(Photo Courtesy of Dalton Warren-Brierton/Pics by Dalton)
The Touring Outlaw Modified Series (TOMS) was back in action Saturday, Aug. 9, at Hunt County Raceway for the 11th Annual Hella Shrine Classic.
Adding to the excitement of the event was a bicycle giveaway for the kids in attendance. Several TOMS drivers contributed by bringing bicycles and they went above and beyond crushing a previous record of 56 bikes with a total of 112 bicycles to give away to the kids.
The event, which is dedicated to helping the Children’s Shriner’s Hospital, is a big race for the TOMS and all those involved.
“This is something the TOMS drivers look forward to every year,” said Ricky Randall, who originally started the Hella Shrine Classic in 2015. “We have raised over $200,000 since we started doing the event each year. The first year, we raised $3,000 and it has gone as high as $30,000.
“The money raised goes to the transportation fund at Hella,” Randall said. “We use the money to transport patients to and from the hospital for various appointments. We can also help the parents with lodging. Some of the rules have changed now to where the Temple can only keep so much of the money raised for the transportation fund, and the rest goes to the (Shriner’s) hospital. We do it all for the kids.”
The action on the track in the TOMS feature race was equally as exciting as seeing the smiles on all the young kids’ faces.
Colby Smith (Greenville, Texas) led the opening 10 laps before Shane Hartline took the lead with 15 laps remaining.
A caution slowed the field down with seven laps remaining as the 477 car of Tracy Adams (Rowlett, Texas) spun in turns three and four.
When the green flag was waved again, Hartline jumped out to a sizeable lead and would lead the remaining seven laps to claim his third win of the season.
With his win at Southern Oklahoma Speedway on Aug. 2, Hartline became just the second driver to win back-to-back races so far in the 2025 season.
Jake Huckaby (Texarkana, Texas) was the first to win back-to-back races with wins at Heart O’ Texas Speedway and Abilene Speedway on July 11 and July 19.
Hartline also extended his points lead over Dean Abbey (Boyd, Texas) who is now 68 points behind Hartline.
Smith was the second-place finisher at Hunt County, while Chris Henigan (Marshall, Texas) placed third. Jack Sartain (Royse City, Texas) finished fourth and James McCreery (Midlothian, Texas) was fifth.
Smith had the fastest lap of the race with a lap time of 16.441 seconds according to My Race Pass timing.
McCreery and Abbey were the hard chargers of the race with both drivers moving up seven spots. McCreery started 13th and moved up to sixth place, while Abbey started a little deeper in the field in 20th and moved up to 13th, respectively.
Click the following link for full race results.
https://www.myracepass.com/events/557619/media-results
B Feature 1 winner- James McCreery (Midlothian, Texas)
B Feature 2 winner- Jamie Burford (Keatchie, Louisiana)
Heat 1 winner- Colby Smith (Greenville, Texas)
Heat 2 winner- Chris Henigan (Marshall, Texas)
Heat 3 winner- Jason Ingalls (Longview, Texas)
Heat 4 winner- Chase Hatton (De Berry, Texas)
Current Points Standings-
(Top 10)
- Shane Hartline- 1086
- Dean Abbey- 1018-68
- Jason Ingalls- 991-95
- Jake Huckaby- 892-194
- Wesley Veal- 862-224
- Chase Hatton- 860-226
- Troy Taylor- 805-281
- Sam Cox- 776-310
- Ryan Veal- 743-343
- Jason Webb- 704-382
Previous winners of the Hella Shrine Classic-
2015- Sean Jones
2016- Clyde Dunn
2017- Triston Dycus
2018- Triston Dycus
2019- Chris Henigan
2020- Bo Day
2021- Charlie Smith
2022- Troy Taylor
2023- James McCreery
2024- Triston Dycus
2025- Shane Hartline
Click here to learn more about Shriners and to donate to the Shriners Children’s Hospital.
https://www.shrinerschildrens.org/en/about
The next TOMS race will be held Saturday, Aug. 23, at Kennedale Speedway Park. The race was originally scheduled for April 5 but was rescheduled due to weather.
The series will race a two-day show at Rocket Raceway Park for the Brian Mize Memorial on Aug. 29 and 30.
One race will take place in September as the series travels to Grayson County on Sept. 9. The TOMS Nationals will be held Oct. 24 and 25, at RPM Speedway, in Crandall, Texas.
As always, if you can not make it out to the track, you can stream all the action on RaceOn.com.