Lonnie Wheatley, MUSKOGEE, Okla. (May 29, 2022) – He’s certainly no “Okie from Muskogee”. In fact, he hails from the other side of the Red River in Sunnyvale, TX.
But it was five-time series champion Sam Hafertepe, Jr., that reigned supreme as the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour returned to Muskogee’s Thunderbird Speedway on Sunday night for the first time in 22 years.
Hafertepe, Jr., gunned into the lead at the outset of the 25-lap feature event from the front row outside starting position atop the half-mile dirt oval and led all the way aboard the Hill’s Racing CigarPort.ca/truenorth.bet No. 15h Sprint Car for his 59th career series feature win.
“I felt like we had a good car right away and we were able to work through traffic really well,” Hafertepe explained in victory lane.
While Hafertepe cruised out front ahead of Wayne Johnson and Dylan Westbrook even after traffic came into play after eight laps, his Sunday drive became perilous when fourth-runner and reigning series champion Blake Hahn slowed to precipitate the race’s first caution with just three laps to go.
More calamity occurred on the restart when Matt Covington tripped over the cushion in turns three and four and flipped with Lance Norick tumbling as well in the aftermath after tangling with Kade Morton.
“I didn’t want to see that caution, but we were good enough to finish it off,” Hafertepe explained.
He had no worries as it turned out, as he raced away again in the final three rounds to secure the win by a comfortable margin.
Positions shuffled in his wake as Johnson fell back with Jason Martin taking full advantage by battling past Westbrook to snare runner-up honors with Westbrook filling out the podium in third. After having a power-move past both Brandon Anderson and Martin to move from sixth to fourth negated by Covington’s flip, 12th-starter Garet Williamson still advanced to fourth in the final laps with Anderson rounding out the top five.
Tim Crawley was sixth with Chance Morton, Sean McClelland, Landon Crawley and 17th-starter Whit Gastineau completing the top ten.
After Johnson established the quickest overall time in qualifying of 18.091 seconds, he went on to win the first heat race with Hafertepe, Jr., and Hahn also victorious in heat race action.
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
Thunderbird Speedway – Muskogee, OK
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour:
FloRacing A-Main (25 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 2. 36-Jason Martin[6]; 3. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[3]; 4. 24-Garet Williamson[12]; 5. 55B-Brandon Anderson[8]; 6. 1X-Tim Crawley[7]; 7. 7M-Chance Morton[11]; 8. 87-Sean McClelland[10]; 9. 187-Landon Crawley[9]; 10. 2-Whit Gastineau[17]; 11. 45X-Kyler Johnson[21]; 12. 26M-Fred Mattox[14]; 13. 17B-Ryan Bickett[15]; 14. 10P-Dylan Postier[24]; 15. 2C-Wayne Johnson[4]; 16. 52-Blake Hahn[1]; 17. 95-Matt Covington[5]; 18. 50Z-Zach Chappell[20]; 19. 8M-Kade Morton[23]; 20. 90-Lance Norick[18]; 21. 22M-Rees Moran[16]; 22. 2D-Dylan Opdahl[19]; 23. 10-Landon Britt[13]; 24. 91-Justin Fine[22]
SCE Gaskets Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson[4]; 2. 36-Jason Martin[3]; 3. 87-Sean McClelland[1]; 4. 24-Garet Williamson[2]; 5. 10-Landon Britt[6]; 6. 22M-Rees Moran[7]; 7. 45X-Kyler Johnson[5]; 8. 91-Justin Fine[8]
SCE Gaskets Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[5]; 3. 1X-Tim Crawley[4]; 4. 55B-Brandon Anderson[3]; 5. 2-Whit Gastineau[1]; 6. 17B-Ryan Bickett[8]; 7. 50Z-Zach Chappell[6]; 8. 8M-Kade Morton[7]
SCE Gaskets Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 2. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[4]; 3. 7M-Chance Morton[1]; 4. 187-Landon Crawley[3]; 5. 26M-Fred Mattox[6]; 6. 90-Lance Norick[5]; 7. 2D-Dylan Opdahl[8]; 8. 10P-Dylan Postier[7]
The Drivers Project Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson, 00:18.091[1]; 2. 36-Jason Martin, 00:18.278[4]; 3. 24-Garet Williamson, 00:18.309[6]; 4. 87-Sean McClelland, 00:18.482[8]; 5. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 00:18.489[5]; 6. 10-Landon Britt, 00:18.817[7]; 7. 22M-Rees Moran, 00:19.347[3]; 8. 91-Justin Fine, 00:20.225[2]
The Drivers Project Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 1X-Tim Crawley, 00:18.266[5]; 2. 55B-Brandon Anderson, 00:18.351[8]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:18.450[1]; 4. 2-Whit Gastineau, 00:18.460[2]; 5. 95-Matt Covington, 00:18.778[6]; 6. 50Z-Zach Chappell, 00:19.008[3]; 7. 8M-Kade Morton, 00:19.045[4]; 8. 17B-Ryan Bickett, 00:19.400[7]
The Drivers Project Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 47X-Dylan Westbrook, 00:18.722[6]; 2. 187-Landon Crawley, 00:18.919[3]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:18.926[7]; 4. 7M-Chance Morton, 00:19.070[8]; 5. 90-Lance Norick, 00:19.269[5]; 6. 26M-Fred Mattox, 00:19.302[2]; 7. 10P-Dylan Postier, 00:19.646[4]; 8. 2D-Dylan Opdahl, 00:20.139[1]