Lonnie Wheatley, LAWTON, Okla. (July 9, 2022) – There was no lack of mayhem in the closing rounds of Saturday night’s 30-lap Oil Capital Racing Series Sprint Car feature event atop the 1/3-mile Lawton Speedway clay oval.
It was all behind race leader Steven Shebester however, as the Mustang, OK, racer ran unabated to the checkered flag for his third series win of the season aboard the Riverside Auto Salvage/CB Underground Utilities No. 16s machine.
“The track was really tricky tonight,” Shebester explained afterward. “You really had to hit it just right and that got even tougher to do in traffic.”
While Shebester gridded the feature on the front row outside, it was pole starter Terry Easum gunning into the initial lead and pacing the initial half-dozen circuits before Shebester slid by in turns three and four on the seventh round and bringing Joe Bob Lee along with him into second.
Tanner Conn moved past Easum for third at the midway point as Shebester began working through traffic while 15th-starter Rees Moran worked his way into the top five and then past Easum for fourth before making his way past Conn.
As Shebester worked through traffic, Lee was unable to cut into his lead and with just a handful of laps to go had his hands full with the surging Moran in the battle for second.
A spate of three cautions in the final handful of laps after 18 rounds of non-stop green flag action shuffled the running order in Shebester’s wake as fourth and fifth runners Conn and Easum both pulled to the infield with mechanical problems after a lap 26 caution and then frontstretch real estate ran short for the duo of Lee and Moran as they diced for second with both suffering race-ending woes that brought out the race’s final caution with two laps to go.
Blake Edwards capitalized to snare runner-up honors by holding off the challenges of Sheldon Barksdale over the final pair of circuits. While Barksdale filled out the podium in third, Chip Graham rallied from the tail of the field after a lap three trip to the work area to claim fourth with Danny Wood rebounding as well from his lap three stoppage to round out the top five as only ten of the 20 feature starters saw the checkered flag.
Following Wood’s lap three right rear issues, the red flag flew five laps later when Whit Gastineau got upside down in turn four after Fred Mattox looped it setting up the extended green flag run before the trio of late cautions.
Conn, Lee and Edwards topped heat race action for the 28-car field before Moran won the “B” Main.
Oil Capital Racing Series
Lawton Speedway – Lawton, OK
Saturday, July 9, 2022
OCRS Sprint Cars:
AmeriFlex Hose Accessories A-Main (30 Laps): 1. 16S-Steven Shebester[2]; 2. 17E-Blake Edwards[3]; 3. 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[9]; 4. 5H-Chip Graham[13]; 5. 55W-Danny Wood[8]; 6. 18-Dillon Laden[18]; 7. 22S-Jax Redline[16]; 8. 94F-Morgan Fletcher[14]; 9. 29B-Duane Baker[12]; 10. 26M-Fred Mattox[11]; 11. 5-Joe Bob Lee[4]; 12. 22M-Rees Moran[15]; 13. 88-Terry Easum[1]; 14. 08E-Elizabeth Phillips[10]; 15. 78-Tanner Conn[5]; 16. B52-Brayden Voigt[17]; 17. 13C-Brady Courtney[6]; 18. 2-Whit Gastineau[19]; 19. 51-Ryan Dean[20]; 20. (DQ) 17A-Jeremy Allen[7]
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 22M-Rees Moran[3]; 2. 22S-Jax Redline[6]; 3. B52-Brayden Voigt[7]; 4. 18-Dillon Laden[9]; 5. 2-Whit Gastineau[11]; 6. 51-Ryan Dean[4]; 7. 36-Zack Smith[14]; 8. 98K-Dane Fields[5]; 9. 5B-Brock Cottrell[12]; 10. 17-Brandon Haddad[13]; 11. 28-Joe Wood Jr[2]; 12. 50-Cody Whitworth[1]; 13. 97-Bruce Best[8]; 14. 7T-Landon Thompson[10]
Schure Built Suspension Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 78-Tanner Conn[1]; 2. 17A-Jeremy Allen[2]; 3. 13C-Brady Courtney[6]; 4. 26M-Fred Mattox[5]; 5. 55W-Danny Wood[9]; 6. 51-Ryan Dean[4]; 7. 98K-Dane Fields[7]; 8. 5B-Brock Cottrell[3]; 9. 7T-Landon Thompson[10]; 10. 17-Brandon Haddad[8]
Lightning Wings Powder Coating Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Joe Bob Lee[2]; 2. 88-Terry Easum[4]; 3. 29B-Duane Baker[1]; 4. 94F-Morgan Fletcher[3]; 5. 50-Cody Whitworth[6]; 6. 28-Joe Wood Jr[8]; 7. B52-Brayden Voigt[5]; 8. 97-Bruce Best[7]; 9. 2-Whit Gastineau[9]
Smith Titanium Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 17E-Blake Edwards[2]; 2. 16S-Steven Shebester[8]; 3. 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[4]; 4. 08E-Elizabeth Phillips[6]; 5. 22M-Rees Moran[3]; 6. 5H-Chip Graham[9]; 7. 22S-Jax Redline[7]; 8. 18-Dillon Laden[5]; 9. 36-Zack Smith[1]