PINELLAS PARK, FL (February 26, 2021) — Kyle O’Gara scored his first career sprint car win Friday night at Showtime Speedway when he captured the 30-lap opening night of the “Dave Steele World Non Wing Sprint Car Championship 125”. O’Gara took advantage of a Kody Swanson miscue to take the top sot and never looked back.
In a bizarre twist of events, several of the top contenders were involved in a first lap accident exiting turn 2. Sport Allen, Johnny Gilbertson, Shane Butler, LJ Grimm, and Kody Swanson were all collected in the pileup. All but Gilbertson and Butler were able to restart.
When the green flag waved Sport Allen got the jump and lead the first 7 circuits. Allen began to get loose and this allowed Kody Swanson to take the top spot. But two laps later, Swanson got too high exiting turn 4 which allowed O’Gara the opportunity he needed on lap 10. O’Gara would go the rest of the distance to claim his first-ever sprint car feature victory.
Following O’Gara were Tyler Roahrig, LJ Grimm, Kody Swanson, and Dakoda Armstrong rounding out the top 5.
“I wish it was a little bit closer to home” O’Gara stated in victory lane in reference to his first sprint car win in Florida despite calling Indiana home. “We’re happy to get the win tonight and get some momentum rolling for this weekend”.
O’Gara described his opportunity to take the lead from Swanson on lap 10.”I saw a rare error out of him (Swanson) and we took advantage of it and kept rolling. I thought he overshot the entry to three and broke away there. But its hard telling. It’s a rare error out of him” concluded O’Gara.
Saturday night will conclude the weekend’s racing action with the “Dave Steele World Non Wing Championship 125”. The 125-lap feature event will pay $5,000 to the winner.
Dave Steele World Non Wing Sprint Car Championship 125 – Preliminary Night
Showtime Speedway
Pinellas Park, Florida
Friday February 26, 201
Feature:
1. 67-Kyle O’Gara
2. 56-Tyler Roahrig
3. 88-LJ Grimm
4. 77-Kody Swanson
5. 7a-Dakoda Armstrong
6. 13-Joe Liguori
7. 4-Travis Bliemeister
8. 32-Ronnie Wuerdeman
9. 44-Stan Butler
10. 55-Tommy Nichols
11. 15-Troy Thompson
12. 3-Nick Andrade
13. 88a-Sport Allen
14. 0-Dude Teate
15. 22-Johnny Gilbertson
16. 18-Shane Butler