Special to the Phoenix
April 25, 2009 11:00 pm
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Greg Skaggs’ early season dominance in the Outlaw Modified division came to an abrupt end, while Jeremy Payne captured the special MARS Late Model race with a wire-to-wire run before a season-best crowd of 4,200 Friday night at Outlaw Motor Speedway.
Leading the entire Modified race, Muskogee’s Chad Wheeler beat teammate Tate Cole by two-car lengths, ending Skaggs’ victory streak at three straight. After finishing fourth in his heat, Skaggs pulled into the infield and had to have his car towed to the pits. He started from the 12th position and got to eighth with five laps remaining, but couldn’t improve on that position.
Brian Williams of Fayetteville, Ark., was third as the race evolved into a three-car chase from the midway point.
Payne collected the $2,500 prize in the 35-lap Late Model race, easily beating Will Vaught of Crane, Mo., and teammate Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., to the checkered flag. Payne took the lead from the pole and never looked back in winning for the first time this season on the MARS dirt track racing circuit.
Phillips, the son of the late Larry Phillips who was a crowd-pleaser at Muskogee’s old Thunderbird Speedway, was a pre-race favorite along with Vaught. The only chance either had to catch Payne came on a lap 30 restart after a pair of spinouts on the backstretch.
That was the only time the race was stalled as the Late Models set a blistering pace around the three-eighths mile oval. By race’s end, the entire clay track was covered with tire rubber, creating a dry-slick condition the drivers call black ice, a preferred surface of many drivers.
And in the best race of the season, Lance Robins of Dyer, Ark., edged Chouteau’s Jeran Frailey to capture the 360 Modified feature.
Robins and Frailey battled side-by-side for the final seven laps of the 20-lap feature. The duo swapped the lead three times in the last five laps before Robins wrestled the top spot from Frailey on a move into the high groove on lap 16.
Robins went ahead coming out of the back straight into turns three and four. Frailey, using the same groove for most of the race, was forced down low by Robins’ move. He just didn’t have the bite running on the inside of the track.
Twice in the final two laps, Frailey moved along side of Robins. In the last lap, Robins’ car got into the soft stuff up high, temporarily losing traction, giving Frailey a brief shot at the checkered flag.
But Robins recovered just in time and beat Frailey to the flag stand by a quarter-panel.
In finishing second, Frailey actually did the better job on the track. He started in the 15th position while Robins was on the outside in the front row. Frailey got his first lead on lap 12.
Defending track champion David Whittle of Muskogee finished third. Brookin Stephens of Spiro was fourth.
Matt Burnett, who was disqualified from a Pure Stock feature win earlier in the year when his car failed pass a post-race inspection, held off Tahlequah’s Jason Ward to win his second feature of the year.
Starting on row two, Burnett took the lead after three laps and never trailed. The only thing that kept him from running off from the field were a couple of caution flags.
Ward finished a strong second while Bob Lewis of Muskogee, fought his way from seventh place with five laps to go for third.
After leading for the first 14 laps, Chris Akers made just one little mistake, and that cost him his first Front Wheel Drive feature win of the year.
Akers, from Charleston, Ark., got sideways in turns one and two on the white flag lap, and that was all that Ron Palmer of Roland needed to win his second straight feature and third of the season. Akers led the race from the start and had about a car-length lead over Palmer with one lap to go. Brandon Morris of Booneville, Ark.,
Hitting turn one hard, his car got slightly sideways as Palmer shot to the outside and into the lead. Akers never recovered, but did finish second. Brandon Morris of Booneville, Ark., was third.
And in Hobby Stock, Dale Richardson won his second feature of the season. The Muskogee driver out-ran Haskell’s Jay Arnold to the finish. Muskogee’s Randy Moses II was third.
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