From John Lemon
Oktaha, Oklahoma (September 9, 2011) – On a night that finally saw cooler weather after weeks of record heat, Tulsa’s Sean McClelland scored his third victory in a row in the Oil Capital Racing Series sanctioned “Sprint Car Super Show” at the Outlaw Motor Speedway tonight. Starting on the pole by virtue of his win in the five lap “Pole Dash” event contested earlier in the evening, McClelland immediately sped off from his starting point into turn one with second row starter Matt Sherrell rushing past outside front row occupant, 14 year old Colton Brewer for second.
On lap three, Brewer would spin the Hampton Kustomworks / Mud-X / Twister Chassis in turn four. Kerry McAlister would be the one unfortunate innocent victim as he slammed the Tom and Donna McAlister TMAC Racing mount into the youngster. Brewer would be toted off the track while McAlister would take his wounded chariot into the work area where the crew would make all the repairs they could to rejoin the field. McAlister, who had high hopes for the feature would finish 15th with a car that had a twisted frame.
Once the field restarted and came to complete the third lap, Moore Oklahoma’s Whit “The Gasman” Gastineau would take third place from Drumright’s Fred Mattox at the start/finish line to start lap number four. On the very next lap and at the start/finish line again, Mattox would lose another spot, this time to the Dewey Flash, Andrew Deal. For the next few laps, McClelland would have the crowd holding their breath as he would run the Maxwell Oil / Lawton Auto Parts / Finishline Machine. XXX Chassis “Black Widow’s” Goodyear tires just inches form the outside wall. “Sometimes you just have to run where you need to be,” McClelland would explain later in victory lane.
While McClelland would continuously play a game of chicken with the tracks fortified concrete wall, Mike Goodman was beginning to make his presence known a few spots back in his Premier Homes / Camelot Homes / Goodman & Associates / Twister Chassis. Having started in the 13th hole, Goodman was up to sixth by the sixth lap. Goodman would work his way past Stillwell’s Rafe Essary, who was returning from a hard crash at the last OCRS outing one lap later. McClelland would be lapping back markers by the tenth lap as the field began to back up to him.
Goodman continued his march forward as he took fourth from Deal on lap ten in turn four and then he disposed of The Gasman in the same corner on lap eleven. In moments, the multi time OCRS champion would be polishing the rear bumper of Sherrell’s sprinter. The next lap would see Goodman go by the Sherrell Paint and Body special at the stripe. The once mighty lead McClelland had was quickly beginning to fade as Goodman continued to take precious seconds off the gap between the two.
On the seventeenth lap, it was slide job city time. Much to the delight of the fans in attendance, Goodman made a dive bomb run at McClelland going into turn three and executed a beautiful slide job to take the lead. However, McClelland would not be denied and he returned the favor with a nice cross over move in turn four. The two would rush past the front straight and sail into turn one. Goodman tried another time to take the point and attempted another slide job. However, with such momentum going into the turn, Goodman slid into the concrete wall and proceeded to turn the car over. Goodman was uninjured but his night was through. Said McClelland: “ I could kick myself in the (rear) because I shouldn’t have let him get that close. I was running the speed I thought I should but it obviously wasn’t fast enough.”
The restart would have McClelland up front with Sherrell, Gastineau, Deal, Jamie Passmore, Essary, Mattox and Josh Toho in line. On the restart, as the field was roaring down the back straight, Sherrell and Deal collided which resulted in Deal riding up and over Sherrell’s front wheel which sent Sherrell spinning into the infield. With no hazard conditions, the track would stay green. Passmore would take the third spot from Deal on lap 23, up from his 14th spot on the starting grid.
McClelland would have the “Black Widow” out front by 15 car lengths when OCRS starter J.D. Etter dropped the black and white cloth. The win also was McClelland’s sixth of the season tying him with Gastineau for the series lead in that department. The Gasman would cross the line next in second with Passmore third in his G.A.P. Roofing / Eagle Chassis sprinter followed by Deal in his Burk Oil / Dyno Services of Oklahoma / ART Chassis. The completion of the top five would be rounded out by Essary, whom with the assistance with Sherrell’s misfortune, retook third in the run for the 2011 OCRS championship.
The three heat race winners for the 25 car field were: Gastineau, Mattox and McAlister. Tim Kent would take the 12 lap B feature with Josh Toho, Brady Demeree and Kevin Guinn taking the balance of the automatic transfer positions.
The next event for the OCRS traveling vagabonds will be at Oklahoma Sports Park in Ada for the fifth annual running of the “Oklahoma State Championships”. For additional information on the OCRS sprint car series, race fans can visit the website at: OCRSRACING.COM
Outlaw Motor Speedway
Race date: September 9, 2011 – Event 16
25 Cars
HEAT 1: 1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Shayla Waddell. 3, Danny Smith. 4, Glen Passmore. 5, Rafe Essary. 6, Alex Sewell. 7, Johnny “Hotrod” Kent. 8, Brent Merchant. 9, Brian McClelland.
HEAT 2: 1, Fred Mattox. 2, Matt Sherrell. 3, Casey Wills. 4, Andrew Deal. 5, Kyle Clark. 6, Kevin Guinn. 7, Kevin Cummings. 8, Beau Gastineau.
HEAT 3: 1, Kerry McAlister. 2, Colton Brewer. 3, Sean McClelland. 4, Mike Goodman. 5, Jamie Passmore. 6, Tim Kent. 7, Josh Toho. 8, Brady Demeree
POLE DASH: 1, Sean McClelland. 2, Colton Brewer. 3, Matt Sherrell. 4, Whit Gastineau. 5, Kerry McAlister. 6, Fred Mattox.
B FEATURE: 1, Tim Kent. 2, Josh Toho. 3, Brady Demeree. 4, Kevin Guinn. 5, Kevin Cummings. 6, Brent Merchant. 7, Johnny “Hotrod” Kent. 8, Brian McClelland. DNS: Beau Gastineau.
A FEATURE: 1, Sean McClelland. 2, Whit Gastineau. 3, Jamie Passmore. 4, Andrew Deal. 5, Rafe Essary. 6, Fred Mattox. 7, Josh Toho. 8, Tim Kent. 9, Kyle Clark. 10, Danny Smith. 11, Alex Sewell. 12, Kevin Guinn. 13, Shayla Waddell. 14, Brady Demeree. 15, Kerry McAlister. 16, Matt Sherrell. 17, Mike Goodman. 18, Glen Passmore. 19, Casey Wills. 20, Colton Brewer.