Marshall Skinner from West Memphis, Arkansas drove his own #26 Conrad Sand & Gravel / A&B Equipment /AMC Plumbing sponsored Dyno-Tech powered / J & J Auto Racing sprint car into victory lane in the 25-lap O’Reilly Auto Parts United Sprint Car Series season finale during the Lucas Oil Showdown at Columbus Speedway on Saturday night. It was Skinner’s third win in the series on the season and it came over a talent-laden 26 cars from eleven states. Skinner started ninth in the field in the sure to be exciting main event that inverted the finish of the first of twin 25-lap Lucas Oil Showdown features.
After the pole starter spun on the initial start, Skinner was able to advance to sixth position after lap one. He then moved up two more positions on lap two into fourth place. On lap three he passed Don Young from Memphis, Tennessee for third place. On lap four Greg Merritt from Nesbit, Mississippi spun while running in the second position. Skinner then was in the second position for the re-start behind Dewayne Prince from Munford, Tennessee. Skinner raced past Prince into the lead on the next lap. With Prince behind him for the next three laps Skinner pulled away but on lap-twelve, the six time O’Reilly USCS Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee passed Prince for the second position and brought Tim Crawley from Benton, Arkansas with him.
On lap-fifteen Skinner was leading by about six-eight car lengths over Gray, Tim Crawley, Jason Sides from Bartlett, Tennessee and Johnny Bridges from Cherryville, North Carolina. Wayne Johnson who had started in the twentieth position after winning the first Lucas Oil Showdown feature race was in sixth place. If Johnson could win the second feature he would claim a $5000 bonus for the feat. Several back-to-back caution flags occurred on the apparently haunted lap-seventeen bunching the field behind Skinner several times.
Skinner held onto the lead with ten time 2007 series feature winner Terry Gray, and five-time 2007 series winner Tim Crawley plus WOO regular Jason Sides and now the hard charging Wayne Johnson behind him in the top five with no lapped cars in between.
Skinner coolly raced around the bottom side of the historic 3/10 mile clay oval for the next eight caution-free laps into victory lane where an excited group of family and friends joined him for the post-race celebration. Terry Gray who started in the thirteenth position driving his own Rislone/Bars Products sponsored Wesmar powered #10 J&J Auto Racing car, held on for his second runner-up finish of the evening followed by Crawley who started fourteenth beside Gray in the Ward Racing Senter Farms/ CnB Mushroom Farms / Johnny’s Pro Auto Body sponsored McCarver Engines powered #88 Maxim car in third place.
Wayne Johnson driving the H&H Motorsports #94 Maxim who was chasing the $5000 Lucas Oil Showdown bonus was a sure Huggins Cams Hard-charger Award recipient in fourth place. Johnson advanced from his twentieth place start to finish fourth. He (Johnson) reached all-of-the-way up to third place by lap-twenty before Crawley passed him back for the position on the final lap. Jason Sides driving his own Sides Motorsports Wetherington Tractor Service, Inc. sponsored and Don Ott powered #7s Maxim car rounded out the top five finishers.
Johnny Bridges from Cherryville, North Carolina lead the next group of chargers with a sixth place finish. Ohio traveler Ron Blair from Troy, Ohio was seventh in the second feature matching his finish in feature number one. Two-time 2007 O’Reilly USCS feature winner, Derek Hagar from Marion, Arkansas rallied from a nineteenth place start into an eighth place finish after failing to finish feature number one. Early race-leader, Dewayne Prince from Munford, Tennessee finished in the ninth position and Chris Williams from Memphis, Tennessee. Who started eighteenth after failing to finish in the first 25-lap feature rounded out the top ten.
As previously mentioned, Wayne Johnson collected the Huggins Cams Hard-charger Award after starting twentieth and finishing fourth (passing sixteen cars in route to the front). Chris Williams was recognized as the Robison Racing Products Rookie of the Race. 2006 O’Reilly USCS Rookie of the Year, Derek Hagar was recognized as the Hoosier Tire Young Gun of the Race, which is awarded to the top-finishing driver under twenty-five years old at each event. Don Smith from Lebanon, Indiana snagged the K&N Filters Pole Award with the inversion of the feature line-up from the first feature placing him on the pole of feature number two. The JE Pistons Top Gun Award that rotates from first place to second place and then to third place went to the second place driver Terry Gray.
- Adam Ulrey on Mar 14, 2020
- Article Date: 11/10/2007