|
(Savannah, GA) Three new
drivers visited victory lane at the historic Oglethorpe
Speedway Park during Friday night’s NASCAR Dodge Weekly
Series event. Glenn Yawn finally broke into the winner’s
circle besting the field of Coca-Cola Late Models. Anthony
Parker picked up his first career NASCAR victory after
making a last lap pass and Gene Thompson set the tone for
the upcoming Mini Stock Challenge between Oglethorpe
Speedway Park and Swainsboro Raceway winning the four
cylinder race in his first 2005 season appearance.
Brian Barnes
and Michael Bean also had a victorious night that included a
64-year-old rookie winning his first race ever, a wild front
stretch accident that saw defending Pure Stock champion
Terron Roberts flip over in front of the flagstand and a
shoving match between the escalating rivalry for the top
spot in the Mini Stock points race.
In the
Coca-Cola Late Models, Glenn Yawn has been so close to
victory this season he could almost taste it. Yawn has
finished among the leaders in the majority of his OSP
appearances this season. But until Friday night had been
unable to put one in the win column. The Rincon driver shot
past Casey Barrow on an early race restart and then held off
another driver hungry for win number one in 2005, Lonnie
Brant, for the laurels. Eighteen-year-old Sean Meeks was
third followed by Jay Hendricks and sixteen-year-old Branden
Yawn, who is the winner’s nephew.
“I have to
thank Ricky Brant for this win,” said Yawn in victory lane.
“He helped set this car up this week. It was his set-up.”
The Southern
Racing Supplies Pure Stocks are one of the favorites for OSP
race fans. The entry level class is full of talent, new and
veteran, and the mix can sometimes result in wild action.
That was the case on Friday night as the defending
divisional champion, Terron Roberts “The Walterboro Wildman”
exited turn four on the inside of young upstart Jamie
Hopkins. The two locked horns with the end result both
slamming the front stretch wall which sent Hopkins 1986
Camaro hood flinging high in the air and Roberts 1978 Monte
Carlo flipping on it’s roof and then rolling back on to it’s
wheels as the rest of the field piled into the disabled cars
blocking traffic directly in front of the flagstand.
The accident
settled the other competitors nerves a bit as the race went
caution free from that point forward. It looked as though
Walter Sills would win for the second straight Friday
night. But on the final lap, Sills slid high in turn two
allowing Guyton’s Anthony Parker to shoot past on the
inside. The two drivers drag raced out of the final turn
for the finish line with Parker nabbing his first career
NASCAR victory ahead of Sills by a quarter panel. Former
Pure Stock champion Donnie Cannon was third followed by
points leader Dan Douglas and rookie Timmy Dasher, Jr. Greg
Annas, Billy Oglesby, Buster Kleckley, Don Douglas and John
Loomis rounded the top ten.
Oglethorpe
Speedway Park and Swainsboro Raceway have teamed up for a
special challenge race this upcoming Friday and Saturday
night (August 5 and 6). Swainsboro’s Gene Thompson decided
to visit a week early, size up the competition and make
adjustments for the challenge races paying $750 to win at
each track. Thompson made a statement in the process.
The Swainsboro
hot shoe arrived late to Oglethorpe Speedway Park missing
his heat race qualifier and any practice laps. Thompson
started at the tail end of the eighteen car field. He ran
high and low on the track, avoided some early race cautions
and then took over the lead from Chris Johnson with four
laps remaining and scooted to victory lane making a
resounding statement to the OSP contingent that Swainsboro
is out to win this speedway challenge.
“I think Ted
Austad is going to wear that pink tutu,” said Gene Thompson
in victory lane. “We’re going to win this challenge.”
OSP promoter
Ted Austad made a side bet with Swainsboro Raceway promoter
Paul Purvis that the losing track’s promoter has to visit
the opposing race track the week after the challenge and
flag the mini stock race while wearing a pink tutu. The
loser also has to cook a low country boil for the winning
team’s mini stock drivers.
In the Love’s
Seafood Street Stocks, former champion Brian Barnes did a
great job of holding back current points leader “Rapid” Ray
Collins for his second win this season. Donald Norby
recovered from a horrible week the previous Friday and
Saturday to finish in third ahead of Timmy Dasher and Mike
Crosby.
“April was
talking in my ear the whole time,” said Barnes afterwards.
“C’mon baby you can do it. Keep it going. Hold ‘em back.
She was a great coach.”
Michael Bean
returned to victory lane piloting a car owned by Tom Nerich.
Bean shot past the field and then held off Phillip Dickerson
and Danny Herrington for the win in the Four Star Security
440 division feature.
The 440 series
highlight of the night was in the trophy dash when
64-year-old rookie Gunny Prescott won his first ever race.
Prescott slid past Brian Nerich as the white flag flew and
then held off the four decade younger driver to win for the
first time.
“He could
barely get his window net down,” said OSP’s Darlene Aanerud.
“He was pounding on the wheel and you could see his smile
through the full face helmet. That was an excited race car
driver.”
Oglethorpe
Speedway Park’s Friday night NASCAR program returns this
week on August 5th with a full night of racing
excitement. Late Models, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, Mini
Stocks and 440 cars will be racing. Plus, the US Highway 80
Challenge will take place at OSP Friday night and Swainsboro
Raceway Saturday night. For more information, contact the
speedway at 912-964-8200 or visit
www.ospracing.net.
Official Results from Friday,
July 29, 2005
Coca-Cola Late Models
(Feature): 1-Glenn Yawn, Rincon 2-Lonnie Brant,
Bloomingdale 3-Sean Meeks, Guyton 4-Jay Hendricks, Rincon
5-Branden Yawn, Springfield 6-Robert Diekemper,
Bloomingdale 7-Mark Davis, Savannah 8-Steven Senter,
Savannah 9-Donnie Bazemore, Guyton 10-Shane Riner, Rincon
11-Casey Barrow, Guyton 12-Shawn Pritchard, Rincon 13-Russ
Brown, Savannah
Love’s Seafood Street Stocks
(Feature): 1-Brian Barnes, Bloomingdale 2-Ray Collins,
Ellabell 3-Donald Norby, Midway 4-Timmy Dasher, Bluffton,
SC 5-Mike Crosby, Savannah 6-Clint Sills, Bloomingdale
7-John McCosker, Richmond Hill 8-Ray Crosby, Savannah
9-Mike Helmly, Guyton 10-Wayne Page, Savannah 11-Dustin
Collins, Ellabell 12-Adam Chambers, Hinesville 13-Brian
White, Ellabell 14-Hubert Keller, Savannah 15-Chris
Litchfield, Rincon 16-Nicky Smith, Springfield 17-Butch
Reich, Eden 18-David Smith, Guyton
Southern Racing Supplies Pure
Stocks (Feature): 1-Anthony Parker, Guyton 2-Walter Sills,
Bloomingdale 3-Donnie Cannon, Guyton 4-Dan Douglas,
Hardeeville, SC 5-Timmy Dasher, Jr., Bluffton, SC 6-Greg
Annas, Springfield 7-Billy Oglesby, Ellabell 8-Buster
Kleckley, Ridgeland, SC 9-Don Douglas, Richmond Hill
10-John Loomis, Savannah 11-John Rewis, Guyton 12-Alfred
Banks, Richmond Hill 13-Cari Howze, Rincon 14-Daniel
Douglas, Hardeeville, SC 15-Mickey Ward, Pritchardville,
SC 16-Alan Wiggins, Allenhurst 17-Jamie Hopkins, Guyton
18-Terron Roberts, Walterboro, SC 19-Andy Stallings,
Pembroke
Sunset Novelties Mini Stocks
(Feature): 1-Gene Thompson, Swainsboro 2-Randy Fields,
Springfield 3-Bobby Morris, Guyton 4-AJ Horton,
Statesboro 5-Charles Swann, Garden City 6-Mark Susen,
Hardeeville, SC 7-Chris Johnson, Rincon 8-Troy Godbee,
Savannah 9-Josh Parrish, Port Wentworth 10-Kim McKenzie,
Swainsboro 11-Randy Gregory, Midway 12-Jimmy Groce, Sr.,
Springfield 13-Buddy Jacoby, Rincon 14-Randall Wegmann,
Guyton
Four Star Security 440
(Feature): 1-Michael Bean, Rincon 2-Phillip Dickerson,
Guyton 3-Danny Herrington, Rincon 4-WR Rewis, Guyton
5-Clate Fail, Jr., Brooklet 6-Brian Nerich, Richmond Hill
7-Gunny Prescott, Guyton 8-Dustin Snider, Savannah 9-Keith
Bath, Brooklet 10-Tom Egner, Hinesville
|
