April 26, 2008 09:44 pm
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OKTAHA — Finally, Brookin Stephens finished a main event at Outlaw Motor Speedway and in doing so, he won the Hobby Stock Feature here Friday night.
In four previous OMS starts, the Spiro driver has had one the fastest cars in the division – but all that speed went for naught. During each race he exited stage-right to the pits with mechanical problems. Driving a vehicle co-owned by Muskogee’s Jess Watson and Johnny Tarkington, he was leading two of the races.
But on this night, he used the high groove to wrestle the lead from three-time feature winner Dale Richardson of Muskogee and subsequently out-dueled Jimmy Douglass of Spiro and Richardson in a two-lap dash to the checkered flag.
Three spinouts in the final five laps set up the finish of one of the best races of the season. The final yellow came with one lap remaining. Douglass challenged at the start, but he didn’t have the muscle to catch Stephens.
The race was stopped on lap six when Billy Frohnapfel of Skiatook took a wild, roll-over ride through turn one. The right rear tire came loose from his racer, flipping the car over with it finally coming to rest on its top against the track’s concrete retaining wall.
Track safety personnel rolled the car back on its wheel and then assisted Frohnapfel from his destroyed racer. Apparently uninjured. he walked to the track ambulance for a checkup.
Stephens led 12 of the 20 laps. Richardson, also liking the high groove, took the lead on lap 11 and led three trips around the three-eighths mile oval before surrendering the front spot to Douglass who led one lap. Getting back into the high groove on lap 16, Stephens led to the finish.
Once Bixby’s Greg Skaggs cleared traffic at the start of the race, he set a blistering pace to win his second Modified feature of the year. He won the initial race of the season.
By lap 11, Skaggs had dashed to a six-second lead over second place Jared Russell, Muskogee, and eight seconds over William Gould of Fort Smith, Ark. He was six cars into lapping the field when he took the checkered flag.
Skaggs also won his heat, beating Gould, who also has a feature win to his credit.
Three consecutive accidents in the lap one of the Economy Modified feature orced officials to eventually abandon the traditional side-by-start in favor of a single-file lineup. The race – after three more cautions – finally ended after eight laps via a green-white-checkered.
That was to Haskell Danny Womack’s liking as he forged ahead on the backstretch and set the pace from start to finish to record his first feature triumph of the year..
After the third accident on the race’s green flag try, officials stopped he cars and repositioned them in single file. Womack led two laps before another caution slowed the race. A fifth caution came on lap four when Chouteau’s Emily Jackson and Lance Dobbins of Dyer, Ark., got together at the pit gate exit.
Jackson was attempting to leave the track when Robbins came up on her right side as she was turning right into the pits.
The sixth caution – a pair of spin outs – sliced the scheduled 20-lap event to eight.
Boynton’s James Gillean powered his racer to his first feature victory of the year in the Pure Stock run. Starting on the third row inside, Gillean took the lead on lap four and never trailed from there. Jason Ward of Tahlequah and Darien Austin of Muskogee, were second and third. Brandi Levassuer of Chouteau, bidding for her fourth feature victory, finished sixth.
The race was red-flagged three laps into the 15-lap event when Muskogee’s Kenny Payne was involved in an accident in front of the grandstands that flipped his car on its roof, leaving him hanging upside down in his seat. He emerged uninjured. He rode to the pits sitting in the window of his slightly damaged car being towed by the track wrecker.
Matt Sherrell of Tulsa won the special 20-lap Midge feature. He took the lead on lap six from Joe Cleveland from Bennington, Kan., and led the rest of the way.
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