplished.

“I don’t think it has sunk in yet,” Barnes said. “To do it at 14 is really cool and I never thought I could do this that early but it happened, so …”

He said it in only a way that a bewildered 14-year-old could.

So now, the story will transition towards how Hahn and Davis can go from racing each other for a prelim to racing each other for the main event on Saturday night.

“Drive like something scary is chasing me,” Davis said.

And Hahn?

"Truthfully, we got to hit it pretty hard with the pole shuffle," Hahn said. "We have a little bit of speed to gain. The car is really stable right now. That's a good thing. A lot of the guys with speed don't have the stability we have.

"I would be thrilled with a top-5. Hopefully we have good speed in that thing and with 55 laps, I'm excited, a lot of things can happen and I feel like we can make some noise."

Notable storylines

Zach Daum started on the pole of the feature and faded to fourth at the end.

Gavan Boschele, driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, went from P24 to P8 in the feature, needing to drive his way forward from a B-Main after a messy qualifier that cost him some points.  

JJ Yeley started on the outside pole but had a tire bleeder issue and felt a little used up by younger drivers in the closing laps. 

Jonathan Beason, fresh off a victory in the Tulsa Shootout in a Micro Sprint, flipped on the first lap of his heat and then raced from a D-Main to 12th in the A-Main, one of the most spirited preliminary drives of event history.

It means he will start Saturday from a C-Main rather than first thing in the morning, which it started to look like was possible.

Longtime contender, and New Zealand superstar Michael Pickens, would have had to start first thing in the morning on Saturday due to his awful day but instead has elected to return home to chase the Kiwi Speed Car national championship.

Kaylee Bryson will also have to start racing early on Saturday due to a dreadful series of misfortunes.

Feature results

Blake Hahn Hank Davis Jett Barnes Zach Daum Landon Brooks Corbin Rueschenberg Kaidon Brown Gavan Boschele Kyle Jones J.J. Yeley Ryan Timms Jonathan Beason Zach Wigal Ty Gibbs Chase Randall Gunnar Setser Ricky Thornton Jr. Max Adams Parker Price Miller Jordan Kinser Justin Zimmerman Brandon Carr Adam Trimble Sheldon Creed

 

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