By John Rittenoure
Caney, Kans. (July 5, 2014) – Jamie Passmore ended a year and a half long drought on Saturday night at the Osage Casino Caney Valley Speedway, and he did it in dramatic fashion.
The four-time OCRS champion (2008, 09, 10, 12) took advantage of yellow flags in his Wesmar Engines / Eagle Motorsports machine on the final two laps to run down race leader Brian McClelland and pass him for the victory.
It was the first victory for Passmore since Sept. 1, 2012. Ironically that win also came at Caney.
But it might not have happened if not for a yellow on the final lap. McClelland had led since lap four, but in the closing laps his sprinter developed handling issues and Passmore closed in. On the final restart Passmore dived his GAP Roofing sprinter underneath McClelland in turn one for the lead and battled his way to victory.
“I think he would have beat me if it weren’t for the yellows,” said Passmore. “I did not have anything for him till those cautions came out. His car was getting worse and mine stayed about the same.
“I saw him getting tighter coming out so I tried to be under him coming out and it worked.”
McClelland moved into the lead quickly from his fourth row outside starting position and for 25 laps everything went his way. However in the closing laps his Precision Coatings, American Bacterial Solutions sprinter developed a push through the turns and the yellow flags were the last thing he wanted to see.
“We were just too tight and could not turn the car,” explained McClelland of his cars handling. “We were setup for dry and I did not think it was going to take rubber.
“We went as tight as we could and went to the front pretty quick. But once it started laying rubber down we were struggling pretty bad.”
McClelland was hoping to hang on for one final lap, but the restart allowed Passmore to dive down low in turn one and the scramble was on.
“I was decent getting in,” recalled McClelland. “I was driving the car in hard to get it to turn then coming off the turn it would try to drive straight to the wall. Jamie got a run underneath me.
“Unfortunately you have to deal with the cautions. We took the white flag once and there was the yellow again. I thought we had it and it just kept coming out.
“That is racing.”
On the final turn McClelland went high allowing Fred Mattox and Andrew Deal to get by for second and third. McClelland ended up with fourth.
Mattox, who led laps 2 and 3 before giving way to McClelland, held second until Passmore passed him after 15 laps. Mattox then found himself in a battle with Deal for the third spot. Deal tried lap after lap to get around Mattox but could not make it happen.
“I had to run half throttle most of the time,” said Deal of following Mattox. “I could not get by him. I could have moved him but I was trying to be nice.
“I started pushing on him a little bit when I saw Brian getting tight. I knew if I got into second I would have a chance to win the deal.
“But I am happy with third.”
Deal closed within nine points of points leader Danny Smith who left the race early after getting into the wall.
Kenneth Walker finished fifth and Kevin Cummings won the AmeriFlex Hose & Accessories Hard Charger award for coming from 20th starting position to finish sixth.
Johnny Kent, who did not finish the race, went home with the D&E Supply Hard Luck Recipient award.
OCRS Race Results
Saturday, July 05, 2014
Osage Casino Caney Valley Speedway
29 Cars
(Pos-Car-Driver-Start)
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Heat
1- Jamie Passmore (#4j Passmore Racing) [3]. 2- Kenneth Walker (#2k Walker) [2]. 3- Chance Morton (#7m Morton) [1]. 4- Andrew Deal (#15d Cagle Motorsports) [8]. 5- Kade Morton (#8m Morton) [4]. 6- Mickey Walker (#2 Walker) [5]. 7- Shayla Waddell (#88s Waddell) [6]. 8- Len Larkin (#13 Larkin) [7].
Bob Hurley Auto Family Heat
1- Johnny Kent (#55 Kent) [1]. 2- Danny Smith (#5$ Same Day Auto Repair) [5]. 3- Michael Tyre (#11 Tyre) [3]. 4- Travis Ashwood (23a Ashwood) [4]. 5- Ben Fry (#24 Fry) [6]. 6- Mike Huard (#01 Ragsdale) [2]. DNS: Michael Bookout (#007 Bigfoot Racing).
Drive Shafts Inc. Heat
1- Fred Mattox (#26m Mattox) [3]. 2- David Stephenson (#22 Stephenson)[2]. 3-Kyle Clark (#9$ Same Day Auto Repair) [1]. 4- Grant Wresche (#13w Wresche) [6]. 5- Frank Taft (#22t Taft) [4]. 6- Will Scribner (#54 Lemmons Motorsports) [5]. 7- Brian Gramm (#3 Gramm) [7].
Car and Fleet Parts Heat
1- Cameron Hagin (#5 Hagin Racing) [1]. 2- Brian McClelland (87f Fode) [2]. 3-Casey Wills (#31 Wills) [4]. 4- Nigel Calvert (#16 Stephenson) [6]. 5- Blake Edwards (#17e Edwards) [5]. 6- Kevin Cummings (#97 Cummings) [3]. 7- Jason Eubanks (#55e Eubanks) [7].
Wesmar Racing Engines B Feature #1
1, 9$-Kyle Clark [5]. 2, 2-Mickey Walker [2]. 3, 88S-Shayla Waddell [4]. 4, 7M-Chance Morton [6]. 5, 54$-Will Scribner [8]. 6, 22T-Frank Taft [1]. 7, 55E-Jason Eubanks [7]. 8, 24-Ben Fry [9]. DNS: 007-Michael Bookout
Wesmar Racing Engines B Feature #2
1, 11-Michael Tyre [1]. 2, 8M-Kade Morton [3]. 3, 17E-Blake Edwards [4]. 4, 97-Kevin Cummings [6]. 5, 3-Brian Gramm [5]. 6, 01-Mike Huard [7]. 7, 23A-Travis Ashwood [2]. 8, 13-Len Larkin [8].
OCRS A Feature
1, 4J-Jamie Passmore [12]. 2, 26M-Fred Mattox [2]. 3, 15D-Andrew Deal [9]. 4, 87F-Brian McClelland [8]. 5, 2k-Kenneth Walker [11]. 6, 97-Kevin Cummings [20]. 7, 7M-Chance Morton [19]. 8, 16-Nigel Calvert [3]. 9, 88S-Shayla Waddell [17]. 10, 9$-Kyle Clark [13]. 11, 11-Michael Tyre [14]. 12, 2-Mickey Walker [15]. 13, 17E-Blake Edwards [18]. 14, 5-Cameron Hagin [1]. 15, 13W-Grant Wresche [5]. 16, 22-David Stephenson [4]. 17, 8M-Kade Morton [16]. 18, 31-Casey Wills [7]. 19, 5$-Danny Smith [10]. 20, 55-Johnny Kent [6].
AmeriFlex Hose & Accessories Hard Charger: Kevin Cummings +14
D&E Supply Hard Luck Recipient: Johnny Kent.
Lap Leaders: Cameron Hagin 1; Fred Mattox 2-3; Brian McClelland 4-29; Jamie Passmore 30.