By John Rittenoure
ADA, Okla. — (July 23, 2016) — Last week, Whit Gastineau felt like he let an Ameri-Flex / OCRS victory get away when he lost by 0.138 second margin to Sheldon Barksdale at Humboldt Speedway.
Saturday, Gastineau made sure that did not happen again with a start-to-finish run to victory in the Ameri-Flex / OCRS main event at Oklahoma Sports Park.
Gastineau led all 25 laps in his Shell Rocket Lube sponsored Wesmar powered Maxim chassis to win by a two second margin over second place Robert Sellers and pick up his third victory of the season.
“We have had a good car all year, but I felt we should have won at Humboldt,” Gastineau recalled when asked about the week before.
Gastineau started outside of pole sitter Perry Pickard and quickly powered into the first lap lead. Gastineau quickly built a straight lead and was never challenged.
“I was kind of waiting for a caution but they got strung out,” Gastineau said of his early lead. “i just tried to keep my momentum up and do what I could.
“The car was good and we run good here.”
A look back to last year bears that out. Gastineau won twice at OSP in 2015 (July 25, Sept. 12).
Pickard held down second in the race for the first four laps before Sellers took over the runner-up position. Sellers could not catch Gastineau and was followed across the finish line by Shane Sellers for a third place finish. Barksdale picked up fourth and Shayla Waddell rounded out the top five. Pickard ended up in sixth.
Barksdale was the Action Auto Collision Hard Charger of the night while Brandon Haddad was the D&E Supply Hard Luck recipient.
Ameri-Flex / OCRS Official Results
Oklahoma Sports Park / Ada, Okla.
Saturday July 23, 2016
Car count: 16
(Pos-Car-Driver-Start)
Drive Shafts, Inc. Heat (8 laps)
1, P78-Perry Pickard[1]. 2, 4X-Robert Sellers[3]. 3, 88S-Shayla Waddell[2]. 4, 5X-Matt Sherrell[4]. 5, 55-Johnny Kent[5]. 6, 17H-Brandon Haddad[6].
A1 Machine Shop Heat (8 laps)
1, 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[1]. 2, 33-Gary Owens[3]. 3, 79-Tim Kent[5]. 4, 8J-James Fabian[4]. 5, 30-Joseph Miller[2].
Car and Fleet Parts Heat (8 laps)
1, 4-Shane Sellers[2]. 2, 2W-Whit Gastineau[3]. 3, 5-Cameron Hagin[1]. 4, 50Z-Zach Chappell[4]. 5, 20-Brandon Jennings[5].
AmeriFlex Hose & Accessories A Feature (25 laps)
1, 2W-Whit Gastineau[2]. 2, 4X-Robert Sellers[3]. 3, 4-Shane Sellers[5]. 4, 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[7]. 5, 88S-Shayla Waddell[6]. 6, P78-Perry Pickard[1]. 7, 79-Tim Kent[8]. 8, 5-Cameron Hagin[9]. 9, 5X-Matt Sherrell[10]. 10, 50Z-Zach Chappell[12]. 11, 30-Joseph Miller[14]. 12, 8J-James Fabian[11]. 13, 33-Gary Owens[4]. 14, 55-Johnny Kent[13]. 15, 20-Brandon Jennings[15]. 16, 17H-Brandon Haddad[16]. (DNS).
Lap Leaders: Whit Gastineau, 1-25.