Race 1 2013 ASA OK Tire Series presented by Advance Testing
The first race of the season is in the books for the ASA OK Tire Series presented by Advance testing. Twenty four well prepared sportsman cars showed up to try their chances on the half mile D shaped oval at the Vernon Motoplex Speedway. The Lordco Auto Parts 125 was the first 125 lap race ever run by the series.
Qualifying had the tightest field in years with the top 16 cars within a half of a second. Korbin Thomas in the 05 car had what looked like the fast time of the day until current track record holder Ian Graham bettered Thomas’ time by 18 one hundredths, for a time of 18.813.
The heat races brought action as always at Motoplex as the start of the B heat had the 10X car of Paul Turond and the 89 of Superdave come together, removing the bumper cover of the 89. Both cars were able to line back up for another restart and the green flag brought the 44 of Scott Morgan on pole and the 2012 rookie of the year Jeff Cameron outside pole to full race speed. Dan Ursel and Steve Lengert battle in behind. Cameron is stuck in the high groove, and Ursel passes for second. The race finishes with 44 of Morgan up front, Ursel in the 74 Lordco machine second and Steve Lengert in the 56 Third.
Continuing the action, the A heat did not disappoint. Joe Cornett-Ching in the 36 and Bob Williams in the 5 brought the field to the stripe. Cornett-Ching running hard and Williams in chase the race began to sort itself out. Clearly some of the cars in the back are saving tires for the 125. Seibert is racing hard on the white flag lap and something goes wrong into turn 3. Unable to control the car he spins through the grass and back onto the track in front of Ian Graham. Seibert finds the outside wall hard and Graham hits the fence alongside the 09.The 09 is towed to the pits and is deemed un-repairable due to a heavily damaged frame. The 18 crew goes to work with help from surrounding teams, and though not pretty, is ready to race the main while missing the entire front nose, fenders and hood.
The Lordco 125 lined up on the front straight and gave driver introductions. Engines were fired and cars lined up. The three wide salute to the fans was an awesome display of ASA sportsman cars. On the pole after the invert was Sheldon Mayert, outside pole the 56 of past WCSS champion Steve Lengert. Mayert takes the green and leads Lengert for two laps. Lengert makes the hard pass and takes the lead on lap three. Immediately the 92 of Logan Jewell and the 1 of Matt Stephenson start to work forward. The 36 of Joe Cornett-Ching heads to the pits as the air comes out of a tire. Behind the front group careful racing among the top qualifiers as they save tires and size each other up. Williams, Thomas, Loudoun, Olson and Berriau all planning strategy. Lengert is leading and pulling away. Lap 23 Logan Jewel puts the pass on Lengert and races forward. The 1 of Stevenson into second and 33 of Dave Hemrich in third. The 1 and 92 pressure each other and Stephenson gets high into the marbles out of four, spinning the car down the front stretch and taking up last position. Restarts and cooling tires has the 33 of Hemrich slide low on the 92 and takes the lead on lap 83. Thomas and Berriau race into the top group, as is the hard charging Bob Williams. Tom Berrow and Matt Stephenson not far behind. Great mid pack racing and two wide challenges are sorting out the short run and long run setups. Caution on lap 102 tightens the field with the top group being, 33,92,27,5,1,05,86. Quite a lineup of champions in the battle. Yellow on lap 110, cools the tires and resets another side by side lineup. Now the game is on and no driver is giving an inch.
