Special to the Phoenix
May 04, 2008 12:28 am
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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.
He then held off Brandi Levasseur to the checked flag. Levasseur, of Chouteau, won the first two features of the year and is the division’s point leader. Justice was third.
Bobby Lewis, the division’s 2006 points champion, set the early pace and led for the first four laps. Justice used a backstretch surge to make the pass of Lewis and led until Gillean charged to the lead.
Levassuer got to second on lap 12 when several cars – including Lewis – tangled in turn three. Lewis eventually finished sixth. Gillean started in the eighth position and was in third after the first lap.
In the second heat, Checotah’s Tony Underhill rolled his car in front of the north end of the grandstands after making contact with Rick Whittle of Oktaha and Kay Burris of Checotah. He emerged from the vehicle, resting on its roof, uninjured.
Economy Modified
A determined Jake Kelley kept the new track owner at bay to win his fourth feature of the year. The 2006 track champion started in the 14th position and charged to the lead after eight laps. He took the lead from Patrick Goodnight of Braggs who got high in the loose clay in turn three and could not recover.
A restart for a car slamming into a track barrier (a tire) on the final lap produced a green-white-checkered for the finish. Kelley was up to the challenge, keeping Womack and the field in his dust in the single-file restart.
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