Wood Claims Sprint Series of Oklahoma Victory at Wichita Speedway

[rebelracewriter]

Wood Claims Sprint Series of Oklahoma Victory at Wichita Speedway!

Wichita Falls, Texas – April 21, 2017 - Joe Wood, Jr. started on the outside of the front row and held off a late race charge from Jake Martens to claim his first Sprint Series of Oklahoma IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car Series presented by Smiley’s Racing Products feature of the season Friday night at Wichita Speedway in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Chris Kelly and Wood started on the front row for the twenty-lap feature with Wood taking the lead as the green flag fell. The race quickly went red when Brandon Long went for an easy tip-over in turns three and four yet he would be able to restart at the tail of the field.

The restart saw Wood, aboard his Myers Racing Engines powered Triple X Chassis #03, kept out front and would have to fend off late race challenges from eighth-starting Jake Martens to claim his second career victory and first for 2017.

“The night started off kind of rough,” according to ‘Lil Joe. “In our heat race the motor lost power with three laps to go and we were able to hang on to second place, which put us in the redraw. Ended up drawing number two spot and then went back to work on the car and found a spark plug wire had fallen off. Got that fixed and made very little changes to the car. Had a good start in the feature and the car worked perfectly. I have to thank my sponsors: Young Tool, Mud-X, Smiley’s, Hoosier Racing Tires, Southwest AC Electric, Oilfield Equipment, Danny Holloway, Outlaw Wings for all their help getting me there.”

Martens, aboard his own Martens Machine Shop/Erwin and Winnie Bartel/Blake and Robin Stocking/Randall and LaVonda White sponsored Myers Racing Engines powered Eagle Chassis came home a close second while fifth starting rookie Steven Shebester, making only his second start in sprint car competition, brought the Pete Haskins owned; Brand Racing Engines powered Maxim Chassis home third while Shouse and Kelly rounded out the top five.

After his tip-over to start the feature, Long would roar back through the field for an eighth place finish.

Chad Koch, who came into the night as early-season point leader, lost oil pressure with two laps to go while running sixth and would exit the field and end up with a disappointing sixteenth place finish.

The three, eight lap heat races for the 25-car field were won by Shebester, Shouse and Martens.
Long would claim the twelve lap “B” feature, followed by Loyd Clevenger, Sr., Mike Scott and Dillon Laden.

Next up for the SSO IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car Series presented by Smiley’s Racing Products will be this coming Friday night, May 5, at Red Dirt Raceway in Meeker, Oklahoma.

SSO officials would like to welcome Smiley’s Racing Products for becoming presenting partner with the series as they will be giving $1000 cash to the 2017 SSO champion.

The series would also like to thank the following for climbing aboard as contingency partners with the series for 2017: Hoosier Racing Tires, Danny Holloway, Martens Machine Shop, Saldana Racing Products, Pyrotech Race Cells, Outlaw Wings, Keizer Wheels, Bishops Racing Products and Messmer Racing.

Sprint Series of Oklahoma IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Series

Wichita Speedway/Wichita Falls, Texas

April 21, 2017

25 Cars

1st Heat: 1) Steven Shebester, 2) Joe Wood, Jr., 3) Sterling Huff, 4) Logan Scherb, 5) Justin Fisk, 6) Stan Constant, 7) Josh Toho, 8) Brandon Long, 9) Tanner Conn

2nd Heat: 1) Andy Shouse, 2) Shayla Waddell, 3) Michelle Melton, 4) Logan Scherb, 5) Chad Koch, 6) Dillon Laden, 7) Mike Scott, 8) Jerry Jumper

3rd Heat: 1) Jake Martens, 2) Blake Dacus, 3) Chris Kelly, 4) Corby Scherb, 5) Warren Fields, 6) Cody Whitworth, 7) Loyd Clevenger, 8) Christian Kinnison

B Feature (10 Laps): 1) Brandon Long, 2) Loyd Clevenger, Sr., 3) Mike Scott, 4) Dillon Landen, 5) Jerry Jumper, 6) Christian Kinnison, 7) Stan Constant, 8) Tanner Conn, 9) Josh Toho

A Feature (20 Laps): 1) Joe Wood, Jr. (2), 2) Jake Martens (8), 3) Steven Shebester (5), 4) Andy Shouse (7), 5) Chris Kelly (1), 6) Shayla Waddell (3), 7) Michelle Melton (10), 8) Brandon Long (17), 9) Cody Whitworth (16), 10) Blake Dacus (9), 11) Justin Fisk (14), 12) Loyd Clevenger, Sr. (18), 13) Morgan Fletcher (12), 14) Dillon Laden (20), 15) Warren Fields (15), 16) Chad Koch (13), 17) Sterling Huff (8), 18) Cody Scherb (4), 19) Logan Scherb (11), 20) Mike Scott (19)

Race Contingencies:

CSI: Wood, Jr.

Keizer Wheels: Shebester

Saldana Racing Products: Martens