McClelland Goes
Wire-Wire At The
"Sprint Car Fall Nationals”
John Lemon OCRS Public Relations
Oktaha
Oklahoma (September 30th – 2011) Oil
Capital Racing Series point leader Sean McClelland
captured the 2011 running of the “Sprint Car Fall
Nationals” over a 27 car field of competitors at the
Outlaw Motor Speedway and in doing so, McClelland
also set a season high with his seventh triumph of
the year. Add the fact the Tulsa Oklahoma driver
extended his point lead ever so slightly over Moore
Oklahoma’s Whit “The Gasman” Gastineau, then it was
even a better night for the team that sports the
“Black Widow” number one XXX chassis machine.
These two title challengers were glued
together all night having been together in their
heat race where Gastineau led a one–two finish.
Next, they found themselves together in the “Pole
Dash” where McClelland led another one-two run. They
started side by side in the 25-lap A Feature where
McClelland shot into the lead at the drop of the
green flag in his Finishline Machine / Lawton Auto
Parts / Maxwell Oil sprinter with Gastineau lurking
in his Exterior Specialties / Shell Rapid Lube /
Larry Allen Racing Engines / Goodyear / Eagle
chassis.
Before a lap could be completed, a multi car
pile up in turn one involved Glen Passmore, Shayla
“The Princess” Waddell, Danny Smith and Matt
Sherrell. Smith would turn over to bring out the red
flag. He was uninjured but done for the race. All
the others were either towed in or pushed in the
infield for racing to resume. Sherrell would fall
from third to fourth in the standings with his early
exit.
Stilwell’s Rafe Essary would be the benefactor of
Sherrill’s demise. As the field pushed off for a
complete restart, OCRS officials were keeping a
close eye on the left rear tire of Dean Drake Jr. as
it appeared to be very low. The tire never went flat
and Drake was allowed to restart. McClelland would
lead the field on the restart with the Gasman once
again in pursuit. Jamie Passmore tucked in behind
the pair with Josh Toho, Drake, Andrew Deal and Mike
Goodman next in line.
To begin lap four, Goodman would overtake
Deal at the start/finish line and Deal would return
the move in the exact same spot a lap later. At this
point, McClelland was already putting distance
between himself and the field. “I really have to
thank Shane tonight (Crew Chief Shane Vandervliet)”
McClelland would later say in his interview. “He
really did everything to the car. I didn’t even have
to ask him what he was doing. It drove like a dream
tonight.”
McClelland would enter heavy lapped traffic
on the twelfth lap but he would work it to
perfection. Goodman would pass Deal for sixth on the
front straight to start the next circuit. Drake
would begin to put enormous pressure on Toho for the
fourth position but Toho would hold his ground.
McClelland would have a half a straight-a-way
advantage by the 18th lap but that
cushion would be erased two laps later.
In an attempt to pass the lapped car of Fred
Mattox in turn one, Drake would get loose and make
contact with the youngster from Drumright causing
Mattox to collect the wall and flip his mount. Not
only was Mattox uninjured, he proceed to jog the
entire back straight in search of Drake for an
impromptu drivers meeting. OCRS officials would have
no such meeting take place and escorted Mattox back
into the pit area. On the restart, Toho made a full
run slide job going into turn one as he passed both
Passmore then Gastineau to take the second spot by
the time the cars hit the center of turn two.
However, Toho had too much momentum for the slickest
part of the track, spun his tires, and he was back
to his fourth before the field would hit turn three.
Although the move failed to hold, the fans loved it.
The race would finish without extra stoppages
and McClelland would go on to win by eight car
lengths to complete his wire-wire triumph over
Gastineau with Passmore, Toho and Drake in the top
five. Rounding out the top ten were, Goodman, Brian
McClelland, Andrew Deal, Tim Kent and Kyle Clark.
However, in post race inspection, OCRS officials
disqualified Toho for failing to pass a fuel test
and the rest of the finishing order were all moved
up a position from fourth on back.
As for holding on to the top spot over the
last two races on the OCRS schedule McClelland
stated: “We just have to keep doing what we have
been doing and not do anything foolish. I really
don’t want to know I’m in the lead, I just want to
go out, have fun and try to win races.” said
McClelland. When asked if he really needs to change
his mindset to protect his points lead because there
are only two races left on the schedule, McClelland
responded: “I’ve tried to do that in the past and
it’s got me into trouble. We just need to keep
focused and keep moving forward and not worry about
what anyone else is doing. I do want to be a
three-time OCRS champion (McClelland was the
champion in 2002-2003), that’s important to me.”
When asked why it’s important to him McClelland
replied: “ Mike Goodman and Passmore have three
(titles) and I want to be included with those guys.
Jamie Passmore is probably the best driver in the
state of Oklahoma and it would mean a lot if I could
get three titles also. There is a lot of really good
talent in this series and there is a lot of hidden
talent in this series but a lot of people don’t see
it because some teams just don’t have the funding.
It’s a good series and these cars are so
close (to being competitive) that you have to mind
your P’s and Q’s to stay ahead. It all just means a
lot. (to be successful)”
In B Feature action earlier in the program,
Shayla Waddell tracked down early leader Travis
Jenkins to win the 12-lap affair to become the first
of four cars to transfer to the A Feature. Rafe
Essary would take the second spot with Jenkins third
and Fred Mattox collecting the final free pass. The
next event for the Oil Capital Racing Series sprint
cars will be back at Outlaw Motor Speedway on Friday
October 14th.
Outlaw Motor Speedway
Race date: September 30, 2011 -
Event 18 Car Count: 27
HEAT 1:
1, Whit Gastineau. 2, Sean McClelland. 3, Tim Kent.
4, Kevin Guinn. 5, Darien Roberts. 6, Beau
Gastineau. 7, Brian Bishop.
HEAT 2:
1, Josh Toho. 2, Dean Drake Jr. 3, Brian McClelland.
4, Travis
Jenkins. 5, Brent Merchant. 6, Brady Demeree. 7,
Fred Mattox.
HEAT 3:
1, Andrew Deal. 2, Mike Goodman. 3, Kyle Clark. 4,
Shayla Waddell. 5, Rafe Essary. 6, Strike Hill. 7,
Kevin Cummings.
HEAT 4:
1, Jamie Passmore. 2, Matt Sherrell. 3, Glen
Passmore. 4, Danny Smith. 5, Layne Himebaugh. 6,
Brian Roberts.
DASH:
1, Sean McClelland. 2, Whit Gastineau. 3, Josh Toho.
4, Jamie Passmore. 5, Andrew Deal. 6, Dean Drake Jr.
B FEATURE:
1, Shayla Waddell. 2, Rafe Essary. 3, Travis
Jenkins. 4, Fred Mattox. 5, Brian Roberts. 6, Beau
Gastineau. 7, Strike Hill. 8, Brian Bishop. 9, Kevin
Cummings. 10, Layne Himebaugh. DNS: Brady Demeree.
A FEATURE:
1, Sean McClelland. 2, Whit Gastineau. 3, Jamie
Passmore. 4, Dean Drake Jr. 5, Mike Goodman. 6,
Brian McClelland. 7, Andrew Deal. 8, Tim Kent. 9,
Kyle Clark. 10, Kevin Guinn. 11, Rafe Essary. 12,
Brian Roberts. 13, Brent Merchant. 14, Fred Mattox.
15, Travis Jenkins. 16, Matt Sherrell. 17, Glen
Passmore. 18, Danny Smith. 19, Shayla Waddell. 20,
Josh Toho (DQ).
|