This message was edited on
August 30, 2011 at
11:54:09 AM by KOP
This Labor Day Weekend
OCRS Sprint Cars Return To The
Mammoth Highbanks At Salina!
John Lemon
OCRS Public Relations
Tulsa Oklahoma
(August 30, 2011)- One hundred and twenty nine years ago, the first
observance of the Labor Day holiday was recognized. Labor Day is all about
giving recognition to the hard working individuals that put their very heart
and soul into their craft. In the circles of sprint car racing, one would be
hard pressed to find a harder working group of racing teams as that of the Oil
Capital Racing Series. Likewise, the promoters of the Salina Highbanks Speedway
in Salina Oklahoma, a track that many call“Eldora Jr.”, are also a hard core of working proprietors
that have revived “Eldora Jr.” into one of the regions finest auto racing
facilities. Of the two sprint car events held at the “Highbanks” this season,
Salina has produced some of their best crowds as race fans flock to the
Highbanks in numbers to witness racing action on a very unique track that
produces some of the fastest and closest action the region can muster.
Among
the stars of the OCRS sprint series that will compete for Labor Day victory
laurels is Whit “The Gasman” Gastineau who was victorious at the Highbanks on
June 18th. That win is one of six the Gasman has amassed during the
2011 season. Local race fans will get to see a couple of their favorite drivers
from the area as well. Three time defending OCRS champion Jamie Passmore and
his brother Glen are very popular with the racing community in the Salina /
Pryor area and they will have their G.A.P. Roofing mounts ready for the
challenges ahead.
With
three podium finishes in the last six events, Rafe Essary is hitting his stride
and is looking for his first win of the season and has the Highbanks marked as
a track where he would like to accomplish that feat. It has been five years
(2006) since OCRS held a Labor Day racing event at the Highbanks and Essary
walked away with the winning loot then. With his second place run in last weeks
outing at Thunderbird Speedway, Essary has closed to within 23 points of the
Gasman for second place in the chase for the 2011 OCRS championship. Tulsa’s
Sean McClelland has a hold of that precious top spot with his fourth win of the
year last week and stretched his point lead to 58 points when Gastineau had
problems last Saturday. In his last four outings, McClelland has two wins, a
second and a third. With a recordyear end points fund available to the OCRS teams due to the generous
participation of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co; the battles for both the
overall championship and other top level positions are becoming more heated by
the week.
OCRS
bolsters a solid crop of rookies that are making an impact in 2011 and are
coming off one of their best weekends to date. In only his fourth night in a
sprint car, Alex Sewell, a veteran of micro sprint racing, earned a seventh
place finish in a field of twenty starters in the Kenneth Walker black widow
duce. Josh Toho, another micro sprint ringer, leads the 2011 OCRS ‘Rookie of the
Year’ honors and finished in the top ten last Saturday and Layne Himebaugh, yet
another micro sprint vet driving for Kevin and Deana Risley, qualified for his
first OCRS main event in only his second attempt and finished a respectable 13th.In addition, while not rookies by any
means, there are the Kent boys (Johnny and Tim) who also had their best 2011
runs with a third and a fourth respectively. In all, OCRS will bring a
contingent of highly competitive racing teams to the Highbanks for a night of
extremely turbulent racing action in what will be the final OCRS sprint car
stop this year. For this occasion, this is absolutely a DO NOT MISS
event!
What: Oil
Capital Racing Series sprint cars
Where: Salina
Highbanks Speedway / Salina Oklahoma
When: Saturday
September 3, 2011 / Gates open at 4pm / Racing begins at 7pm
The track is easy to locate as it sits directly on Highway
20 between Pryor and Salina with a lakeside view of Hudson Lake in the
background.
Track Phone: (918) 434-RACE (7223)
Track website: www.salinahighbanksspeedway.com
After the races, race fans are welcome to the Finish Line
Bar and Grill free of charge located in the VIP suite section on the upper
level. VIP admission is available for the bar and grill suites during the races
for a fee. Contact the track for additional information.
Additional info on the OCRS series can be viewed at: www.ocrsracing.com
Listen carefully…………..
~~~~ Can You Hear The Thunder? ~~~~
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