Goodman Wins Hard Fought Feature at Outlaw

Story by John Rittenoure
Photos by Phil Pace

Muskogee, Okla. (August 21, 2009) - Mike Goodman notched his second straight OCRS sprint car victory after a tough battle on a black dry slick racetrack Friday night at Outlaw Motor Speedway.
Goodman battled with Danny Smith early then took command over the final 20 laps to win over series points leader Jamie Passmore.

The dry slick track resulted in lots of side-by-side racing with Goodman and Smith putting on a duel up front before the past champion put the Mid-America Speedway sponsored sprinter in front for good.

"I was trying to run momentum on the outside till I saw a couple of cars (Smith) sticking there nose on the inside and went down there," said Goodman of his duel with Smith. "Once it starts laying rubber you have to be as low as you possibly can or somebody will get in there and get you like Danny (Smith) tried to do.

"It (the track) kind of fooled us a bit, we knew we had to get there fast but I thought it would take rubber quicker then it did. But it didn't and I went into protection mode there at the end and it almost cost me the race."

Goodman raced out front on the start but a yellow waved on lap two when rookie Michael Tyre II spun in turn two. On the restart Smith shot under Goodman in turn two for the lead but Goodman returned the move with a slide job in turns three and four to complete lap three. After another yellow for Tyre, this time in turn four, the race restarted on lap six with Smith again mounting a challenge. But Goodman held on.

Passmore moved into third behind Smith and the three stayed that way until lapped traffic presented another opportunity on lap 18. Smith pulled up to challenge Goodman entering turn one and the two made contact. Goodman spun around but gassed his car and continued while Smith careened into the outside wall to stop the race.

"We were running there in the rubber and I was down on the bottom to go around a lapped car and I don't know if his brakes failed or what, but it almost cost us both the race." recalled Goodman of the incident. 

The race continued with Goodman out front. Yellow flags waved on lap 19 when Nigel Calvert could not clear the track as he coasted to the pits and again on lap 20 for Dean Drake, Jr. stopped in turn two. Passmore made a brief run at Goodman on the final restart but that was it as Goodman led eight cars to the finish in a race that started 18. After Smith was out of the race Travis Jenkins ran third. Larry Neighbors and Rafe Essary rounded out the top five.

The points race remains tight after a shuffle among the top five. Passmore opened up a 44 point lead over Rafe Essary who moved into second. Danny Smith is just 7 points back in third, Jonathan Beason sits in fourth and Matt Sherrell, who led most of the season then fell to second is now back in fifth after missing the show to run in a midget event.

The next race is Saturday at West Siloam Springs Speedway. 

Heat 1: 1, Danny Smith. 2, Rafe Essary. 3, Phillip Davis. 4, Terry Easum. 5, Matt Caudle. 6, Jason Adams. 7, Michael Tyre II.

Heat 2: 1, Mike Goodman. 2, Jamie Passmore. 3, Dean Drake, Jr. 4, Larry Neighbors. 5, Kyle Clark. 6, Burt Davis.

Heat 3: Johnathan Beason. 2, Evan Sewell. 3, Brian Roberts. 4, Travis Jenkins. 5, Nigel Calvert. 6, David Stephenson.

Same Day Auto Repair Dash: 1, Danny Smith. 2, Mike Goodman. 3, Jamie Passmore. 4, Evan Sewell. 5, Rafe Essary. 6, Jonathan Beason.

A Feature: 1, Mike Goodman. 2, Jamie Passmore. 3, Travis Jenkins. 4, Larry Neighbors. 5, Rafe Essary. 6, David Stephenson. 7, Kyle Clark. 8, Jonathan Beason. 9, Dean Drake, Jr. 10, Matt Caudle. 11, Phillip Davis. 12, Jason Adams. 13, Evan Sewell. 14, Nigel Calvert. 15, Danny Smith. 16, Burt Davis. 17, Brian Roberts. 18, Michael Tyre II. DNS: Terry Easum.