From John Rittenoure
MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma (October 1, 2010) – Patience and opportunity combined to to help Sean McClelland pick up his first OCRS victory of the season over a season high 36-car field at Thunderbird Speedway on Friday night.
A patient McClelland waited for things to go his way on the fairgrounds half-mile oval and with five laps remaining McClelland shot around Whit Gastineau for the lead and never looked back.
“The car was not very good at the beginning of the race but I was patient a little bit and let the car come to me,” said McClelland of his cars handling early in the race. “I was pretty tight until I hit the infield tire and it loosened the car up for me and made it turn into the turns. So we just rolled with it.”
Gastineau was not about to give up without a fight and battled back into the lead briefly.
“Whit (Gastineau) got a little bit tight so we were patient and went by him,” said McClelland. “He came back under me and I got him again the next lap. It was pretty good racing.”
The main event got underway with 2010 OCRS champion Jamie Passmore taking the lead over Gastineau. But the lap was not complete when Travis Jenkins got into the wall in turn two to bring out the yellow. On the restart it was Passmore, Gastineau and McClelland in third but yellow waved again two laps later for Jenkins teammate Mike Goodman who also found the wall, but this time it was between turns 3-4. A shake-up occurred after the restart and Gastineau managed to get around Passmore for the lead and McClelland dropped the points leader to third with a high-speed move into second. Gastineau appeared to be in control until around lap 20 when McClelland started closing in. Once McClelland found his way to lead Gastineau remained in second with Passmore in third, Danny Smith fourth and Rafe Essary rounding out the top five.
Dean Drake, Jr. led Tim Kent in the opening 10-lap B main giving the two the first of four transfer positions in the A feature. Terry Easum easily won the second B over Billy Frazier to lock in the final transfer spots.
Two drivers got upside down during heat race action. Jeff Garnett of Yukon was first taking a hard ride in turn two during the second heat. Jason Adams flipped end-over-end in turn one of the fourth heat. Fortunately neither driver was hurt.
The OCRS returns to Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Oklahoma next Saturday, October 9.
OCRS Sprints
HEAT 1: 1, Jamie Passmore. 2, Rafe Essary. 3, Brent Bates. 4, Nicholas Lucito. 5, Chris Pillars. 6, Tim Kent. 7, Kevin Guinn. 8, Ron Murphy. 9, Phillip Davis.
HEAT 2: 1, Sean McClelland. 2, Mike Goodman. 3, Danny Smith. 4, Fred Mattox. 5, Terry Easum. 6, Kyle Clark. 7, Jamie McDonald. 8, Zach Beeler. 9, Jeff Garnett.
HEAT 3: 1, Frank Dittman. 2, Travis Jenkins. 3, Shayla Waddell. 4, Johnny Kent. 5, Billy Frazier. 6, David Stephenson. 7, Keith Bolton. 8, Waylon Weaver. 9, Burt Davis.
HEAT 4: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Tyler Johnson. 3, David Dutton. 4, Brady Demeree. 5, Dean Drake, Jr. 6, Beau Gastineau. 7, Glen Passmore. 8, Brian Roberts. 9, Jason Adams.
DASH FOR CASH: 1, Jamie Passmore. 2, Rafe Essary. 3, Whit Gastineau. 4, Sean McClelland. 5, Danny Smith. 6, Frank Dittman.
B FEATURE: 1, Dean Drake, Jr. 2, Tim Kent. 3, David Stephenson. 4, Chris Pillars. 5, Keith Bolton. 6, Jamie McDonald. 7, Waylon Weaver. 8, Jeff Garnett. 9, Brian Roberts. DNS: Jason Adams.
B FEATURE: 1, Terry Easum. 2, Billy Frazier. 3, Kyle Clark. 4, Glen Passmore. 5, Kevin Guinn. 6, Zach Beeler. 7, Beau Gastineau. 8, Ron Murphy. 9, Phillip Davis. DNS: Burt Davis.
A FEATURE: 1, Sean McClelland. 2, Whit Gastineau. 3, Jamie Passmore. 4, Danny Smith. 5, Rafe Essary. 6, Frank Dittman. 7, Terry Easum. 8, Brent Bates. 9, Dean Drake, Jr. 10, Nicholas Lucito. 11, Billy Frazier. 12, Shayla Waddell. 13, Tyler Johnson. 14, Fred Mattox. 15, David Dutton. 16, Tim Kent. 17, Brady Demeree. 18, Johnny Kent. 19, Mike Goodman. 20, Travis Jenkins.