From John Lemon
Muskogee OK — (May 27, 2011) — Sometimes a change of scenery can make one blossom more than before and in tonight’s Callie Slader Memorial, one racer was in full bloom. Tulsa’s Sean McClelland changed rides for the fifth stop on the 2011 Oil Capital Racing Series sprint car tour event at the Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee Oklahoma. He dominated the field in his first time out in a familiar machine. McClelland started the OCRS season in the Timco Automotive 15x but the two parties parted ways after the last event at Oklahoma Sports Park and McClelland dropped a power plant in his own XXX Chassis and promptly ran away from the field in the Callie Slader Memorial run.
McClelland took the initial green flag from Starter J.D. Etter, and was passed by Dewey’s Andrew Deal in turn two. However, a yellow flag for Johnny ‘Hot Rod’ Kent, (who was stalled in turn fourth after making contact with the outside wall. Kent was OK but was done for the night.
Shortly after the new restart, McClelland retook his place at the point, Deal would hold second in check, Kacee Frazier trailed behind Deal with Jeremy Allen and Travis Jenkins in line. Just a couple of laps later, Whit Gastineau began to show his muscle from his 13th starting position. McClelland would get such a solid run out of his Maxell Oil / Finish LIne Machining sprinter that he began to lap cars on the 7th lap.
On the 13th lap, a torrid battled between Deal and Allen began as each driver began to take turns in the runner up spot while defending champion Jamie Passmore began to make his presence felt. A couple of laps later, a yellow would fall for the stalled car of Tyler Johnson who came to a stop in turn four. The restart would see McClelland in front followed by Deal, J. Allen, Passmore, Gastineau, Danny Smith, Danny Jennings and Brady Demeree.
On the restart, Gastineau would work around Passmore in turn one and Jennings would dispose of Smith. Demeree would pull into the infield at the completion of the lap (15). Two laps later, a red would fall for the flipping Josh Toho in turns three and four. He would be OK. On its restart, Gastineau would get by Jennings for fourth while Goodman would overtake Sherrill for eighth coming out of turn two.
In the final laps, McClelland would stretch his lead to wide margins and take the checkered flag with ease. Deal would be your second place finisher in the A.R.T. Chassis / Burk Oil / Dyno Services special with Allen crossing the line next. It was found in post race inspection that Allen had a mechanical infraction and he was disqualified and scored 20th. This placed Gastineau third in his Shell Rapid Lube & Larry Allen Engines backed Eagle sprinter, with Jennings fourth in his Goodyear Tire sponsored racer and then Passmore rounding out the top five in his G.A.P. roofing bullet. All five were on the Goodyear Eagle racing tire.
“I knew I had a pretty big lead there because my guys were up there telling me what kind of lead I had so I just tried to maintain it (lead), hit my marks and just take off” said the nights winner. “It’s my car and this is the first time we have ran a carbureted motor in it and it drove like a dream. I have to thank XXX (chassis) for that.” Andrew Deal was pleased with his run, albeit it was a distant second this night. “Just like anything else, it takes a little bit of time to start meshing together (with a new car owner) I feel like we are starting to figure the car out. It’s a brand new chassis and nobody really runs the A.R.T. around here so we will get it figured out, we are getting there.”
2011 OCRS rookie of the year contender Josh Toho was victorious in the 12 lap B Feature while McClelland snared the 5 lap dash race for the right to start on the pole in the main event. Heat winners were: Travis Jenkins, Kacee Frazier, Johnny Kent and Jeremy Allen. The next event for the OCRS warriors will be next Friday night, June 3rd when the sprinters take to the ultra fast 3/8 mile track at the Outlaw Motor Speedway in Muskogee.
Heat 1
1.Travis Jenkins 2.Terry Easum 3.Sean McClelland 4.Danny Jennings 5.Shayla Waddell 6. Keith Bolton 7.Casey Wills 8.Kenneth Walker
Heat 2.
1.Kacee Frazier 2.Jamie Passmore 3.Andrew Deal 4.Tyler Johnson 5.Beau Gastineau 6.Josh Toho 7. Justin Allen 8. Chris Pillars
Heat 3
1.Johnny Kent 2.Tim Kent 3.Brady Demeree 4.Matt Sherrell 5.Kevin Quinn 6.Fred Mattox 7. Rob Hooper (DNS)
Heat 4
1.Jeremy Allen 2.Danny Smith 3.Whit Gastineau 4.Rafe Essary 5.Mike Goodman 6.Kyle Clark 7.Burt Davis
Dash
1.Sean McClelland 2.Andrew Deal 3.Kacee Frazier 4.Jeremy Allen 5.Johnny Kent 6.Travis Jenkins
B Feature
1.Josh Toho 2.Matt Sherrell 3.Mike Goodman 4.Shayla Waddell 5.Kevin Guinn 6.Keith Bolton 7.Casey Wills 8.Chris Pillars 9.Justin Allen 10.Beau Gastineau 11.Burt Davis 12.Fred Mattox 13.Kenneth Walker (DNS) 14.Rob Hooper (DNS)
A Feature “The Callie Slader Memorial” ( ) = Starting Position
1.Sean McClelland (1) 2.Andrew Deal (2) 3.Whit Gastineau (13) 4.Danny Jennings (12) 5.Jamie Passmore (7) 6.Mike Goodman (19) 7.Matt Sherrell (18) 8.Rafe Essary (15) 9. Kyle Clark (16) 10. Shayla Waddell (20) 11. Terry Easum (10) 12. Travis Jenkins (6) 13. Kacee Frazier (3) 14. Danny Smith (8) 15. Josh Toho (17) 16. Brady Demeree (9) 17. Tim Kent (11) 18. Tyler Johnson (14) 19. Johnny Kent (5) 20. Jeremy Allen (DQ)