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(Savannah, GA) ‘Flat Footin’
Casey Barrow broke out of a season long slump winning his
first career NASCAR feature in the Coca-Cola Late Model
division. The recent high school graduate had a win
snatched from under him earlier this season when he was
three pounds light across the scales and was leading the
race one week ago before losing the top spot on a late race
restart. Barrow made no mistake on Friday night winning a
tough battle with another hungry driver Lonnie Brant.
“We have been
working so hard for this win,” said Barrow afterwards. “It
is not easy to win at OSP. There is a lot of great drivers
to beat each week at this track. It feels good to finally
have won a race against these guys. It’s just awesome.”
Barrow rolled
through the restarts this week and that proved to be the
difference in his victory. The rookie late model driver had
slowly restarted the races a week earlier when Glenn Yawn
shot past to score his first win of the year. This week
Barrow rolled at a good pace through the restart cone and
kept all his competitors behind him and away from snaring a
position by getting a jump on the inside.
“He was a
quick learner,” said OSP’s Ted Austad. “That’s the way to
keep the cars in line behind you. Just roll through it at a
medium speed slowly picking up the throttle as you approach
the cone. They can’t get enough to get past you into the
first turn.”
Lonnie Brant
continued his search for the elusive victory lane finishing
in second place. Barrow’s South Effingham High School
graduating classmate, Sean Meeks, was third followed by
Robert Diekemper and Shane Riner.
Barrow became
the eleventh different driver to win in the late model
division this season. Some very good drivers remain without
a victory at the historic half mile this season including
Donnie Bazemore, Lonnie Brant, Jay Hendricks, Corey
Fletcher, Jim Manka, Bobby Oglesby and NASCAR Southeastern
Tour standout Dusty Williams.
“I feel we
have some of the best talent in the country competing weekly
at Oglethorpe Speedway Park,” added Austad. “The
competition is better than any short track I have been
involved with in sixteen years of promoting.”
The
competition for supremacy among local tracks began in
earnest on Friday night as Austad put his drivers and words
up against the mini stock competitors from Swainsboro
Raceway in the first US Highway 80 Mini Stock Challenge.
The track that accumulated the most points in the special
two night series would win the “Challenge Trophy” while the
losing track’s promoter would have to flag a race in a pink
tutu.
Thirty-one
drivers showed up for the first of the two night racing
series and Swainsboro’s Gene Thompson flexed his muscle for
the second straight week at OSP. Thompson led all 20-laps
of the caution-filled feature race. Guyton’s Bobby Morris
was second ahead of Randall Wegmann, Charles Swann and Alan
Burnsed. All of whom were representing OSP.
Oglethorpe’s
mini stock contingent put the stranglehold on the Swainsboro
drivers in round one accumulating nearly 700 points to
Swainsboro’s 300. The second round will take place at
Swainsboro on Saturday, August 13th. The race
tonight was rained out.
Midway’s
Donald Norby returned to victory lane in the Love’s Seafood
Street Stocks. Norby moved past his rivals to snare the
lead on lap five and then held off all comers winning ahead
of ‘Rapid’ Ray Collins, Albert Cosnahan, Chris Litchfield
and Clint Sills. Brian Barnes, Jeff Banfield, Mike Crosby,
Ray Crosby and Wayne Page rounded out the top ten from the
21-car field on Friday night.
Donnie Cannon
busted in to victory lane at OSP Friday night winning his
first feature in over two years. Cannon held off current
points leader Dan Douglas, twin brother Don Douglas, Terron
Roberts and Walter Sills for the Southern Racing Supplies
Pure Stock feature victory. Buster Kleckley was sixth
followed by top rookie John Rewis, Anthony Parker, John
Loomis and Kenny Siemienkiewicz.
Another
emotional victory in the Four Star Security 440 feature
race, as Danny Herrington won for the fourth time this
year. Herrington had just rushed back from Atlanta where
his four-month old daughter had successfully completed
another heart surgery. Herrington thanks the fans and his
fellow drivers for the thoughts and prayers.
All drivers
now are gearing up for this Friday night’s Dodge Ram Series
‘round three’ which is the final night of double features
and double points for the season. The Coca-Cola Late Models
will run twin 20 lap features. The Love’s Seafood Street
Stocks will run a pair of 15-lap feature races while the
Southern Racing Supplies Pure Stocks and Sunset Novelties
Mini Stocks will each run two 12-lap main events. The Four
Star Security 440 Series will also run a huge feature race.
The gates open at 6pm with racing at 8pm. For more
information, contact the speedway at 912-964-8200 or visit
www.ospracing.net.
Official Results from Friday,
August 5, 2005
Coca-Cola Late Models
(Feature): 1-Casey Barrow, Guyton 2-Lonnie Brant,
Bloomingdale 3-Sean Meeks, Guyton 4-Robert Diekemper,
Bloomingdale 5-Shane Riner, Guyton 6-Robbie Cowart,
Savannah 7-Jim Manka, Rincon 8-Garrett Shurling, Savannah
9-Branden Yawn, Springfield 10-Jay Hendricks, Rincon
11-Steven Senter, Savannah 12-Shawn Pritchard, Rincon
13-Russ Brown, Savannah 14-Donnie Bazemore, Guyton
Love’s Seafood Street Stocks
(Feature): 1-Donald Norby, Midway 2-Ray Collins, Ellabell
3-Albert Cosnahan, Guyton 4-Chris Litchfield, Rincon
5-Clint Sills, Bloomingdale 6-Brian Barnes, Bloomingdale
7-Jeff Banfield, Bluffton, SC 8-Mike Crosby, Savannah
9-Ray Crosby, Savannah 10-Wayne Page, Savannah 11-Michael
Slater, Stillmore 12-Adam Chambers, Hinesville 13-Dustin
Collins, Ellabell 14-Nicky Smith, Springfield 15-Mike
Helmly, Guyton 16-David Smith, Guyton 17-Butch Reich,
Eden 18-Timmy Dasher, Bluffton, SC 19-Gary Munn, Savannah
20-Bill Stevenson, Savannah 21-John McCosker, Richmond Hill
Southern Racing Supplies Pure
Stock (Feature): 1-Donnie Cannon, Guyton 2-Dan Douglas,
Hardeeville, SC 3-Don Douglas, Richmond Hill 4-Terron
Roberts, Walterboro, SC 5-Walter Sills, Bloomingdale
6-Buster Kleckley, Ridgeland, SC 7-John Rewis, Guyton
8-Anthony Parker, Guyton 9-John Loomis, Savannah 10-Kenny
Simienkiewicz, Brooklet 11-Andy Stallings, Pembroke
12-Alan Wiggins, Allenhurst 13-Alfred Banks, Richmond Hill
14-Jeff Spencer, Brooklet 15-Daniel Douglas, Hardeeville,
SC 16-Greg Annas, Springfield 17-Molly Spencer, Brooklet
18-Doyce Glisson, Guyton 19-Mickey Ward, Pritchardville, SC
Sunset Novelties Mini Stocks
(Feature): 1-Gene Thompson, Swainsboro 2-Bobby Morris,
Guyton 3-Randall Wegmann, Guyton 4-Charles Swann, Garden
City 5-Alan Burnsed, Guyton 6-Terry Cox, Swainsboro
7-Josh Carter, Guyton 8-Chris Johnson, Rincon 9-Mark Susen,
Hardeeville, SC 10-Josh Parrish, Port Wentworth 11-Blue
Sheppard, Soperton 12-Jimmy Groce, Sr., Springfield
13-David Neal, Swainsboro 14-Matt Prescott, Guyton 15-AJ
Horton, Statetsboro 16-Randy Gregory, Midway 17-Randy
Fields, Springfield 18-Brad McKenzie, Swainsboro 19-Marty
Neal, Swainsboro 20-Chris Wilkerson, Swainsboro 21-John
Kirby, Swainsboro 22-Kenny Gregory, Midway 23-Trace
Kicklighter, Bloomingdale 24-Billy Stanley, Pooler 25-TJ
Miles, Cobbtown 26-Troy Godbee, Savannah
Four Star Security 440
(Feature): 1-Danny Herrington, Rincon 2-WR Rewis, Guyton
3-Jason Rewis, Guyton 4-Cody Brant, Guyton 5-Phillip
Dickerson, Guyton 6-Brian Nerich, Richmond Hill 7-Dustin
Snider, Bloomingdale 8-Herb Stevens, Guyton 9-Clate Fail,
Brooklet 10-Keith Bath, Bloomingdale 11-Michael Bean,
Guyton
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