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Gastineau Sweeps Weekend Doubleheader

Out Sprints Foes At Thunderbird Sunday Night

John Lemon

OCRS Public Relations

Muskogee Oklahoma (September 9, 2012)- Just as the late summer weeks have cooled, Whit “Gasman” Gastineau has become hot, very hot. After taking a brilliant win in a wild shootout with Oil Capital Racing Series point’s leader Jamie Passmore on Saturday night at the Tri-State Speedway, Gastineau completed the bookend by winning at the Thunderbird Speedway on Sunday night. The successful weekend vaulted the star driver from Moore Oklahoma into third place in the 2012 point standings. Drumright’s Fred Mattox was holding that spot and now sits in the fourth position. Sapulpa’s Danny Smith is in the second spot on the charts.

Gastineau wins both weekend events and has four for the year / Mike Spivey Photo

Gastineau also won the ‘Pole Dash’ for the second straight night thus allowing him to start in the preferred position with former OCRS champion Mike Goodman starting on Gastineau’s outside. Once the green waved from flagman JD Etter’s perch, the drag race was on for the two and Gastineau won the first “race within a race” into turn one in his DW’s Video / Shell Rapid Lube / Exterior Specialties / Eagle with Larry Allen Racing engines power.Goodman, knowing that the low line was the optimum place to be, tucked in on Gastineau’s rear bumper and looked to find a way past to collect his first feature win since almost two years to the day (9/10/10) at the then named Outlaw Motor Speedway (now South 69 Speedway). It never happened.

Goodman would keep the likewise popular driver within constant reach in his Premier Homes / HSC Construction / Goodman & Associates / F5 chassis but the opportunity never opened up to make a move. “We made some runs at him,” said Goodman. “But on a track like that (dry conditions) you have to hope he makes a mistake, but he’s smooth enough and doesn’t make many mistakes. We tried to get up there and we did put some pressure on him but he drove a clean race. The more I tried to make up ground; I pushed the car a little hard (with two laps to go) and lost some ground on him. It was a fine edge you had to run there. You could run it too hard there and get out of the groove, which I did that time. Overall, I think we had a better car, we just weren’t in the right spot.”

“You just had to keep your line tonight,” said Gastineau. “The bottom was where you just had to be and I wasn’t getting off of it. The car has been really good this weekend and it feels great to win these two races this weekend.” When asked about catching brother Beau with just a couple of laps to go and Goodman closing in; “I wasn’t any more carful with him than anyone else. The main thing was to make sure we didn’t open up the bottom for anyone to get by. I just picked my spot to pass him and it worked out.”

Mike Peters (left) with ling time racing supporter Ernie Messmer / OCRS Photo

The feature would go yellow on the second lap when Shayla Waddell and Rafe Essary were involved in a skirmish in turn three resulting both cars going to the pits via the hook. After a few more laps were in the books, the yellow flew again when Mattox spun to a stop on the front straight with front suspension damage. Only one more lap would be scored when Johnny “Hotrod” Kent would clip an infield tire marker in turn four but it would be the front-straight where his suspension would decide to fail from the contact and he spun to a stop just feet from where Mattox had just stopped.

The feature would be all green the rest of the way with Gastineau, Goodman and Robert Sellers staying within a half second of each other for the next several laps. As the race got to within 8 laps to go, Sellers, who did not start on fresh new tires, began to lose distance to Gastineau and Goodman but his Waurika Truck and Tire / Checkered Flag Trucking / Brand Racing Engines / Eagle chassis sprinter held its own as he would hold third place convincingly. “ We didn’t have many Goodyear right rear tires so we had to use what we had so we put on a used tire and we just had to take it easy and try and finish the race,” explained Sellers. Wichita Kansas legend Mike Peters would pass Jamie Passmore late for the fourth spot. Passmore would not only finish fifth, he would also start hammering the nails in the coffin on the 2012 Goodyear Tire and Rubber/ OCRS championship as he has all but locked up a fourth series title.

The rest of the top ten in order were: Danny Smith, Alex Sewell, Matt Sherrell, Tim Kent and Mustang’s Kerry McAlister. Sherrell would improve his starting position 10 positions thus earning the AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories ‘Hard Charger’ award. Peters won the M&W Aluminum heat, Smith took the Bob Hurley Auto Family heat, Passmore reeled in the Drive Shafts inc. heat and Robert Sellers won the Car & Fleet Parts heat race. Mattox was victorious in the Wesmar Racing Engines B Feature with Sherrell, Kyle Clark and Brian McClelland all transferring into the main event.

On deck is the 6^th Annual “Oklahoma State Championship” sponsored by long time auto racing supporters, Carter-Maxwell of Bethany Oklahoma. Gary Owens is the defending OSC and is expected to defend his title. Oklahoma State Park in Ada is the venue with the race taking place next Saturday night (9/15) and the feature will pay $2,000 to win with a possible $4,000 take should a driver take the Oil Medics “Back Row Challenge” and win from the rear. Runner-up will bank $1,500 with a $1,000 payout for third. The A Feature will pay $350 to start.

Thunderbird Speedway
Race date:September 9, 2012 – Event 18

26 Cars

M&W Aluminum Heat:

1, Mike Peters (1). 2, Kerry McAlister (2). 3, Tim Kent (6). 4, Shayla Waddell (4).

5, Kyle Clark (5). 6, Len Larkin (4). 7, Shane Sellers (7).

Bob Hurley Auto Family Heat:

1, Danny Smith (3). 2, Johnny "Hotrod" Kent (1). 3, Alex Sewell (6). 4, Harli White (2). 5, Beau Gastineau (7). 6, Kade Morton (4). 7, Michael Bookout (5).

Drive Shafts Inc. Heat:

1, Jamie Passmore (1). 2, Mike Goodman (4). 3, Sean McClelland (6). 4, Rafe Essary (2). 5, Matt Sherrell (5). 6, Kenneth Walker (3).

Car & Fleet Parts Heat:

1, Robert Sellers (1). 2, Whit Gastineau (3). 3, Casey Wills (2). 4, Fred Mattox (4). 5, Brian McClelland (5). 6, Layne Himebaugh (6).

Pole Dash

1, Whit Gastineau (1). 2, Mike Goodman (2). 3, Robert Sellers (3). 4, Mike Peters (5). 5, Jamie Passmore (4). 6, Danny Smith (6)

Wesmar Racing Engines B Feature

1, Fred Mattox (1). 2, Matt Sherrell (3). 3, Kyle Clark (2). 4, Brian McClelland (4). / 5, Layne Himebaugh (6). 6, Michael Bookout 97). 7, Kade Morton (5). 8, Shane Sellers. (DNS). 9, Len Larkin. (DNS). 10, Kenneth Walker. (DNS).

OCRS A FEATURE

1, Whit Gastineau (1). 2, Mike Goodman (2). 3, Robert Sellers (3). 4, Mike Peters (4). 5, Jamie Passmore (5). 6, Danny Smith (6). 7, Alex Sewell (8). 8, Matt Sherrell (18). 9, Tim Kent (7). 10, Kerry McAlister (10). 11, Harli White (15). 12, Kyle Clark (19). 13, Casey Wills (12). 14, Brian McClelland (20). 15, Beau Gastineau (13).

DNF: 16, Johnny "Hotrod" Kent (11) 17, Sean McClelland (9) 18, Fred Mattox (17). 19, Shayla Waddell (14). 20, Rafe Essary (16)

AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Hard Charger: Matt Sherrell +10

Dyno Services of Oklahoma Hard Luck Recipient: Len Larkin

www.ocrsracing.com

Rafe Essary (right) & Crew Chief Patrick Tyree / OCRS Photo