Special to the Phoenix
July 04, 2009 11:42 pm
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OKTAHA — Once the fireworks show ended — on the track — Jared Russell ran off from the field to win the Outlaw Modified feature here Friday night at Outlaw Motor Speedway.
The largest crowd of the season — estimated at 4,000 — witnessed a 30-minute fireworks show at intermission and then were treated to some of the fastest features of the year. Drivers were extremely happy with the track condition.
“This is the best track we’ve ever raced on,” said Matt Burnett, winner of the Pure Stock feature.
Russell would certainly attest to that, springing into the lead when early race leader Mike Hornback of Muskogee and second-place Andy Morris of Okay got together and crashed into the wall in turn three, three laps into the race. Both cars impacted the wall hard, coming to a rest just a few feet from each other. Sparks flew from both cars as they slid along the concrete barrier.
Just moments after both cars were towed to the pits, security was called to the area where both cars were parked — practically side-by-side — as “sparks” flew from the drivers. An altercation occurred and they had to be separated, according to track security.
While track officials and the OMS security team handled the off-track commotion, Russell of Muskogee was sitting a blistering pace to register his third feature win of the season. He had an eight-second lead over second place Joe Duvall of Chelsea, and third place finisher Jeran Frailey of Chouteau.
Frailey and Duvall waged a battle for the runner-up position before Duvall took the position in lap 14.
Greg Skaggs of Bixby, last year’s track champion, was in the hunt to make a run a run at Russell, but he took himself out of the picture when he went too hard into turns one and two, spinning out. Skaggs had jumped from 10th to fourth in just two laps after the Hornback-Morris incident.
Hornback, returning to racing after a brief layoff, said before the night started, “we’re just working the bugs out and hope to race more regularly from this point on.”
The accident left the right side of his car heavily damaged, as was Morris’.
Hobby Stock
Dale Richardson made it two in a row and eight for the season, walking away from the field to capture the feature. The Muskogee driver dashed away from the pack leaving Randy Moses II, and Colton Dunlap, both of Muskogee, to battle for second place.
Richardson was locked in the high groove to win his 42nd career win. Moses and Dunlap were both in the same groove until the last three laps, when Dunlap tried the middle of the track approach in an attempt to pass Moses.
The move almost worked, but Moses had just enough car to hold him off. In the final dash to the finish line, Dunlap attempted to slid by Moses along the wall in the home stretch, but Moses put a defensive squeeze on the teenager and he had to back off the throttle or risk crashing into the wall.
By that time, Richardson was well into turn one with the checkered flag.
Pure Stock
In the past three races, Burnett has had a good look at Kyle Slader’s bumper. But this week, it was Slader’s turn to play follow the leader.
Burnett, who won four of the first six features of the year, returned to victory lane with his fifth win. He grabbed the lead from Brody Young of Alma, Ark., on lap five. He sprinted to a two second lead after 10 lap and had a five-second interval over Slader and the field at the finish.
“Wow, this track was fast tonight,” said the Muskogeen after a post-race inspection of his car. “It was probably the fastest track we’ve had for our feature all season long.”
Slader followed Burnett into the second position around Brody on lap five, making a good move into the low groove out of turn four.
The 14-year-old Muskogee driver was looking for his fourth feature win in a row.
The actual battle was for third with four cars in the hunt in the final two laps. Young was able to hold off Tahlequah’s Jason Ward.
Mini-Stocks
Jerry Hoffman of Glenpool took the feature. He captured the lead with five laps remaining in the 15-lap race when he rub some paint with leader Justin Cartwright of Sperry. Cartwright left the track with a flat tire.
Greg Overstreet of Broken Arrow, was second with Dalton Pulliam of Fort Smith, Ark., coming back from a lap eight spin-out to finish third. He was leading the race a the time of his misfortune.
360 Economy Modified
Driving a masterful race running in the high groove, Shannon Reheard led from start to finish in the feature, but his efforts were for naught. A post-race inspection revealed his headers were illegal, so he was disqualified, giving the win to Spiro’s Martin Hemphill.
Reheard of Muskogee starting from the pole, was several cars in front of a couple of first lap accidents that brought out the red flag. The most severe of the mishaps happened in front of the south grandstands.
Tahlequah’s Kyle Stevens got into Muskogee’s Heath Weston, spinning around and coming to a stop facing on-coming traffic. Everyone but Lance Robbins, of Dyer, Ark., got past Stevens — Robbins slamming into Steven’s stalled machine head on.
“Lance didn’t have anywhere to go,” Stevens said after climbing out of his car. “I got into Heath and spun around. I saw Lance coming right at me and all I could do was hang on.”
Both drivers reported no injuries.
In the meantime, Reheard was fighting off three serious challenges — from Hemphill, Patrick Goodnight of Braggs, and Clay Julian of Ozark, Ark.
Julian spun-out in turn four to take himself out of the hunt on lap 10 and Goodnight did not have the car to catch the two leaders – Reheard and Hemphill who ran bumper-to-bumper for the final six laps.
Several times Reheard got a bump in the back bumper from Hemphill on the backstretch, but the Spiro racer couldn’t get around Reheard who refused to give up the high groove.
But Hemphill finally passed him at the inspection booth.
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