COLCORD, Okla. — Sean McClelland christened the newly-revamped Arrowhead Speedway near West Siloam Springs, Okla., by racing to victory lane in Friday night’s 25-lap Oil Capital Racing Series feature atop the one-third-mile clay oval.
The Tulsa racer gunned into the lead from the outside front row at the drop of the green flag and then held off the late challenges of Whit Gastineau to secure his 14th career OCRS feature win.
“I knew he was there,” McClelland explained of Gastineau’s advances. “My car was getting so tight, I just kept slowing down more to make sure I held my line and didn’t give him a chance to get by.”
McClelland, a three-time series champion, got the jump on defending kingpin Blake Edwards at the outset and found himself in traffic within a handful of laps as Gastineau battled into second and began closing the gap soon after.
Gastineau pressured for the point before the race’s first caution flew after 14 laps for Fred Mattox’s stalled mount inside of turn two and then kept the pressure on until a final caution flew when Alex DeCamp tagged Gastineau and nearly spun with just two laps remaining.
McClelland held steady over the final two circuits to take the checkered flag ahead of Gastineau and DeCamp with Edwards and ninth-starter Bradley Fezard rounding out the top five.
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. 1-Sean McClelland[2]; 2. 2-Whit Gastineau[3]; 3. 22C-Alex DeCamp[8]; 4. 17E-Blake Edwards[1]; 5. 938-Bradley Fezard[9]; 6. 5-Joe Bob Lee[13]; 7. 55-Johnny Kent[7]; 8. 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[5]; 9. 7F-Noah Harris[4]; 10. 22RL-Gage Laney[10]; 11. 55W-Danny Wood[17]; 12. 88-Terry Easum[16]; 13. 42-Grady Mercer[6]; 14. 52JR-Conner Long[14]; 15. 31-Casey Wills[18]; 16. 8R-Ryker Pace[19]; 17. 30X-Larry Bratti[12]; 18. 26M-Fred Mattox[15]; 19. 38-Jimmy Forrester[11]; 20. 69-Greg York[20]