From John Rittenoure
Enid, Oklanhoma (October 23, 2010) – Starting near the front was a good place to be during the Enid Speedway Winter Nationals on Saturday night. It certainly helped Whit Gastineau who cruised to victory in the OCRS season finale.
Gastineau led all 25 laps to win for the sixth time this season season. The victory also allowed Gastineau to move into top 10 in the final season point standings. Gastineau climbed two spots to ninth dropping Kyle Clark to tenth and pushing rookie Brady Demeree from tenth to eleventh. But it was not all bad for Demeree as he finished the season 27 points ahead of Terry Easum to win Rookie of the Year honors.
Gastineau started outside of pole sitter Fred Mattox in the 25-lapper and quickly shot into the lead on the start. Mattox gave chase but there was not catching Gastineau on the lightening fast 3/8‘s mile oval soaked by recent rains. But Mattox picked up a career best second place finish. Danny Jennings, Gary Owens and Josh Toho held down third through fifth in what was a high-speed chase that saw very little passing.
In the rookie race Easum finished one spot ahead of Demeree in 12th but it was not enough to take away the rookie point lead. Both Easum and Demeree had to earn their feature starting positions in the B main. Easum won the event with a green-to-checkered run over Kyle Clark and Kyle Cobb. Demeree finished in the fourth and final transfer spot.
It was a rough night for the Same Day Automotive race team. Danny Smith got into the backstretch wall in the opening heat race and took a wild ride that earned him a ride to the hospital. Smith was shaken up but released after a checkup. If that was not enough stepson Clark tagged the wall in turn two during the feature and flipped end over end. Clark climbed from his heavily damaged car unhurt.
OCRS Sprints
HEAT 1 1, Danny Jennings. 2, Mike Goodman. 3, Rafe Essary. 4, Shane Sellers. 5, Tyler Johnson. 6, Kyle Cobb. 7, Danny Smith. DNS: Billy Frazier.
HEAT 2: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Travis Jenkins. 3, Gary Owens. 4, Terry Holland. 5, Terry Easum. 6, Kaden Taylor. 7, Johnny Kent. DNS: Jeff Garnett.
HEAT 3: 1, Jamie Passmore. 2, Phillip Davis. 3, Lee Jennings. 4, Beau Gastineau. 5, Kacee Frazier. 6, Barry Crane. 7, Brady Demeree. 8, Tim Kent.
HEAT 4: 1, Fred Mattox. 2, Kerry McAlester. 3, Josh Toho. 4, Shayla Waddell. 5, Kyle Clark. 6, David Stephenson. 7, Earnest Jennings.
B FEATURE: 1, Terry Easum. 2, Kyle Clark. 3, Kyle Cobb. 4, Brady Demeree. 5, Kacee Frazier. 6, Barry Crane. 7, David Stephenson. 8, Kaden Taylor. 9, Tyler Johnson. 10, Johnny Kent. 11, Tim Kent. DNS: Earnest Jennings, Billy Frazier, Danny Smith, Jeff Garnett.
A FEATURE: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Fred Mattox. 3, Danny Jennings. 4, Gary Owens. 5, Josh Toho. 6, Jamie Passmore. 7, Shane Sellers. 8, Lee Jennings. 9, Kerry McAlester. 10, Travis Jenkins. 11, Shayla Waddell. 12, Terry Easum. 13, Brady Demeree. 14, Terry Holland. 15, Kyle Clark. 16, Mike Goodman. 17, Beau Gastineau. 18, Kyle Cobb. 19, Rafe Essary. 20, Phillip Davis.