April 13, 2008 10:47 pm
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OKTAHA – A $100 investment turned into a $5,000 capital gain for Terry Phillips on Sunday at Outlaw Motor Speedway.
Phillips won the 40-lap Modified feature and the top prize that goes with the title hardware. The three-day special event drew 70-plus Modifieds with drivers from as far away as Nebraska, Iowa, and southwest Texas.
Total payout for the 26-car field in the main event was $27,000. The total purse for the three-days of racing produced by new track promoter Danny Womack was $50,000.
It was sort of a Phillips show for the first two spots. A car built by Phillips Racing and driven by Jeremy Payne was second and picked up $3,000. Both are from Springfield, MO.
Third and $2,000 went to Alan Sharpensteen, Amarillo, Texas. Defending champion Johnny Bone, Pea Ridge, Ark., placed 10th.
Eddie Martin, Stilwell, was the highest placing Outlaw regular finishing ninth. Jason Teague, Tahlequah, was 14th and Muskogee’s Charles Randolph was 15th. Tate Cole, Muskogee, placed 17th.
Phillips started from the pole with Payne on the second row, right behind the winner. Sharpensteen was on the outside front row. Chris Brown, Springs, Texas, and the third qualifier winner finished a distant 18th.
The race was quick and clean. There were only three cautions and it took just under 20 minutes to cover the 40 laps.
Twice Phillips enjoyed three second leads over Payne who chased him from start to finish, but each time Payne fought back Phillips’ bumper. Payne’s ride handled better in the curves, but Phillips had the muscle on the straights runs to maintain control over his buddy and the field.
Phillips, Payne, and Sharpensteen won their heats.
In his last effort to make the main event, Brown led from start-to-finish to win Sunday’s 25-lap qualifier. He took the going into turn one on the first lap from his outside starting position. He maintained a three second lead for most of the race plagued by spin outs and broken race cars.
There were 24 cars that took the green flag with 13 finishing the race. Cars restarted in single file after the third caution just three laps into the race. Most of the seven yellow flags in the race came because of slick track conditions and a rut between turns one and two.
William Gould, Fort Smith, Ark., and starting in the pole position, avoided 14 caution flags to win the Economy Modified feature. The 20-lap event was sliced to 14 laps because of yellow flags.
Gould held off track promoter-race car driver Danny Womack for the final 10 laps. George Martin, Fort Smith, was third.
Mother nature played a cruel trick to delay the start of the races. Coupled with the normal watering of the track and the water absorbed by the clay oval during last week’s 5-inch rain storms, the racing surface was extremely muddy at the announced 2 p.m. start.
It took track workers and the driving participants in the racing program two hours to dry the track and establish an acceptable racing surface.
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