Harli White Wins In a Magical Fashion
John Lemon
OCRS Public Relations
Lawton Oklahoma (June 29, 2013) – There are those times when you just see a magical moment and you know immediately it will be remembered forever. For Harli White and for all the race fans in attendance at the Lawton Speedway tonight, such a magical moment will be savored as White executed a well timed slide job on Danny Smith to win her 4th Oil Capital Racing Series feature event in 2013.
The win kept Smith from taking his third straight OCRS A Feature as Smith and his veteran crew chief Wayne Simmons, have been on a roll as of late. White would start the 25-lap feature in the fourth row in her Jerry Tucker Roustabout / Terraco Soil Farming / Crash Enterprises / Boyd Engines / Maxim while Smith had a second row berth to roll from in the Same Day Auto Repair / DSO Engines / XXX car.
It was Edmond Oklahoma’s Perry Pickard who would lead the early laps from the pole position. Smith and Kade Morton would battle side by side for over a lap fighting over the second spot on the ¼ mile clay surface. Smith would win that battle as the cars completed lap number two. Working the third lap, Smith would pass Pickard in turn two to tale the lead, but a yellow would ensue for the stalled cars of Danny Jennings, John Kelly and Sheldon Barksdale who all got together. All three would have to return to the pits for the night. Smith would have to return to the second spot for the restart since a completed lap failed to be scored due to the accident.
Smith would go back to work on taking the lead from Pickard when the field went back to green. Pickard fought valiantly but Smith gained control of the top spot when he passed Pickard coming out of turn two on the lap three restart. Just seconds after Smith’s pass on Pickard, Mustang’s Robert Sellers would take over the third position from Coweta’s Kade Morton. White swept passed Joe Bob Lee for fifth on the fourth lap and just as fast as she took that fifth position, she went by Morton to go to fourth place. Before another full lap could be completed after taking the fourth spot, White would go past Sellers for third. The “Lindsay Flash” was on the move. Sellers would lose his use of brakes a couple of laps later but would continue the chase for the top prize.
White then took no time to catch and dispose of Pickard and the only one left to conquer was Smith, but that would come much later. Lee would work his way into third and back in the field, Kyle Ezell was moving forward from his sixth row start and Shane Sellers was doing the same from the eighth row.
The lead duo would catch lapped traffic and each would handle those hurdles well. Caution on the track for a spin by Terry Holland in turn two would occur on lap 18. With the restart of lap 18 looming, this would make for an 8-lap shootout to the finish. As the cars approached the take off zone, White made a move to start before Smith and when Smith didn’t go, White had to get out of the throttle and that’s when Smith hit the loud pedal and was able to get a couple of extra car lengths advantage on White.
With four to go, as the Smith / White battle kept heating up, Ezell would take his Parker Motorsports / Edwards Racing Enterprises / Allard racing Engines / Maxim around Lee’s Southwest Redi Mix / S&W Truck and Equipment / Sperr Engines / Eagle chassis for the fourth position.
With three to go, White made a move with a slide job on Smith going into turn one. She drew along side but realized she wasn’t going to clear Smith and then placed the #17w back behind Smith. However, the next time the pair went into turn one, White did time the slide job as she wanted and moved ahead. Smith went to sweep under White for an immediate “pass back” but it was to no avail as White took command.
Smith made one last attempt to regain the top spot in turns three and four on the last lap as he began to move his car under the leader. White sensed that she had to protect that line and moved down to do so and that secured win number four of the year. R. Sellers would take third in the Checkered Flag Trucking / First National Bank of Chickasha / Brand Racing Engines / Eagle with Ezell and Lee rounding out the top five.
Said White in victory lane: “I really got nervous with two (laps) to go and I really knew I had to get on the ball then. I stuck my car in there (on the slide job into turn one) and then I blew off the top (got up high in the cushion) and I thought he (Smith) was going to get back around me but somehow I gathered it back up. I almost waited to long. I was just waiting for that right moment. I really have to thank my dad for setting up the car, it was good.”
From the runner-up Smith: “When she got me on that slide job I had a chance to get her back but it wasn’t going to be a pretty move and I don’t drive like that so I looked for another shot but she did good. Wayne Simmons has really put a good car under me lately and I can’t thank him enough. We gave it a good run and we will go on to the next one.”
Robert Sellers spoke of his issues of not having brakes for most of the race: “ We were doing OK when you consider we lost the brakes on about the sixth lap. We had zero brakes. The track did play in our favor. If there wouldn’t have been a top groove up there, with no brakes, we would have had to drop back. I was tossing the car sideways (in the turns) at times to scruff off speed. I was thinking to just maintain position. Make them take it from you, don’t just give it to them.”
The AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories ‘Hard Charger’ went to: Shane Sellers
The Dyno Services of Oklahoma ‘Hard Luck’ award went to: Gary Owens
Round number 13 of the OCRS sprint car series will be a non-wing event at the Caney Valley Speedway next Saturday night, July 6th in Caney Kansas.
OCRS Race Results / Lawton Speedway
Date of Race: Saturday, June 29, 2013
Total cars: 29
(Pos-Car-Driver-Start)
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Heat
1, 1J-Danny Jennings[1]. 2, 20-Sheldon Barksdale[4]. 3, 55-Johnny Kent[2]. 4, 78-Perry Pickard[7]. 5, 11-Michael Tyre[5]. 6, 99-Koby Barksdale[6]. 7, 14-Shawn Bloomquist[3]. 8, 4-Shane Sellers[6].
Bob Hurley Auto Family Heat
1, 24-T.J. Herrell[4]. 2, 10K-Kyle Ezell[5]. 3, 11X-Nick Bates[2]. 4, 2K-John Kelly[6]. 5, 22K-Kevin Barksdale[1]. 6, 25-Chuck Bellefeuille[7]. 7, 3G-Jeff Garnett[3].
Drive Shafts Inc. Heat
1, 5$-Danny Smith[1]. 2, 17W-Harli White[3]. 3, 21C-Tyler Cothran[2]. 4, 5-Joe Bob Lee[6]. 5, 6-Terry Holland[5]. 6, 1X-Denny Cothran[4]. 7, 33-Gary Owens (DNS).
Car and Fleet Parts Heat
1, 8M-Kade Morton[1]. 2, 4X-Robert Sellers[3]. 3, 22C-Cody Cothran[7]. 4, 88S-Shayla Waddell[4]. 5, 9-Derek Cottrell[5]. 6, 007-Michael Bookout[2]. 7, 76H-TJ Honkomp[6].
Wesmar Racing Engines B Feature (Top 8 transfer)
1, 55-Johnny Kent[9]. 2, 88S-Shayla Waddell[8]. 3, 4-Shane Sellers[3]. 4, 9-Derek Cottrell[15]. 5, 11-Michael Tyre[6]. 6, 1X-Denny Cothran[13]. 7, 22K-Kevin Barksdale[1]. 8, 6-Terry Holland[14]. 9, 007-Michael Bookout[5]. 10, 76H-TJ Honkomp[12]. 11, 25-Chuck Bellefeuille[4]. 12, 14-Shawn Bloomquist[11]. 13, 3G-Jeff Garnett[2]. 14, 11X-Nick Bates[17]. 15, 21C-Tyler Cothran[16]. (DNS). 16, 99-Koby Barksdale[7]. (DNS). 17, 33-Gary Owen (DNS).
Note: Derek Cottrell could not start the A Feature and Michael Bookout received the open transfer spot
OCRS A Feature
1, 17W-Harli White[7]. 2, 5$-Danny Smith[4]. 3, 4X-Robert Sellers[2]. 4, 10K-Kyle Ezell[11]. 5, 5-Joe Bob Lee[6]. 6, 55-Johnny Kent[13]. 7, 4-Shane Sellers[15]. 8, 8M-Kade Morton[3]. 9, 24-T.J. Herrell[12]. 10, 1X-Denny Cothran[17]. 11, 22C-Cody Cothran[9]. 12, 11-Michael Tyre[16]. 13, 88S-Shayla Waddell[14]. 14, 78-Perry Pickard[1]. 15, 007-Michael Bookout[20]. 16, 22K-Kevin Barksdale[18]. 17, 6 Terry Holland[19]. 18, 20-Sheldon Barksdale[8]. 19, 1J-Danny Jennings[10]. 20, 2K-John Kelly[5].
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Pictured:
Harli in victory lane
Danny Smith (5$) and Harli White (17w) race for the win
OCRS 3-wide salute to the fans of the Lawton Speedway
Mike Spivey Photos
- John Lemon on Jun 30, 2013
- Article Date: 6/30/2013 by John Lemon