Skaggs wins Super Modified

July 13, 2008 12:41 am

— Special to the Phoenix

OKTAHA – A flat tire last week possibly cost Bixby’s Greg Skaggs a fourth straight Super Modified feature win in dirt track racing at Outlaw Motor Speedway.
He didn’t experience any problems Friday night as he smoked the field en route to a season-leading eighth feature victory. He used a caution after lap 13 to close in on leaders Justin Fulton of Muskogee, and Jason Teague of Tahlequah.
Those two had about a five-second advantage on Skaggs.
But on the restart, he raced past the two pace-setters and had the lead when another caution flag came out. Fulton left the track with car problems, and it was Teague’s spin that cautioned the race at just the right time for Skaggs.
Skaggs left the field in his dust with William Gould of Fort Smith, Ark., finishing second, and Chouteau’s Jeran Frailey taking third. Frailey contended for the lead early in the race, but he did not have the muscle to compete with Fulton, Teague, and eventually Skaggs.

Modified
J.D. Jackson won a dash to the finish to edge Patrick Goodnight at the checkered flag to win the feature.
After the race-ending flag, Goodnight bumped Jackson’s car in the left rear quarter panel in turn one, which brought an immediate reprimand from the flag stand – a disqualifying black flag for the Braggs driver.
That pushed Haskell’s Danny Womack to second. Womack initially finished the race a close third — on Goodnight’s left door.
Jackson, who is from Chouteau, took the lead on lap seven when leader Shannon Reheard of Muskogee lost control and spun out in turn two. Ironically, Reheard inherited the lead from Chouteau’s Emily Jackson when she lost control in the same spot after leading the race from the start.
While the rest of the pack fought for position, Jackson widened his lead. But once Goodnight, Womack, and division point leader Jake Kelley of Glenpool got through the field, they all became threats to Jackson.
With five laps to go, Jackson had just a two-second lead over the next three cars.
Following in third after the disqualification were Kelley and Porter’s Carl Conley in fourth.

Hobby Stock
After five weeks of playing second fiddle, Muskogee’s Dale Richardson won his seventh feature of the season.
He took the lead on lap 13 and pulled away from there. He ran second to Muskogee’s Kerney Weaver for four laps before moving in front of his rival. Weaver finished second with Brookin Stephens of Spiro taking third.
Richardson last won on May 23 to lead the division in points. He took a two-week vacation and when he returned, he had lost his points lead to Inola’s Justin Shoemaker and Stephens. He went into this feature fifth in points.

Pure Stock
Jason Ward wrestled the lead from Checotah’s Kay Burris midway through the feature and then ran away from the field for his third triumph of the year.
The division point leader from Tahlequah steadily increased his lead once he cleared Burris’ machine. With five laps remaining, he was three seconds ahead of the pack. He finished with a six-second advantage over Burris, who ran one of her best races of the season.
Ward had a clean sweep for his evening of racing, winning his heat.
Following Burris across the finish line was 2006 point champion Bob Lewis of Muskogee with Justin Sellers of Muskogee, fourth.
Brandi Levassuer of Checotah and second to Ward in the points race, did not start the feature. She blew her engine just after finishing third in her heat race.
The feature was red flagged shortly after the starting green flag when four cars came together midway down the backstretch. One car —driven by Muskogee’s Darien Austin —did a sideways roll and landed on its wheels after making contact with Boynton’s James Gillean.
Other cars in the wreck were Oktaha’s Robert LaRue and Muskogee’s Mike Bantaa. All four cars were damaged to the point where they could not continue.
Austin’s car suffered the most damage – the roof was all but torn off his machine and the left side of his vehicle was caved in. He emerged from his car unharmed, waving to the crowd.