Orange County Speedway Championship Race, Saturday, October 28
Orange County Speedway Championship Race, Saturday, October 28
— courtesy Orange County Speedway by Jim Cribbs
Making his first season start in the Orange County Speedway Championship Race, Josh Oakley over-powered the field green to checkered for the win in the Mike Bledsole Mechanical Heating and Air Late Model race. Points leader Terry Dease finished in second, with a slightly damaged car, to take home his second consecutive Late Model Track Championship.
Mike Chambers, making his first start of the season, qualified second, just in front of Dease and Daniel Moss. At the start, Chambers went fender to fender with Moss for second while Oakley motored away and Dease fell back several positions. Then it was Chuck Lawson and Chris Denny, who started on the third row, racing side by side for fourth. Twelve laps into the 75-lap race, Chambers spun his car in turn two and Denny spun avoiding Chambers. That allowed Lawson to grab second in front of Moss and Dease as the caution flag flew..
On the restart, Oakley led the way, followed by Lawson, Moss, Dease and Mason Hudson in his first start of the year. On lap 28, Hudson almost takes it three-wide with Dease and Lawson, followed by contact between the cars of those two, putting Lawson’s machine in the turn three wall. Dease continued but Lawson, none too pleased, used his car to block the car of Dease when Dease came back around under caution. Lawson then pulled his damaged car to the garage..
At the finish, Oakley and Dease had the top two spots, Moss was third, with Hudson, Denny and Chambers occupying fourth through sixth. Camden Gullie, after extensive repairs from a practice crash, took seventh, the last car on the lead lap.
The top two points leaders in the Limited Sportsman division, Daryl Carver and Brent Evans, Jr, started side by side in row two for their 35-lap race with pole-sitter Daniel Moss and Tracey Chambers taking the green in the front row. Chambers fell behind Moss at the start but stayed on Moss’s bumper, taking the lead ten laps later then defending that top spot for her first ever win in this division. Her last OCS win was sixteen years ago while racing in the Mod4s.
Points leader Carver held on to take the second spot to win this year’s track championship, his second overall. Evans, Jr finished in third, followed by Jerry Hinesley in fourth. Moss apparently wore his tires out in the fight with Chambers, settling for a fifth-place finish. Brothers Corey and Ausin Purnell completed the night in the next two spots respectively.
Hill’s Complete Carpet Care Super Mini-Trucks had plenty of twists and turns as points leader John Comstock, with four season wins under his belt, fell out of the 20-lap event at the halfway point with motor problems. Jeffrey Martin, who came into the race just behind Comstock in the points, snatched the lead from pole-sitter Kiser Martin at the green, then held the lead through numerous restarts, only to see Devin Parrot nip him for the win at the checkered flag. However Comstock’s misfortune appeared to hand this year’s track championship to five-time season winner Jeffrey Martin.
Smokey Dave’s BBQ Mod4s got off to a confusing start with the two points leaders parked after a handful of laps. Pole-sitter Corey Purnell picked up his third season win, and in a strange turn of events, took this year’s track championship for that division. After the green flag flew to start the 25-lap race, officials black-flagged points leader Dennis Capps, and Harold Sumney, third in points, went out with mechanical problems. Purnell, starting the race second in points between those two, had his own problems, spinning on a lap eleven restart after contact with the car of Timmy Wilder. Purnell, fifth on the restart, charged through the field for his third win of the season. Wilder held on to take second, followed by Randy Ayers and Michael Dudley in third and fourth.
The Allison Legacy Series 35-lap race appeared to be no contest with Justin Taylor, second in points, taking a commanding lead at the green and staying there until lap 20 when lapped traffic changed the complexion of the race. Brent Suggs used that traffic to slip by Taylor and hold on for the win. Taylor battled Suggs right up to the end but settled for second place. Kyle Campbell took third in the race which awarded him the 2017 track championship for the miniature NASCAR look-alike machines.
The Carolina Collectors Auto Fest Vintage Sportsman 12-lap race was won by James Brown. He was heard to say after the race “I feel good”. No, not really. Lorne Long started on pole but front brake problems sidelined that car. Jacob Clayton took the lead from there but his car left the race at the midway point. From there Brown held on for the win but was aggressively challenged in the last few laps by Kenneth Smith, the second-place finisher. Paul Blalock finished third.
The final results of the 25-lap Pure Stock race have not been finalized as a result of post-race inspections. It does appear that Greg Autry, who lead from start to finish, was the winner in his first season appearance at OCS. Danny Winstead and Bobby Clayton came into the race tied in the championship points. But then those two crashed into each other avoiding the spinning car of Troy Sandefur. Winstead continued but Clayton’s day was done. The final points rundown is yet to be released.
(Orange County Speedway is an advertising client of WIZS.)



No sooner than the race began, chaos ensued when Stefan Parsons and Tommy Lemons, Jr., got together in turn three on lap 8, bringing out the first caution of the night. Parsons and Lemons continued while Terry Dease was eliminated from the race due to crash damage.

“We had such a great racecar, and it kept getting better,” a clearly exhausted McCaskill said in Edelbrock Victory Lane. “It started to get a little tight in one and two, but I just had to back my corner up. We just had killer drive off tonight. I just can’t thank my guys for all their hard work yesterday when we got the car driving good, but it seemed like we worked on it more today to try to get the drive off the corner and it paid off. We’ve been working our butts off on this car, and we’ve been off and I haven’t been my normal self, but this race is special. I grew up racing here and learned from a lot of those guys. I think it’s been 2003 since I’ve won a late model stock race here.
With two laps remaining, Pollard gave Steve Wallace the bottom lane into turn one and Wallace took full advantage of it. Pollard turned into the first turn early, making minor contact with Wallace, sending Pollard’s car up the hill and opening the door for Wallace, Matt Craig and others to shuffle around the Georgian as the field came to the white flag. Craig made a last-corner desperation attempt to steal the lead in turn three, door-slamming Wallace and sending both cars into a slide, but the No. 66 Ford of Wallace won the drag race to the checkered flag and the richest payday in CARS Tour history ahead of Craig, Rouse, Spencer Davis and Pollard.

Another victim of hard luck, but hard racing, Chuck Lawson took the fourth place spot, almost forty laps in arrears. The cars of Chris Denny, Saturday’s pole winner, (94.937 mph, 14.220 sec) and newcomer Brad Kurth were unable to return on Sunday but were credited with a fifth and sixth place finish respectively, with only twelve laps completed.
Carver still worked his way back to third at the finish with the car of Gary Young Jr sandwiched between those two for second. Brent Evans took the fourth spot and Richard Hayden ended up fifth.
Evans collected second, followed by Carver in third and Hayden in fourth. Chambers took a hard-fought fifth place finish from Corey Purnell. Austin Purnell finished behind those two in seventh.
On the ensuing restart, recently married Sandefur held the top spot with Watson to his outside. Trevor lined up beside his dad Danny in row two. At the checkered, it was Watson taking the win, Sandefur finishing second once again and Trevor beating dad for third. Danny, apparently having used up his car a little the night before, held on for a fourth-place finish. Jared Gillis, absent from race one, took fifth, followed by the cars of Kerr, Penny, Glosson and Clayton, sixth through ninth.
Another Martin, Wesley came home in fourth with family members Dalton and Scott occupying fifth and sixth respectively. Comstock’s finish was the result of a missed shift on the restart and a bump from the truck of Wesley Martin. That sent Comstock’s truck for a spin down the front stretch half way through the race.
Remarkably, Massey was able to restart his car after being involved in the turn two crash that appeared to leave only the car of Thomas on track and ready to finish the race. Finishing third through fifth three laps down, victims of the turn two crash, were Dillon Harville, winner of the last race, John Barilka and Michael Roney. One lap behind the crash victims, and apparently the cause of the crash after a radiator hose blew, was OCS first-timer, Eddie Gibson. Another OCS newbie, Rich Kilmarchuk, completed five laps and finished seventh.


