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Saturday night at Thunderbird Speedway started out with an emotional tribute for
the tenth anniversary of 9/11. After a prayer and moment of silence, the
national anthem was played while nearly everyone in the pit area made a parade
lap. The track was lined with race cars, four wheelers, personal vehicles, and
track emergency vehicles in honor of all the victims. The crowd stood on thier
feet and waved and cheered has the line of vehicles made its way down the front
straight away. Once racing got under way the excited crowd was treated to
another great night of racing. The street stock feature was full of excitement
with crashes and side by side racing. On lap two Don Johnson and Keith Heaslet
made contact on the front staight away that sent both cars spinning. Billy
Rankin spun trying to miss the wreck and slammed hard into a barrier tire on the
outside of the track. All drivers were uninjured and once racing resumed Steve
Freeman grabbed the lead and never looked back. Heaslet was able to challenge
for the lead for several laps before retiring with mechanical issues. Freeman
would cruise to his first victory of the season with Dan Parks, Terry Cook, Don
Johnson, and Kyle Davis rounding out the top five. Sixteen 360 modifieds hit the
track for thier A feature. In the early going Dalton Ragsdale took the lead while Chris Nooner worked his way
to second and began a charge at the leader. The two swapped the lead several
times running side by side on the track for five laps. Ragsdale then suffered a
broken axle bringing out a caution. Shannon Reheard and Kreg Dobson had worked
thier way to second and third and mounted a challenge on Nooner after the
restart. The three battled for the remainder of the race with Reheard taking the
win. Dobson finished second, Nonner third, Bret Sexton fourth, and Greg Williams
fifth. Kyle Slader claimed another sportmod feature followed by Craig Ridgway,
Dillon Rupe, Mike Owens, and Steve Stephens. Dustin Boston won the pure stock feature. The Speedway will be
taking this Saturday off to make preparations for The Topless Thunderfest Late
Model Shootout that takes place September 22-24th. "This is a huge show that
will bringing thousands of people to Muskogee and we want to make sure everything at our
facility it ready" stated promoter Stanley Slader.
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