From John Lemon
Wainwright OK — (June 22, 2013) — The Oil Capital Racing Series has been producing some surprising results this season and some of those surprises have been quite thrilling to witness. Tonight at the Outlaw Motorsports Park, “The Caretaker”, Danny Smith, pulled off a thrilling slide job in turn four of the last lap to best Terry Easum and in doing so, Smith becomes the eighth different winner in OCRS competition over ten events.
Smith would start outside row four in the 25-lap feature while Billy Frazier and David Stephenson, who was driving a team car to Smith’s after crashing his own car badly a couple of weeks ago, would start on the front row of the 22 car field. Frazier shot into the led as the field went green with Easum moving up from his second row spot to get second. Easum pushed his Ti22 / Wesmar Racing Engines / XXX chassis past Frazier in turn two to take the immediate lead while Stephenson would place his Same Day Auto Repair / DSO Engines / XXX into the third spot and settle in.
Defending OCRS champion Jamie Passmore would blow an oil line on the 12th lap and the excess oil that flared up caused a safety concern and the field would be placed under a red flag condition as Passmore rolled to a stop in turn one. Passmore escaped with very minor burns to his leg. At the north side of the track, Harli White spun to a stop in the oil Passmore applied to the racing surface. Chance Morton would find the passage blocked and he would become an innocent victim with White as he piled into the fray. White would start tail back as Morton got the dreaded hook and saw his night end early.
The restart saw Easum at the helm with Frazier, Stephenson, Smith, Johnny Kent, Alex Sewell and Brian McClelland set in order. Smith took advantage of his restarting skills and shot passed both his teammate Stephenson and Frazier to take the runner-up position and Stephenson then overtook Frazier to retain the third position. Soon after, Kent would take the fourth position from Frazier.
Easum, who was looking to become the sixth driver this season to get his first OCRS win, was keeping a good pace and managed to keep Smith at bay for a spell. As the field received the “five to go” sign from flagman JD Etter, Smith would begin to inch closer to Easum. Coming down for the white flag, Smith pulled dead even with Easum at the stripe and the two stayed dead even going through turns one and two with Smith hugging the bottom and Easum up top. At this point, the crowd witnessing this action was full of anticipation for how the last eight seconds of the race would play out.
Smith would rocket off the low line to take the lead as the pair went screaming down the backstretch. As they went charging into turn three, Easum put a slide job on Smith and took the lead. Smith set his car perfectly for a return slide job in turn four, took the lead back and held on to win by one measly car length. The win for Smith made for the fifth consecutive new winner without a 2013 repeat victor. Easum held on for the runner-up spot with Stephenson, Frazier and Kent making up the top five. Alex Sewell, Brian McClelland, Casey Wills, Kade Morton and Harli White made up the balance of the top ten.
Smith, who moved into second place on the points chart with the win commented on his night: “I had been changing the apex in the bottom of turns one and two as the car was so tight it was driving me up the wall. With about five or six to go, I didn’t have the room to slide him (Easum), but I did it to see if I could do it later on. It also allowed me to show him my nose in hopes he would see it and put a little pressure on him. I really have to thank my guys for the great cars they set up for me. For my crew chief Wayne Simmons, this is our first win together and Justin Dobson is a great asset to what we are doing with the racecars. These guys are awesome.”
Easum was understandably disappointed having come so close to that first OCRS score. However, even at that, Easum was still proud of his run: “I threw a couple of slide jobs at him (Smith) but he would get back on the bottom and get back underneath us. We were close. I was thinking about going to the bottom on the last lap but I was afraid he would just blast by around the top so I chose to stay up top and tried to make speed.”
Stephenson was very pleased with a podium finish for the night: “ We had a little bad luck a couple of weeks ago and hurt a car. Danny showed up with a car and said ‘Let’s go have some fun’ and we did. I had a blast tonight. They (Smith team) do different stuff than I do on my cars and it just worked. I tried to hit my marks every time and then I gave him (Smith) an inch and he took it from me. I just can’t thank the Smith’s enough, I had a blast.”
Mickey Walker was the AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories “Hard Charger”.
Chance Morton was the night’s Dyno Services Of Oklahoma ‘Hard ‘Luck’ driver.
The Oil Capital Racing Series thanks Carey and Nichole Menasco for their hospitality in hosting the OCRS warriors at Outlaw Motorsports Park. It was the debut return to OMP by OCRS after missing all of 2012. OCRS also thanks all the fans that attended as the reception was well received. OCRS is extremely flattered by the outpouring of positive comments and support received throughout the evening. The next scheduled visit to OMP by the OCRS open wheel warriors will be on 10/5/13.
Round number eleven will be next Friday night at the Brill Motor Speedway in Meeker Oklahoma and that event will be a non-wing event. The next night, OCRS will be at the Lawton Speedway where the series will make it’s first and only stop at the legendary facility in 2013.
OCRS Race Results
Date of Race: Saturday June 22, 2013
Car Count: 22
(Pos-Car-Driver-Start)
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Heat
1, 4J-Jamie Passmore[4]. 2, 55-Johnny Kent[1]. 3, 5$-Danny Smith[2]. 4, 84-
Alex DeCamp[5]. 5, 87F-Brian McClelland[7]. 6, 9-Brent Merchant[6]. 7, 00-
Kacee Frazier[3]. 8, 2-Mickey Walker[6].
Bob Hurley Auto Family Heat 2
1, 21-Billy Frazier[3]. 2, 88-Terry Easum[4]. 3, 9$-Kyle Clark[5]. 4, 15$-David
Stephenson[7]. 5, 7m-Chance Morton[6]. 6, 78-Perry Pickard[1]. 7, 94-Dan
Schnackenberg[2].
Drive Shafts Inc. Heat 3
1, 17W-Harli White[4]. 2, 8-Alex Sewell[2]. 3, 88S-Shayla Waddell[1]. 4, 8M-
Kade Morton[3]. 5, 31-Casey Wills[5]. 6, 11-Michael Tyre[7]. 7, 007-Michael
Bookout[6].
OCRS A Feature
1, 5$-Danny Smith[8]. 2, 88-Terry Easum[4]. 3, 15$-David Stephenson[2]. 4,
21-Billy Frazier[1]. 5, 55-Johnny Kent[5]. 6, 8-Alex Sewell[10]. 7, 87F-Brian
McClelland[9]. 8, 31-Casey Wills[15]. 9, 8M-Kade Morton[13]. 10, 17W-Harli
White[12]. 11, 11-Michael Tyre[16]. 12, 88S-Shayla Waddell[7]. 13, 2-
Mickey Walker[21]. 14, 9$-Kyle Clark[3]. 15, 9-Brent Merchant[22]. 16, 007-
Michael Bookout[20]. 17, 94-Dan Schnackenberg[19]. 18, 84-Alex
DeCamp[6]. 19, 00-Kacee Frazier[18]. 20, 4J-Jamie Passmore[11]. 21, 7m-
Chance Morton[14]. 22, 78-Perry Pickard[17].
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories ‘Hard Charger’: Mickey Walker +8
Dyno Services Of Oklahoma ‘Hard Luck’ recipient: Chance Morton