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Gasman thunders to a sweep at Salina Highbanks
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Storyby John Lemon - Posted June 19, 2011
Salina Oklahoma (June 18, 2011)- With storms packed solid with bolts of lightning hovering the skies of the Salina Highbanks Speedway Saturday night, Moore Oklahoma's Whit "GASMAN" Gastineau provided the thunder and promptly swept the field in the return to the highbanks by the Oil Capital Racing Series sprint cars. The Gasman, wheeling the Shell Rapid Lube / Goodyear / Exterior Specialties / Eagle chassis won his fourth OCRS main event of the season and continues to hold down the top spot in the chase for the 2011 "Harold Leep Championship Trophy".
Gastineau, who won the evenings second heat race and the "pole dash" earlier in the program to earn the right to start the feature race on the front row, started the affair in second place behind Tulsa's Mike Goodman who was piloting the Premier Homes / HSC Construction / Goodman and Associates / F-5 Twister sprinter. Goodman took command after two previous attempts to get the feature started were called back. One attempt was for Gastineau starting to early and the other was for Tim Kent who had stalled in turns three and four. Sean McClelland, winner of the previous two OCRS main events, placed his XXX / Maxwell Oil / Finish Line Machining car right behind the front duo from his outside front row starting position. The race would be halted after a few laps when Dean Drake Jr. slowed to a stop in turn four in the Oil Express/ Alliance Automotive #77.
Matt Sherrell moved his Don / Pat Carrens owned Sherrell Paint & Body #35 J&J around defending OCRS champions Jamie Passmore's G.A.P. Roofing / Schnee 4J after the restart and then took McClelland's third spot at the flagstand. Passmore would sweep by McClelland a lap later in turn three. At this point in the action, Goodman was barley clinging to his lead over the Gasman as they separated themselves from Sherrell and company by a few car lengths. Goodman began to have air leak from his right rear Goodyear tire from a faulty bleeder valve and Gastineau took advantage. After sizing Goodman up for a couple of laps, Gastineau made his move on the south end of the speedway and took the point from Goodman.
A yellow was tossed on lap eleven when Jarrod "J-Rock" Wilson executed a 360 spin in turn two in the Sagebrush Oilfield Services / Timco Automotive / Eagle. J-Rock was able to right the ship and continue, but up came "The Princess", Shayla Waddell, in her Shores-Sentry / Red Rock Distributing / Eagle and spun to a stop to avoid J-Rock. Unfortunately for the recent high school grad, this would regulate her to the tail of the field.
On the ensuing restart, McClelland would race past Sherrell in turn two only to have that move nullified when Waddell would spin again in turn three thus ending her night via the two spin rule. Lap 19 would bring another yellow when the cars of Dean Drake Jr. and Tim Kent would stop in turn two. The restart would result in a red flag as Glen Passmore flipped hard down the front-straight. Passmore would exit the car on his own power and would be checked over in the pits. While sitting still during the stoppage, Goodman's rear tire would loose more air and he would retire before the track went back to green.
With lightning on the horizon and the night growing long, OCRS officials called for a green-white-checker finish for the final restart. Gastineau would hold on for that fourth victory of the year with Sherrell second followed by McClelland, Rafe Essary (who won the last OCRS event at Salina in 2006) and Jamie Passmore in the top five. Sixth through tenth were: Fred Mattox, Josh Toho, Brian McClelland, Kevin Guinn and Terry Easum.
"Krazy Kacee" Frazier won the B Feature after chasing down Travis "Hollywood" Jenkins in the waning laps. Waddell earned a transfer into the A feature with her third place finish after starting in the last row and Glen Passmore snagged the last transfer token.
Driver Quotes:
Gastineau: "I was kind of following him (Goodman) taking my time and I realized the track was taking on some rubber and I knew I needed to get by him sooner than later. We were pretty much running the same line and I was fortunate enough to get along side of him coming out of turn four and we dragged raced down the front straight and I was able to beat him going into one. After I passed him, because of the track being rubbered down, I didn't know (how much of a lead) I had on him. I just didn't know if he was on my back bumper or what. This was my first time to run this track and I think it was the best my car has felt, especially in the dash."
Sherrell: "We seemed to be fairly good at the beginning of the race then we kind of settled in there for awahile. After the red flag I saw the tires were looking pretty good so I knew I could push a little more. I didn't want to settle for second or third so I decided to push a little harder into the corners and I think it was working out. I think he (Gastineau) was trying to protect the bottom and I was able to get a pretty good run on him. A couple more laps and I think we could of raced with him. The track was pretty racy and it was a lot of fun. I'd like to come back here, that's for sure."
McClelland: "Took the green flag, went down in (turns) one and two and Whit decided he was going to drive straight through the car so I hit the breaks and I lost my momentum and we ran third. That's really all I got."
The next event for the OCRS warriors will be next Saturday night at Lanny and Beverly Edwards' Lawton Speedway in Lawton Oklahoma. OCRS began the 2011 campaign at Lawton on April 16th where Choctaw's Kyle Cobb was victorious.
Salina Highbanks Speedway
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Race date: June 18, 2011 - Event 7
HEAT 1: 1, Sean McClelland. 2, Terry Easum. 3, Andrew Deal. 4, Fred Mattox. 5, Travis Jenkins. 6, Kevin Cummings. 7, Rob Hooper.
HEAT 2: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Jerrod Wilson. 3, Brian McClelland. 4, Rafe Essary. 5, Glen Passmore. 6, Kacee Frazier. 7, Taylor Huddleston.
HEAT 3: 1, Jamie Passmore. 2, Mike Goodman. 3, Kevin Guinn. 4, Johnny Kent. 5, Josh Toho. 6, Kyle Clark. 7, Shayla Waddell.
HEAT 4: 1, Matt Sherrell. 2, Tim Kent. 3, Dean Drake Jr. 4, Tyler Johnson. 5, Casey Wills. 6, Beau Gastineau. 7, Brady Demeree.
DASH: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Sean McClelland. 3, Jamie Passmore. 4, Mike Goodman. 5, Tim Kent. 6, Matt Sherrell.
B FEATURE: 1, Kacee Frazier. 2, Travis Jenkins. 3, Shayla Waddell. 4, Glen Passmore. 5, Tyler Johnson. 6, Beau Gastineau. 7, Kevin Cummings. 8, Rob Hooper. 9, Taylor Huddleston. 10, Casey Wills. 11, Kyle Clark. 12, Brady Demeree.
A FEATURE: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Matt Sherrell. 3, Sean McClelland. 4, Rafe Essary. 5, Jamie Passmore. 6, Fred Mattox. 7, Josh Toho. 8, Brian McClelland. 9, Kevin Guinn. 10, Terry Easum. 11, Travis Jenkins. 12, Kacee Frazier. 13, Johnny Kent. 14, Mike Goodman. 15, Jerrod Wilson. 16, Glen Passmore. 17, Dean Drake Jr. 18, Tim Kent. 19, Andrew Deal. 20, Shayla Waddell.
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