VanderBeek, Bohanan and Williams Pick Up Wins at the Mighty Tri-State Speedway
Rob Nugent, Track Announcer/Social Media/PR
THE EVENT
POCOLA, OK (May 5th, 2018) – The United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) Hunt for the Casey’s Cup brought 43 modifieds Saturday night to the mighty Tri-State Speedway. This was the USMTS’s fifth appearance at the track in Pocola, OK and the first since 2011. The Hunt for the Casey’s Cup is a minimum 40-race series all across the United States with the series winner garnering a $50,000 pay check for their effort. The Factory Stocks and USRA B-Mods showed up with 44 cars and raced for points with the B-Mods running for a $650 pay day.
A nice low 80’s temperature greeted an overflow crowd on Saturday evening with a slight breeze from the south. At the driver’s request, the start time was moved later by one hour due to the setting sun blinding them as they raced down the back stretch into turn three at full speed. With the later start time and some extra last minute track prep the track was turning to “black ice” by the features and provided racing grooves form the bottom to the top with racing three and four-wide at times.
The pre-race ceremonies started at 8:20 PM with the invocation followed by the national anthem performed by members of the Greenwood, AR Junior High School choir.
Heat races were determined by the driver’s draw at sign in. The Tri-State Speedway classes advanced to their features heads up and am invert redraw. The USMTS Modifieds advanced to their features via passing points.
At intermission, 50/50 money was given away, as well as some gift bags from the Matt Walter (42W) race team. There were also some T-shirts given away from Race Logic Chassis School while everyone had a chance to grab themselves some food items from the newly reconfigured concession along with an ice-cold Pepsi product. They also grabbed TSS T-shirts from the T-short booth and registered for the race-ready Super Stock that will be given away at the end of the season. The intermissions was extended a little longer than normal to allow time for some additional track maintenance to correct one or two issues in order to give the drivers an even better track to race on and ultimately provide the fans with some incredible feature racing.
TOP THREE
The first race on the track after intermission was for the USRA B-Mod B Feature 1 that saw Jeff Metcalf (6 – Siloam Springs, AR) take the checkers first over Bobby Ward (33 - Tahlequah, OK) and Jonathan Shoemaker (5 – Inola, OK).
Up next was the USRA B-Mod B Feature 2 where Chris Hawkins (USA1 – Neosho, MO) crossed the finish line first ahead of Colby Kasinger (7K – Broken Arrow, OK) and Beau Nelson (41N – Hackett, AR).
The USMTS Modified B Feature 1 rolled onto the track next. Johnny Scott (1ST – Cameron, MO) took the win over Lucas Schott (69 – Chatfield, MN) and Brian Williams (26 – Fayetteville, AR).
Next was the USMTS Modified B Feature 2 that saw Johnny Bone, Jr. (12 – Pea Ridge, AR) finish first while Lance Mari (19SB – Imperial, CA) and Travis Mosely (51M – Bearden, AR) finished second and third.
The Factory Stock A Feature saw Andrew Bohanan (51 - Stigler, OK) pick up the win. Dallas Bourland (47 – Fort Smith, AR) finished in second and Jack Kirby (7 – Pryor, OK) finished in third.
Up next was the USRA B-Mod A Feature where Brian Williams (4$ - Fayetteville, AR) took home the win. Daniel Tarkington (2 – Checotah, OK) took home second place over Steve Muilenburg (39 – Sparta, MO).
The USMTS Modifieds took to the high banks last for their 40-lap, $3,000 to win A Feature. After a last lap, last turn pass, Zack VanderBeek (33Z – New Sharon, IA) crossed the line first for the winner’s trophy over Rodney Sanders (20 – Worthington, MN) as rookie Jake O’Neal (0 – Tucson, AZ) overcame an early race tail back restart to finish in third.
Complete race results from the Factory Stocks and USRA B-Mods can be found by clicking on the results menu. Be sure to click on the red “See All Results” link at the bottom of the top five results for all results, including heat races and lower features.
Complete race results for the USMTS Modifieds can be found at the bottom of their recap article here: http://usmts.com/news/news_article.asp?NewsID=32262
NEXT TIME
The next event for Tri-State Speedway will be the Mountainburg, AR tornado relief concert on Friday, May 11th, 2018. More information will be posted soon.
We will see YOU soon!