(Photo by Brant Thurmond/Double T Media)
Following a series of rainouts and cancellations, the Touring Outlaw Modified Series (TOMS) was finally able to get a full night of racing completed Saturday, May 31, at Rocket Raceway Park.
Saturday’s race was the first race attempted to complete in nearly two months, as the last time the series was in action was April 4 at Heart O’ Texas Speedway (HOT) in Waco.
The race on April 4 was called at the conclusion of the heat races as a rain shower moved in on the speedway. The race was later rescheduled for the next time the series would be at HOT on May 2.
Unfortunately, that race was also canceled due to rain.
It has been a tough start to the 2025 for the TOMS with the series seeing four rainouts in the first seven races, including four in a row (Kennedale April 4, HOT May 2, Hunt County May 3, and Grayson County May 17), so Saturday’s clear skies and temps in the mid 80s was a welcome sign for the series officials, drivers, fans and track promoters.
The action on the track was equally exciting as 35 drivers checked in to race in the Outlaw Modified class.
Shane Hartline (Ivanhoe, Texas) made a last lap pass going into turn 3 over leader Mitchell Clement (Bonham, Texas) to claim the feature win.
“That feels pretty good being a last lap deal,” Hartline said following the race. “I was just trying to buy my time and stay on the bottom, but that was pretty exhilarating.
“I worked the bottom down here in (turn) 1 and 2 the whole race because I kept seeing every caution there was a car that jumped the cushion,” he continued. “It was getting pretty treacherous up there (top line), so I figured it was better for me to minimize the mistakes I could make.”
(Photo by Brant Thurmond/Double T Media)
Hartline finished runner-up to Clement in the TOMS opener at Southern Oklahoma on March 21 after Hartline led the first 14 laps of that race.
In Saturday’s race, Jack Sartain started on the pole and led six laps before the race’s first caution as Chase Hatton brought out the caution following a spin in turn 2.
A second spin by Hatton brought out another caution before a lap could be scored on the restart.
Sartain went on to lead the next five laps before Josh Cain’s car went for a spin in turn 2 on lap 11; however during the caution, Sartain would pull off the track and not finish the remaining 14 laps of the race.
Two more laps were completed before Colby Smith spun on lap 13 off of turn 2 with Clement leading the race.
Clement went on to lead the next 11 laps and took the final lap leading the race, however, a slight slip up exiting turn 2 allowed Hartline to dive to the inside of him in turn three with the two battling to the finish line in an exciting finish.
Dean Abbey was the third-place finisher and the hard charger of the race, moving up 10 spots from his 13th start position. Jason Ingals and Jason Sartain rounded out the top five.
Mathew Day finished sixth, while Hatton finished in seventh place after bringing out the race’s first two cautions. Justin McCoy, Sam Cox and Troy Taylor rounded out the top 10 finishers.
B Feature winners:
B Feature 1 winner- Dean Abbey
B Feature 2 winner- Jason Webb
Heat Race winners:
Heat 1- Chase Hatton
Heat 2- Colby Smith
Heat 3- Sam Cox
Heat 4- Jack Sartain
Heat 5- Shane Hartline
A full and complete breakdown of the results can be found at the following link: