(Photo Courtesy of Mike Frieri/Photos by Mike)
Nothing says “America” like fireworks, dirt track racing and the some of the fastest and most talented modified drivers in the southern part of the United States on July 4th weekend.
Fans in attendance at Southern Oklahoma Speedway were treated to all the above and more Saturday, July 5, as the Touring Outlaw Modified Series (TOMS) drivers were on hand to display their talents. There was a season-high 41 entries for the event.
Saturday’s feature race had five cautions and two different leaders as Jason Webb (McKinney, Texas) and Kale Westover (Altus, Oklahoma) battled it out for the majority of the race.
The first caution of the race came on the first lap as Chase Hatton (De Berry, Texas) and points leader Shane Hartline (Ivanhoe, Texas) tangled up on the opening lap.
The field completed two laps before Wesley Veal (Princeton, Texas) spun exiting turn two and collected Sam Cox’s (Flower Mound, Texas) No. 3 car.
Webb led another two laps before Hatton spun in turn two, which brought out the third caution of the race.
Another caution with 8 of the 25 laps completed forced another restart for Webb. On the restart Jason Ingalls (Longview, Texas) spun in the middle of turns one and two to bring out another caution.
Webb went on to lead the next seven laps before Westover was able to dip to the low side while navigating around a lap car exiting turn four and took the lead with 10 laps remaining.
Westover stretched his lead out nearly a full straight-away and won the race with a 3.323 second margin according to My Race Pass timing.
Patience was key for Westover as he waited until Webb caught lap traffic to make his move.
“It was so hard to pass, and he (Webb) was in the fastest lane around the track,” Westover said standing in victory lane. “So, I knew if just pace him enough and once we caught the lap traffic, I got on his tail just trying to figure out what he was going to do. I probably would have done the same thing he did in his situation. It just worked out for me that the lapper just kind of pushed up a little bit and I snugged her around the tires.
“Once I got cleared, I knew I had to jump up and get moving,” he added. “Jason’s stuff was really good. I was probably going to finish second behind him if it wasn’t for them lappers.”
Webb finished second. Mitchell Clement (Bonham, Texas) was third, while Colby Smith (Greenville, Texas) was fourth and Jake Huckaby (Texarkana, Texas) rounded out the top five finishers.
Ingalls was the hard chargers of the race, moving up 13 positions from his 20th starting spot to finish seventh. Justin McCoy (Grandview, Texas) moved up 10 spots from his 18th starting spot to finish behind Ingalls in eighth place.
Smith had the fast lap (unofficially) with a lap time of 17.310 seconds on lap eight.
B Feature 1 winner- Geoff Larry (Minden, Louisiana)
B Feature 2 winner- Shane Hartline (Ivanhoe, Texas)
Heat 1 winner- Casey Fowler (Grand Saline, Texas)
Heat 2 winner- Jason Langford (Palestine, Texas)
Heat 3 winner- Dean Abbey (Boyd, Texas)
Heat 4 winner- Kale Westover (Altus, Oklahoma)
Heat 5 winner- Colby Smith (Greenville, Texas)
For full results of Saturday’s race, click the following link.
https://www.myracepass.com/events/557610/media-results
Current points Standings
(Top 10)
- Shane Hartline- 637
- Dean Abbey- 608 -29
- Jason Ingalls- 590 – 47
- Chase Hatton- 521-116
- Jake Huckaby- 488-149
- Sam Cox- 464 -173
- Jason Webb- 458-179
- Ryan Veal- 441-196
- Troy Taylor- 434-203
- Mitchell Clement- 426-211
The TOMS will be back in action this weekend for back-to-back races on Friday and Saturday, July 11 and 12. Friday’s race will be at Heart O’ Texas Speedway, in Waco, Texas, while Saturday’s race will be at RPM Speedway, in Crandall, Texas.