This message was edited on
August 28, 2011 at
06:47:27 PM by KOP
McClelland
Cashes In On Fourth Victory Of The Season At Thunderbird Speedway
John Lemon
OCRS Public Relations
Muskogee Oklahoma
(August 27, 2011)- A full field of 29 sprint cars invaded Muskogee’s
Thunderbird Speedway tonight and it was Tulsa’s Sean McClelland capturing his
fourth Oil Capital Racing Series main event victory of the season on a pleasant
night and in doing so, he stretched his point lead for the 2011 championship
from seven points to 58 markers (1153-1095) over Moore Oklahoma’s Whit “The
Gasman” Gastineau.
McClelland and Gastineau has been competitive adversaries since the
first race of the season back in April and tonight shaped up for an old
fashioned street fight as each would start the 25-lap affair on the front row.
McClelland would make the first move as he out dragged pole sitter Gastineau on
Thunderbird’s long straightaway going into turn one. Trouble would find the
field early when Bristow’s Tim Kent broke into a spin on lap two between turns
three and four. Several cars were involved by either spinning or stopping to
avoid contact. Fred Mattox, Andrew Deal, Casey Wills and Kevin Cummings all
spun while Danny Smith and Beau Gastineau were collected victims. Smith would
be towed off the track and would not restart. Before the field could go back to
green, Miss Kacee Frazier would pull of the track with problems however she would rejoin the field before going back to green.
On
the restart, three time defending OCRS champion Jamie Passmore would
immediately develop mechanical woes and he would pull out of the race. The
Gasman would power his Goodyear / Shell Rapid Lube / Exterior Specialties/ Eagle machine past McClelland’s
Maxwell Oil / Finishline Machining / Lawton Auto Parts / XXX chassis to take
the point. Four laps later, Gastineau would hit the concrete wall with his
right front which caused his tire to loose pressure. His car became difficult
to control and McClelland took back the lead going into turn one on lap
eight.Stillwell’s Rafe Essary,
Tulsa’s Johnny “Hotrod” Kent, Moore’s Frank Dittman and Bristow’s Tim Kent
would all speed by the ailing Gasman as they chased after McClelland. Gastineau
held on for a couple of more laps with the right front constantly dipping
sharpward towards the track surface. He had hopes that he could catch a yellow
and make repairs, but the field stayed green and he eventually had to pull out
loosing valuable championship points to McClelland.
With
ten laps to go, McClelland continued to set the pace with Essary trying to
close the gap in lapped traffic. Tim Kent would pressure Dittman for the fourth
spot and he would take that position on lap eighteen with a pass in turn two.
Owasso’s Matt Sherrell, who started outside the sixth row, was next in line to
challenge Dittman and he took the spot on lap twenty. McClelland took the win
five laps later with Essary collecting his best 2011 finish in second in his
XXX chassis. Johnny Kent held the show position in his Kent Construction
sponsored mount with Tim Kent in another Kent Construction machine fourth and
Sherrell, in the Don and Pat Carrens Sherrell Paint & Body special,
rounding out the top five. Frank Dittman, rookie Alex Sewell, Shayla “The
Princess” Waddell, Andrew Deal and 2011 OCRS rookie of the year front-runner
Josh Toho completed the top ten. Both Kent’s, Dittman and Sewell had their best
2011 OCRS finishes also.
Danny
Smith was victorious in the 12-lap B Feature with Deal, Kevin Guinn and Kevin
Cummings all earning A Feature transfer positions. Gastineau, Tim Kent,
McClelland and Fred Mattox took wins in the four heat races. Gastineau won the
Pole Dash race.
The
next event for the OCRS warriors will be next Saturday night at the ultra fast
Salina Highbanks Speedway during the Labor Day holiday weekend.
Post race
quotes:
McClelland: “I
was just riding and I saw him (Gastineau) just try to knock the wall down. I
don’t know what he was thinking or doing, he just ran into the wall. I wasn’t
putting any pressure on him and we weren’t beside a lapped car. I knew he was
pretty much done because he pretty much turned it over. I went on by and just
cruised a little bit. I just made sure I didn’t have any problems with lapped
traffic. There was some rubber on the track in turns three and four and I
didn’t want to get out of it. If I came up on a lapped car there, I would just
follow them through then pass with plenty of room elsewhere. In one and two, I
just moved around a little bit looking for the best lines to run.”
Essary: “Early
on we were fast enough for about the first three laps and then the next seven we
weren’t fast enough to keep with them at all and then my car was getting better
at the end. I would have liked to have had a shot at Sean. I think we were
about even but then again, he only uses what he has in the tank when he needs
to. My best is their (McClelland’s and Gastineau’s) cruise speed right now. I
was really good when the track was cleaned off but when the dust got kicked
onto the track (from cars running extra low), Sean was better than we were.”
J Kent: “The
car was good. We were able to chase Rafe down a little bit when we got into
some lapped traffic then I would get held up a little bit. We had a solid top
five car all night long. About 8-10 laps into the feature, the car really
started coming to us and I knew we had a good car then. This fresh engine we
have in it is helping out a lot. I’m really looking forward to the next race
now.”
T Kent: “I
about made a big boo-boo and spun out in front of the field (on lap two) and
just got lucky that somebody bumped me (to keep Kent from stalling) and it
turned out to be a pretty good night. We won the heat race then tried some
stuff in the dash that didn’t work and then came back and made a pretty good
run in the feature so that made for a good night. We finally got back our good
motor. Last time out it was a little lean and it got a bit hot and we had to
pull in (from the A Feature). It ran about 230 degrees tonight and seemed to do
just fine.” I was hoping for some more lapped cars (to gain ground on the front
runners) because I knew the laps were winding down. At that time, you just have
to settle in and run your own race and not make a mistake.”
Thunderbird
Speedway
Race date: August 27, 2011 - Event 14
Total
cars: 29
HEAT 1: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2,
Johnny Kent. 3, Layne Himebaugh. 4, Beau Gastineau. 5, Colton Brewer. 6, Brian
Bishop. 7, Will Scribner. 8, Andrew Deal.
HEAT 2: 1, Tim Kent. 2, Rafe
Essary. 3, Shayla Waddell. 4, Kacee Frazier. 5, Len Larkin. 6, Rob Hooper. 7,
Dean Drake Jr.
HEAT 3: 1, Sean McClelland. 2,
Frank Dittman. 3, Josh Toho. 4, Jamie Passmore. 5, Danny Smith. 6, Kyle Clark.
DNS: Joe Wood Jr.
HEAT 4: 1, Fred Mattox. 2, Casey
Wills. 3, Matt Sherrell. 4, Alex Sewell. 5, Kevin Guinn. 6, Kevin Cummings. 7,
Kevin Risley.
POLE DASH: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2,
Sean McClelland. 3, Rafe Essary. 4, Johnny Kent. 5, Fred Mattox. 6, Tim Kent.
B FEATURE: 1, Danny Smith. 2,
Andrew Deal. 3, Kevin Guinn. 4, Kevin Cummings. 5, Brian Bishop. 6, Kevin
Risley. 7, Will Scribner. 8, Colton Brewer. 9, Kyle Clark. 10, Len Larkin. 11,
Dean Drake Jr. DNS: Joe Wood Jr., Rob Hooper.
A FEATURE: 1, Sean McClelland. 2, Rafe Essary. 3, Johnny Kent. 4, Tim Kent.
5, Matt Sherrell. 6, Frank Dittman. 7, Alex Sewell. 8, Shayla Waddell. 9,
Andrew Deal. 10, Josh Toho. 11, Kevin Guinn. 12, Casey Wills. 13, Layne
Himebaugh. 14, Fred Mattox. 15, Beau Gastineau. 16, Kacee Frazier. 17, Kevin
Cummings. 18, Whit Gastineau. 19, Jamie Passmore. 20, Danny Smith.
http://WWW.OCRSRACING.COM
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