OKTAHA – Proving he had the best and fastest car in his division, Dale Richardson fought off serious challenges from a trio of drivers to win the special Hobby Stock Shootout Feature at Outlaw Motor Speedway here Friday night.

Richardson, from Muskogee, pocketed $2,000 for his victory. He has won four features at the track this year and is the division’s point leader.

A crowd estimated at 1,500 watched 92 cars compete on the first night of racing under a new track ownership. Danny Womack of Haskell purchased the facility Thursday at a bank auction on the steps of the Muskogee County Court House.

He was one of three who bid on the track previously owned by Teresa and Gary Clay. They built the track and opened it in 2003.

Womack has been promoter of the track for IBC bank since the bank took possession before the season opened in mid-March.

Richardson first had to face a challenge by Inola’s Justin Shoemaker and withstand a threat from a couple of Spiro drivers before taking the checkered flag. He wrestled the lead from Shoemaker on lap nine with a nifty bid of driving out of turn two. Then it was Spiro’s Brookin Stephens and Jimmy Douglass he had to contend with in the closing laps of the 30-lap event.

Stephens, who led the race at the halfway point, eventually left the track (lap 25) with transmission problems. That left Douglass to carry on the fight and he kept up the pressure on Richardson for the final five trips around the oval, three times pulling along side in his bid to capture the top prize.

Richardson effectively used the a combination of the low groove in the turns and the high groove down the straight-away. He took the lead from Shoemaker with a low-high move out of turn one and used the same maneuvers to hold off Stephens and Douglass.

Modified

Fort Gibson’s Justin Fulton and Fort Smith, Ark.’s William Gould battled door-to-door in the final three laps, before Gould took charge with one lap to go to win his second feature of the year.

The two were rubbing paint in front of the grandstands with two laps remaining and stayed side-by-side all the way to turn three, where Gould gained an edge. At the finish he had a three-car length margin over Fulton and the rest of the field.

Mike Withrow of Muskogee, the early race leader, finished third.

Pure Stock

James Gillean drove home with his second straight feature victory. The Boynton driver forged ahead of Brandi Justice of Tahlequah on the backstretch with three laps remaining to take the lead.