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Essary Picks Up $3,000 Enid Victory

Story by John Rittenoure
Photo by Phil Pace

Enid, Oklahoma (October 25, 2009) - Rafe Essary brought the OCRS season to a close with the biggest win of his career Sunday at Enid Speedway Park. Essary drove off the pole and led all 25 laps on a black dry slick race track to pick up a $3,000 first place check.

"Jamie (Passmore) won last night and we won tonight," smiled a happy Rafe Essary after climbing out of his car. "It could not be a better weekend for us. November 15 is my 48th birthday so it was a good day."

Essary was chased by outside front row starter Mike Goodman from the start. Taylor Milton, Sean McClelland and Jonathan Beason fell in behind Goodman and the race went 13 laps before a yellow flag waved. The five continued out front until lap 19 when Milton slowed to a stop in turn two bringing out the yellow. With Milton out Beason moved up to third with McClelland and Jamie Passmore fifth. The final six laps saw Essary continue for his first victory of the season. Goodman, who tried to challenge Essary briefly on lap 10, finished a close second. Beason, McClelland and 2009 champion Jamie Passmore rounded out the top five.

Following the race McClelland was disqualified for having rudders on his wing which is not legal for OCRS competition. That moved Passmore to fourth in the finish. Josh Fairbank was fifth.

David Stephenson passed Davis after five laps to win the first B feature. A lap one yellow waved aftger Matt Sherrell spun in turn one. Sherrell restarted but only finished sixth.

Essary knew he could not make any mistakes on the restarts.

"I knew if I did not get off the tires too far they would have a hard time getting by. It was kind of a finish where you start (type of track)," Essary said.

Passmore successfully defended his 2008 championship with his win on Friday night. It is the second career OCRS crown for the Rose, Oklahoma resident. After going winless most of the season Passmore won three of the last five events to take command of the points lead.

"We kind of got off to a slow start, but we finally figured it out," said Passmore of his strong finish. "We finally figured out what to do with this car and it helped."

After two yellows on lap 2, the first for Reed Bernbeck who spun and the second for Earl McDoulett who appeared to overheat, Ray Seeman raced to victory in the second B feature ahead of second place Jamie Passmore. At the checkered Matt Caudle flipped off the turn four banking onto the front straight horse track. Caudle was not hurt.

OCRS Sprints　

HEAT 1 - 1, Blake Bogenhagen. 2, Josh Fairbank. 3, Smokey Fairbank. 4, Dean Drake, Jr. 5, Matt Sherrell. 6, Ken Lutters. 7, Kurt Gariss. 8, Whit Gastineau.

HEAT 2 - 1, Rafe Essary. 2, Taylor Milton. 3, Evan Sewell. 4, David Stephenson. 5, Jeff Radcliffe. 6, Brent Swift. 7, Kacee Frazier. 8, Tim Kent.

HEAT 3 - 1, Johnny Kent. 2, Danny Smith. 3, Burt Davis. 4, Raymond Seeman. 5, Keefe Hemel. 6, Travis Jenkins. 7, Terry Easum.

HEAT 4 - 1, Andy Shouse. 2, Frank Dittman. 3, Waylon Weaver. 4, Ree dBernbeck. 5, Jamie McDonald. 6, Earl McDoulett. DNS: Brian Bishop.

SAME DAY AUTO REPAIR DASH - 1, Rafe Essary. 2, Jamie Passmore. 3, Mike Goodman. 4, Jonathan Beason. 5, Taylor Milton. 6, Sean McClelland.

B FEATURE - 1, David Stephenson. 2, Burt Davis. 3, Jeff Radcliffe. 4, Travis Jenkins. 5, Tim Kent. 6, Matt Sherrell. 7, Brent Swift. 8, Kurt Gariss. DNS: Terry Easum.

B FEATURE - 1, Raymond Seeman. 2, Jamie McDonald. 3, Keefe Hemel. 4, Ken Lutters. 5, Kacee Frazier. 6, Matt Caudle. 7, Earl McDoulett. 8, Reed Bernbeck. 9, Whit Gastineau.

A FEATURE - 1, Rafe Essary. 2, Mike Goodman. 3, Jonathan Beason. 4, Jamie Passmore. 5, Josh Fairbank. 6, Danny Smith. 7, Dean Drake, Jr. 8, Johnny Kent. 9, Smokey Fairbank. 10, Raymond Seeman. 11, Frank Dittman. 12, Waylon Weaver. 13, David Stephenson. 14, Jamie McDonald. 15, Blake Bogenhagen. 16, Burt Davis. 17, Taylor Milton. 18, Evan Sewell. 19, Andy Shouse. 20, Sean McClelland (DQ).