By John Lemon
Pocola Oklahoma (September 7, 2013) – Harli White captured her seventh main event win of the season in the Oil Capital Racing Series second stop to the 3/8-mile banked track at the Tri-State Speedway. There were over 1,000 enthusiastic racing fans in attendance on a perfect summer night. With her victory, she has now stretched her point lead to 93 points over Danny Smith with just three events left on the schedule. Should White hold on and win the title, she will become the first woman in OCRS history to capture the overall championship.
It was a father-daughter duo starting the 25-lap feature on the front row (an OCRS first) as previous 2013 feature winner Kacee Frazier and father Billy Frazier led the field to the start. Johnny ‘Hotrod’ Kent shot up quickly from his third row grid position and found himself third behind the Frazier’s by the end of lap two.
Piloting her Jerry Tucker Roustabout / Terraco Soil Farming / Crash Enterprises / All Star Café / Boyd Engines / Maxim, White started in the 12th spot and found herself up to seventh at the conclusion of the third lap. Another early charger was Terry Easum as he moved into the fourth spot on lap four up from his 10th place starting spot.
White moved up one more place on the next lap while the two Frazier’s and Kent continued to retain the top three positions. Not to be out done on progress, four-time OCRS champion Jamie Passmore was working his magic as well and was fifth by lap eighth after starting ninth, but he wasn’t done yet.
Passmore worked around Easum for fourth place on the 9th lap and by the 11th lap, the leaders had caught heavy lapped traffic. As the front runners sliced and diced their way through the traffic, Passmore made good solid decisions behind the wheel of the GAP Roofing / Wesmar / Eagle. Passmore managed to work past Kent and Billy Frazier to take the second spot and he was then radar locked onto Kacee for the lead.
As the leaders went roaring down the back straight on the 14th lap, Passmore put a charge on the low side under Kacee Frazier and powered his way past the young lady to take the lead. On the next lap, White passed Kacee for second spot coming out of turn four. Two laps later, Kent, who slipped back a couple of positions from his good start earlier, found his way by Kacee as well.
The first stoppage of the race would be on lap 18 when Chance Morton spun in turn four. Passmore would lead the restart with White, Kent K. Frazier, B. Frazier and Easum in line. Two laps later, it was doomsday for Passmore as he engine expired in one of the largest clouds of smoke seen in quite some time. The smoke was so intense that there were cars slamming and banging into one another, as they couldn’t see the cars up ahead. Michael Tyre stopped in turn three and Kyle Clark stopped at the end of the back straight. White would then inherit the lead for the restart.
“He (Passmore) was really fast and I think we could have had a pretty good race going but he blew up,” said White in the victory lane interview. “He was really fast at the start of the race and my car kept getting better and better and it got really good toward the end (of the race). We have three more races left and if we just get some top fives, it looks like we will win the championship.”
On the restart, Danny Smith was the sixth car in line in his Same Day Auto Repair / DSO Engines / XXX chassis and when the green dropped, Smith put on a great move to the outside of both Frazier’s and Easum to take the third position. Kent would chase White in his Care Family Medical / Kent Construction / Wesmar Power Parts / Kent Engines / Eagle chassis for that elusive victory.
The last yellow fell on lap 22 when Kade Morton would spin and stop between turns 3 and 4 and this would give Kent one more good shot at White. However, there would not be a thirteenth different feature winner this season as White had everything she needed to get the job done and grabbed her seventh win of the year. Kent earned his best finish of the year with a second with Smith third, Billy Frazier fourth and Alex DeCamp, the winner at TSS back in June, was fifth.
“I started a little bit to late (run for the front),” said Smith. “I got held up so bad (in traffic) that I let them get away (at the start). You let them get out there like that and it’s just a little bit to late (to catch them).” On the good move on the lap 19 restart that vaulted Smith from 6th to 3rd: “I just found the top before they did. I think they just got a little bit apprehensive about being on the top and I’ve raced long enough to know you cant be apprehensive out there.”
From the runner up: “ We picked up this new car (Eagle chassis) about four weeks into the season and its been so right rear tight all season long,” said Kent. “We have struggled with it bit we think we finally have it headed the right way (on set ups). Wayne Simmons (Danny Smith’s crew chief) has tried to help us a little bit and I think we are headed in the right direction with it. I think we could have gotten a bit more aggressive on the bottom (of the track) but we didn’t want to risk giving up what we had.”
White was the AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Hard Charger
Passmore was the Dyno Services of Oklahoma Hard Luck award recipient.
The next event for the OCRS warriors will be next Saturday night at the Oklahoma Sports Park in Ada Oklahoma for the 7th running of the Oklahoma State Championship race. Whit Gastineau took honors in last year’s edition.
For more information on the OCRS sprint car series including updates, stories, photos, complete 2013-point standings and future schedules, log onto: www.ocrsracing.com
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OCRS Race Results
Tri-State Speedway / Pocola, Oklahoma
Date of race: September 7, 2013
Car count: 17
(Pos-Car-Driver-Start)
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Heat
1, 5$-Danny Smith[1]. 2, 4J-Jamie Passmore[3]. 3, 17W-Harli White[2]. 4, 55-Johnny Kent[6]. 5, 94-Dan Schnackenberg[4]. 6, 78-Perry Pickard[5].
Bob Hurley Auto Family Heat
1, 9$-Kyle Clark[1]. 2, 84-Alex DeCamp[3]. 3, 21-Billy Frazier[6]. 4, 31-Casey Wills[5]. 5, 22-David Stephenson[4]. 6, 11-Michael Tyre[2].
Drive Shafts Inc. Heat
1, 8M-Kade Morton[1]. 2, 88-Terry Easum[4]. 3, 00-Kacee Frazier[2]. 4, 7m-Chance Morton[5]. 5, 007-Michael Bookout[3].
OCRS A Feature
1, 17W-Harli White[12]. 2, 55-Johnny Kent[5]. 3, 5$-Danny Smith[11]. 4, 21-Billy Frazier[2]. 5, 84-Alex DeCamp[8]. 6, 00-Kacee Frazier[1]. 7, 7m-Chance Morton[3]. 8, 31-Casey Wills[6]. 9, 88-Terry Easum[10]. 10, 9$-Kyle Clark[4]. 11, 8M-Kade Morton[7]. 12, 11-Michael Tyre[17]. 13, 007-Michael Bookout[15]. 14, 4J-Jamie Passmore[9]. 15, 22-David Stephenson[14]. 16, 78-Perry Pickard[16]. 17, 94-Dan Schnackenberg[13].
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Hard Charger: Harli White +11
Dyno Services of Oklahoma Hard Luck Award: Jamie Passmore