Gastineau
Receives A Gift To Win Number Five
John Lemon
OCRS Public Relations
Ada, Oklahoma (July 9th 2011) - Sometimes you are good,
sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you just need to pray. During the Oil Capital Racing Series sprint
car feature event on this sultry, hot summer night; Whit “The Gasman” Gastineau
had all three apply at the Oklahoma Sports Park in Ada, Oklahoma. The Gasman lead from the outset of the
25 lap event and seemingly had the race in hand until the waning laps when he
was caught by Pauls Valley native Gary Owens. On the 24th and final
lap, as the pair rocketed into turn one, Gastineau made his first and only
mistake of the race when he missed his mark going into turn one and slid up the
track allowing Owens to take full advantage and pass The Gasman in a drag race
to the finish line.
As the duo swept through turns three, 2011 OCRS rookie
of the year contender Josh Toho blew a water hose in turn four and spun off the
track leaving a trail of water in the racing grove. Along came Owens in the
Fields Pecan Pies / Glen Owens Sand and Gravel sprinter who just needed to
negotiate the final turn and sprint to the line for his first career OCRS main
event win. However, Owens, not
realizing Toho spewed water onto the track, ran through the moisture and spun
off the high side of turn number four alongside the disabled mount of
Toho. The Gasman, who had just
realized what had taken place, also hit the slick spot but in so doing, cracked
the throttle to reduce tire spin and managed to get through the final corner
and reached the finish line to capture his fifth win of the 2011 OCRS season in
his Goodyear Tire / Shell Rapid Lube / Eagle machine.
“I saw him (Owens) about a lap before and knew someone
was on me but I didn’t know who it was” explained Gastineau. “I told myself to
stick to the bottom and you will be fine. They aren’t going to get around you
on the top. I pushed up just a hair and he (Owens) got underneath me. Once he
got by me, I was right behind him and then we went down to number four and a
car had busted some water. I saw he had gotten loose (in the water) and by that
time I had gotten loose. He ended up getting spun and we kept it straight and
got the win,” said the elated victor.
Owens knew he was so close to his first OCRS win. “We
were going into three coming around to take the checkered and I guess the 41
car (Toho) blew a radiator hose and I never seen anything and the next thing I
knew, I was turned around and I was backing into the wall. Backwards up the
track was all I seen.” When asked about what his thoughts were when he took the
lead from Gastineau, Owens responded: “Just hang on and we can win one of these
OCRS features finally. “ It was wasn’t to be this night for the talented racer.
Getting started for the feature was an adventure in
its self. The initial start was called back due to the night’s pole dash winner
and thus pole starter, Dean Drake Jr jumping early. On the second start attempt, Gastineau shot into the lead
entering into turn one with Drake and Andrew Deal following. Before the first lap could be completed,
a yellow flag was displayed for a spin in turn number three by Travis
“Hollywood” Jenkins. The third
attempt to start the feature saw the same trio going into turn one in the same
order with Mike Goodman and Danny Jennings trailing. Lap one would eventually be completed but on the second lap,
the yellow would fly once again for the stalled car of Kerry McAlister in turn
three. The race would go back to
green only to go immediate red when second time OCRS and sprint car starter,
Alex Sewell, would collect the front stretch wall and execute a slow roll over.
Sewell was okay but otherwise disappointed for his night ending so early.
Back to green, Gastineau would immediately show his
strength as he began to put distance between himself and runner up Drake. The Gasman would enter traffic at the
beginning of lap 11 which saw Deal drift high in turns one and two thus
allowing Goodman and Owens to fly by. Further back in the field, Rafe Essary
was quietly picking off cars a few at a time from his 16th starting
position. Lap 16 would bring out
another yellow when Mike Goodman spun to a stop in turn number four with Owens
climbing the top berm of the same corner almost stalling to a stop
himself. Goodman would go pitside
and would not return for the rest of the affair. Gastineau would pace the field for the restart with the lapped
car of Terry Easum set between himself and Drake. On the next lap, Sean McClelland, who at this point was
struggling to catch the front runners, had seemed to be having an overheating
problem and pulled in. It was
during this point that Deal and Danny Jennings were putting on a challenge as
to who would take the fourth spot. A couple of laps later, Jennings and Tim
Kent would work by Deal whose machine began to show signs of distress. Soon after, Deal’s mount would give way
and he would pull in unable to finish.
Down to the final five laps, Owens was putting
pressure on the Gasman and there was a large gap back to Drake and Jennings and
then another gap to Tim Kent then “Hotrod” Kent and the closing Essary. Then
came the white flag affair when Gastineau had felt the race has slipped away
and Owens had felt he was about to embark on that long awaited initial OCRS
victory. After Gastineau took
checkers, last weeks feature winner, Drake, brought his sprinter home second in
the Oil Express / Liquid Designz / Maxim with Jennings in the Goodyear special
and “Hotrod” Kent and Essary
completing the top five. Sixth
went to Matt Sherrell who was piloting the Danny Smith owned Same Day Auto
Repair special as his regular ride was unavailable for this particular
event. Seventh went to Jamie
Passmore with Tim Kent eight. Kyle
Clark took the ninth position and was the last car running at the
checkers. Owens, who sat idle in
turn four as the field completed their run, rounded out the top ten.
Heat race winners for the 27-car field went to
Goodman, Owens and Drake Jr. Essary was victorious in the 12 lap B Feature with
“Hollywood” Jenkins, McClelland and Joe Wood Jr. Wood, who was driving the Jeff
Leep Jr number 99 XXX sprinter on this night, took the fourth and final
transfer into the main event.
The next event for the
OCRS traveling warriors will be next Friday night at the Outlaw Motor Speedway
just south of Muskogee Oklahoma.
Oklahoma
Sports Park
Race date: July 9, 2011 - Event 10
27 Cars
HEAT
1: 1, Mike Goodman. 2, Danny Jennings. 3, Lee
Jennings. 4, Tim Kent. 5, Matt Sherrell. 6, Sean McClelland. 7, Casey Wills. 8,
Terry Easum. 9, Kevin Cummings.
HEAT
2: 1, Gary Owens. 2, Andrew Deal. 3, Alex
Sewell. 4, Johnny Kent. 5, Josh Toho. 6, Jamie Passmore. 7, Shayla Waddell. 8,
Joe Wood Jr. 9, Colton Brewer.
HEAT
3: 1, Dean Drake Jr. 2, Whit Gastineau. 3,
Brandon Jennings. 4, Kyle Clark. 5, Travis Jenkins. 6, Rafe Essary. 7, Kerry
McAlister. 8, Darien Roberts. 9, Beau Gastineau.
DASH:
1, Dean Drake Jr. 2, Whit Gastineau. 3, Mike Goodman. 4, Andrew
Deal. 5, Gary Owens. 6, Danny Jennings.
B
FEATURE: 1, Rafe Essary. 2, Travis Jenkins. 3, Sean
McClelland. 4, Joe Wood Jr. 5, Terry Easum. 6, Beau Gastineau. 7, Shayla
Waddell. 8, Darien Roberts. 9, Casey Wills. 10, Kevin Cummings. 11, Colton
Brewer. 12, Lee Jennings.
A
FEATURE: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Dean Drake Jr. 3, Danny
Jennings. 4, Johnny Kent. 5, Rafe Essary. 6, Matt Sherrell. 7, Jamie Passmore.
8, Tim Kent. 9, Kyle Clark. 10, Gary Owens. 11, Josh Toho. 12, Andrew Deal. 13,
Terry Easum. 14, Sean McClelland. 15, Mike Goodman. 16, Travis Jenkins. 17, Brandon
Jennings. 18, Kerry McAlister. 19, Joe Wood Jr. 20, Alex Sewell.
www.ocrsracing.com
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