John Lemon
OCRS Public Relations
Pictured:
2014 OCRS Champion: Andrew Deal
Mike Spivey Photo
Tulsa OK (January 8, 2015)- It’s hard to fathom but another year has come and gone thus it’s time to pull down the curtain for the final time on the 2014 Oil Capital Racing Series sprint car racing season with a look back at what was, and will be, a year to remember.
Caney Kansas native Andrew Deal became the fifth champion in OCRS history by earning the Harold Leep Championship Trophy. Deal’s accomplishment came aboard the Wade Cagle owned / OCRA Operating Co. / Burke Oil / Outlaw Dozer / DFR Discount Tire #15D. The winning combination was an A.R.T. chassis with a Wornhor Racing Engine under the hood. Deal chased points leader Danny Smith for much of the season until taking over the top spot with just a few events left on the schedule. He would never relinquish the position.
The 13th year of OCRS competition started off a bit damp as the initial attempt to get the racing season started at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore fell victim to Mother Nature as rain put an end to the show after the Drive Shaft Inc Heat Race was completed. This left the brand new Longdale Speedway as the host track for the official 2014 opener.
Whit “Gasman” Gastineau found himself as part of a 32-car entry at Longdale, which was the second highest car count in 2014 as Lawton Speedway had a 37 car field a few weeks later. Gastineau had some tough obstacles to over come. First he had to piece a car together and scratch and claw for basic necessities in order to compete due to a massive tornado that took everything the family owned the year before. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, Gastineau lost his engine builder, Larry Allen, due to a tragic incident before the season started. Gastineau would overcome these major obstacles tossed in his path and went on to win the series opener.
To further show his will to succeed, Gastineau then took round number two at the speedy Oklahoma Spots Park. Danny Smith would snare runner-up honors at each of the first two events. The series then returned to Southern Oklahoma Speedway on April 26th where Shane Sellers made an exciting last lap move on Mickey Walker to score a victory. From that point on, it was a plethora of victory lane visitors.
In all, there were 14 different A-Feature winners that took a stroll to victory lane in 22 events held for the year. Throttle masher Alex DeCamp lead the series with five feature wins. Those came at: Tri-State, Lawton, Salina Highbanks (twice) and the Osage Casino Caney Valley Speedway. Only three drivers would see more than one victory photo session. Gastineau along with Chance Morton (West Siloam Speedway, Tri-State Speedway and Outlaw Motorsports Park) and Brian McClelland, who would conquer the Salina Highbanks & the Southern Oklahoma Speedway were multiple winners.
Morton’s West Siloam Speedway victory came in a non-winged affair. Additional non-wing winners were Danny Smith at South Coffeyville Speedway and Alex DeCamp at the Osage Casino Caney Valley Speedway. Smith would be crowned the 2014 Non-Wing champion receiving cash, a generous product certificate from the staff at M&W Aluminum Products in New York along with a $2,000 program offered by the Jimmy Sills School of Open Wheel Racing in California. 2014 was the second consecutive year OCRS held non-wing events that counted towards the overall championship.
There were first time OCRS winners that dotted the schedule. Michael Bookout scored at the Monett Speedway, Derek Cottrell crossed the stripe first at Tri-State Speedway. These two accomplishments just happened to take place on the same weekend in June.
Fred Mattox, who had been so close to taking the Oklahoma State Championship event held each year at the Oklahoma Sports Park in previous attempts, would not be denied this time as he “parked” the AKL Oilfield Services / Pacer Energy & Marketing / D&J Tank Trucks XXX car with DSO power during the 8th annual running of the event. It was the second overall OCRS victory for Mattox.
Also at OSP, Gary Owens took checkers in the 6th Annual Harold Leep Jr. Memorial race in May. Four-time OCRS king Jamie Passmore would make one of only two appearances count by winning at the Osage Casino Caney Valley Speedway while Kenneth Walker took the OCRS season finale at the same track. Eventual champion Deal would take checkers at OSP win in July.
Johnny ‘Hotrod’ Kent was sidelined for several weeks early in the season yet came back and ran very strong to earn a top 10 berth in the standings and scored the most AmeriFlex Hose & Accessories heat races with four.
Alex DeCamp tallied four Bob Hurley Auto Family heat races while Danny Smith took four Drive Shaft Inc heat races as these were the most wins by a single driver in these categories. There were 8 different winners in the Car & Fleet heat races (4th heat when needed) that scored one each.
Danny Smith was the AmeriFlex Hose & Accessories ‘Hardest Charger’ of the year with six such honors. Mickey Walker took 2 Wesmar Power Parts B-Features. In the “Don’t want to win it if I don’t have to” category, Mike Huard was selected three times as the D&E Supply Hard Luck recipient.
The final top 10 in OCRS points were:
Andrew Deal: 1684
Danny Smith: 1634
Kade Morton: 1418
Chance Morton: 1376
Brian McClelland: 1357
Kyle Clark: 1297
Alex DeCamp: 1179
Shayla Waddell: 1003
Cameron Hagin: 1001
Johnny Kent: 991
Deal was presented with the ‘Harold Leep Championship Trophy’ by Geri Leep, Harold’s widow, at the 2014 OCRS Awards banquet. OCRS drivers received their Top 10 accolades and point fund cash as well. Special awards that were presented at the banquet include:
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories "Hardest Charger of the Year”: Danny Smith
Brodix / PM-PRO Rookie of the Year: Cameron Hagin
OCRS Spirit of the Year: Perry Pickard
OCRS Mechanic of the Year: Mike Deal
OCRS Sportsman of the Year: Blane Morton
OCRS Most Improved Driver: (Tie) Alex DeCamp and Johnny Kent
OCRS Perseverance of the Year: Mike Huard
Don Young Award (Best Looking Car): David Stephenson
Dena Dean Honor Presentation: Blane Morton
A major announcement concluded the awards presentation portion of the banquet as AmeriFlex Hose & Accessories was introduced as the Title Sponsor for the OCRS series beginning in 2015. Owner Corvan Robison along with his son Logan, assisted with the announcement and received a standing ovation from the attendees. Thanks to AmeriFlex, OCRS will be offering extra cash incentives at selected OCRS events.
OCRS also wishes to give special thanks and recognition to Boyd and Gina Maxwell of Maxwell Oil and Kelly Westphal of Wesmar Power Parts for their generous gift offerings for the prize drawings that were available to those teams that competed in at least 75% of the schedules events.
2014 was the second season that the ‘Manufactures Performance Rankings’ were calculated. This entailed using an assigned point format for the top 5 A-Feature finishers at each OCRS event. The Ohio based sprint car website Sprindudes.com became the presenting sponsor of the MPR standings and they provided the hardware for the well deserved winners.
Eagle Motorsports Inc (EMI) of Lincoln Nebraska earned the highest honors in the ‘Chassis Builders’ category. Eagle drivers Alex Decamp, Johnny Kent & Shayla Waddell received the award on behalf of EMI who went to victory lane seven times in 2014.
STK Racing Engines took the top spot in the ‘Engine Builder’ category on the strength of nine victories among their three drivers. Alex DeCamp 5, Chance Morton 3, and Kade Morton 1. STK owner Stanley Morton was on hand to receive his hardware.
OCRS wishes to thank the following sponsors for their valued support during the 2014 racing season:
Overall Category:
AmeriFlex Hose & Accessories
Smiley’s Racing Products
Hoosier Tire Southwest
Tire Factory
Bob Hurley Auto Family
D&E Supply
Dyno Services of Oklahoma
Drive Shafts Inc.
Shock Doc
Amsoil
Brodix
PM-PRO
Grand Prix Auto
M&W Aluminum Products
Schoenfeld Headers
Wesmar Power Parts
Lightning Wings
Sprint Dudes.com
Speedway News.net
Car & Fleet Parts
Non Wing Category:
Jimmy Sills School of Open Wheel Racing
M&W Aluminum
Shock Doc
Boyds Racing Engines
Eagle Motorsports
Grand Prix Auto
Maxwell Oil
Morton Excavating
Mud - X
R&M Race Trailers
Smileys Racing Products
OCRS offers a sincere “Thank You” to all the track promoters and fans of the OCRS sprint car series. Along with the aforementioned sponsors, you are the heartbeat of our series. It is with your loyal and dedicated support that the OCRS sprint car series enjoys the level of success we have achieved and look forward to build upon.
Thanks to each and every one of you, OCRS looks forward to building even stronger relationships together as we continue to strive to produce a quality program that everyone can enjoy and be proud of. After all, this is a team effort.
We will see you all again for the 2015 racing season that kicks off on March 28th at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore Oklahoma where…………
“You Can FEEL The Thunder!”
www.ocrsracing.com
- John Lemon on Jan 08, 2015
- Article Date: 1/8/2015 by John Lemon