RAPID CITY - Saturday night's Mini-Sprint feature win at Heartland Speedway offered some much-needed reaffirmation for Joe Gion, of Rapid City.

The 19-year-old racer moved up to the larger, more powerful Badlands Mini-Sprint Association open-wheelers this year, after learning the ropes for a dozen years racing karts with the Dakota Kart Racers.

Gion started on the outside of the front row, found the dry-slick track condition to his liking and passed pole-sitter Tyler Mills, of Rapid City.

He then survived a handful of caution-flag re-starts to hang on for the win in the nightcap of a racing double-header at the fifth-mile oval south of Rapid City.

"I was definitely the car to beat on that track," he said.

Gion had started up front for the opening feature, but retired early when a wire came loose from the electric fuel pump on his No. 00. Jeff Mount, of Rapid City, went on to win that event.

Track conditions changed in Gion's favor for the second race.

"The first feature, the track started taking rubber from the tires and it sealed up. It was kind of like driving on asphalt," Gion said.

"In the second main event, it didn't stay rubbered up. It went back to dry-slick. I prefer dry-slick over a hard, rubbered-up track any day," he said.

Gion said the main differences between karts and mini-sprints is in driver visibility, which is much better in a kart, and the suspension, all but non-existent on a kart.

"In a kart, you have a lot more peripheral vision. You can see all around you. With the mini-sprint, you've got to know where you're at, and it's an open wheel car, so you've got to be careful not to touch wheels with anybody," he said.

"You also have a suspension where the car will actually float, instead of feeling every bump in a go-cart," he said.

Gion won three karting championships and two Kathy Morris Memorial titles at Heartland.

Gion was also one of three Rapid City qualifiers for what turned out to be the final year of the Red Bull Drivers Search in 2005, a program to develop American driver talent for the Formula 1 World Driving Championship.

Gion, Cody Koenen and Ashlee Sieveke of Black Hawk competed in the first round of the drivers search runoffs at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

He plans to stay with the mini-sprints for awhile.

"It was really a good feeling to get that first win," Gion said. "It's actually been a while since I've won a main event in the karts so this felt really good,"

The win validated his decision to try something new for this season.

"It helps change your attitude when you're out there and (breaking down) every race, to actually finishing one and winning," Gion said. "It makes it feel worthwhile to be out there and not spinning your wheels for nothing."