From John Rittenoure
Pocola, OK — (June 14, 2014) — Derek Cottrell capped a weekend sweep by first time winners with his victory in Saturday’s OCRS main event at Tri-State Speedway.
After Michael Bookout captured his first career triumph on Friday at Monett, Cottrell continued the trend with his first OCRS feature win.
Cottrell became the seventh different winner in nine OCRS events run to-date. The win was a sign that recent mechanical issues may have come to an end.
“All year long we have been battling carburetor problems and the car has not been running right,” explained Cottrell of issues that have plagued him this season. “Tonight was the first night it really ran good and it worked in our favor.”
Starting second row inside, Cottrell was able to challenge pole sitter and race leader Blake Edwards on lap four. The Fletcher, Oklahoma native was able to gas his sprinter around Edwards a lap later for the lead.
“The inside seemed to start taking rubber and that is where my car worked the best,” Cottrell said. “I just found the line around the bottom first and kind of protected that line. Luck was on our side I guess. The track was great. I love this track. It is nice and smooth. It was good racing.”
Just after Cottrell took over the lead, Brian McClelland found some moisture on the high side and shot past Kade Morton and Edwards for second. The trio ran 1-2-3 until lap nine when a four-car mishap in turn three brought out the yellow flag. Kyle Clark and Alex DeCamp tangled on the high side while Shayla Waddell and Perry Pickard tangled down low. The resulting clean up took long enough that the red flag was waved and the pace laps were halted.
On the restart Cottrell resumed his lead and a lap later Morton re-passed McClelland for second.
“If it was not for that red we had early in the race I don’t know if I would have made the full 25 laps,” Cottrell said. “The right rear was heating up and I think it would have ate it up. It cooled down before it went through a heat cycle and sealed over.”
Morton managed to close in on Cottrell in the final five laps but he could not mount a challenge and Cottrell went the distance. At the finish line McClelland pulled alongside of Morton for a photo finish, however Morton was awarded the runner-up finish. Danny Smith and Andrew Deal rounded out the top five.
Cottrell expects to make more OCRS events, including next Friday’s non-wing show at West Siloam Speedway now that his sprinter seems to be running better. In fact he had planned to run Friday at Monett until a family activity changed his plans.
“We want to mainly run with OCRS,” Cottrell said. “We would have been at Monett if it was not for a T-ball tournament. We wrapped up the tournament and my sons team finished second. We were going to try and run Monett but they made it to the finals.”
While Cottrell was racing toward his first win Smith and Deal were having a race of their own. Smith dropped the points lead to Deal on Friday after blowing an engine and the two were racing for the top spot. Smith climbed into fourth and Deal finished right behind in fifth. The result was Smith moving back into the points lead by one point over Deal.
OCRS Race Results
Tri-State Speedway
Saturday, June 14, 2014
20 Cars
(Pos-Car-Driver-Start)
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Heat
1, 15D-Andrew Deal[2]. 2, 17E-Blake Edwards[1]. 3, 4C-Kyle Cobb[4]. 4, 9$-Kyle Clark[6]. 5, 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[5]. 6, 007-Michael Bookout[7]. 7, 31-Casey Wills[3].
Bob Hurley Auto Family Heat
1, 84-Alex DeCamp[7]. 2, 9-Derek Cottrell[6]. 3, 23A-Travis Ashwood[4]. 4, 5-Cameron Hagin[2]. 5, 3G-Jeff Garnett[1]. 6, 01-Mike Huard[5]. 7, 30-Joseph Miller[3].
Drive Shafts Inc. Heat
1, 5$-Danny Smith[2]. 2, 8M-Kade Morton[1]. 3, 87F-Brian McClelland[3]. 4, 7M-Chance Morton[5]. 5, 88S-Shayla Waddell[4]. 6, P78-Perry Pickard[6].
OCRS A Feature
1, 9-Derek Cottrell[3]. 2, 8M-Kade Morton[5]. 3, 87F-Brian McClelland[10]. 4, 5$-Danny Smith[11]. 5, 15D-Andrew Deal[12]. 6, 7M-Chance Morton[6]. 7, 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[13]. 8, 31-Casey Wills[19]. 9, 4C-Kyle Cobb[7]. 10, 17E-Blake Edwards[1]. 11, 23A-Travis Ashwood[4]. 12, 007-Michael Bookout[16]. 13, 5-Cameron Hagin[2]. 14, 01-Mike Huard[17]. 15, 88S-Shayla Waddell[15]. 16, 3G-Jeff Garnett[14]. 17, 84-Alex DeCamp[9]. 18, 9$-Kyle Clark[8]. 19, P78-Perry Pickard[18]. 20, 30-Joseph Miller[20].
AmeriFlex Hose & Accessories Hard Charger: Casey Wills (+11).
D&E Supply Hard Luck Recipient: Joseph Miller.