Sand Springs driver wins Restrictor feature; Mannford and Cushing racers grind through crowded Saturday program By the time the feature races rolled onto the dirt Saturday night, Port City Raceway had become its own small, roaring universe.
Engines snapped against the humid August air. Dirt hung beneath the lights like a brown fog. Drivers flicked their cars sideways into the corners, searching for traction on a track that offered speed but never guaranteed grip.
Five divisions and nearly 100 feature-race laps filled the program Saturday, Aug. 1, and drivers from Sand Springs, Mannford and Cushing were scattered throughout the fields of nearly every class that ran.
One of them owned the night.
Sand Springs driver Ryker Jones swept everything put in front of him, charging from third to win his Restrictor Micro heat and then controlling the 20-lap feature from the pole. Jones crossed the finish line ahead of Tennessee’s Mason Nelson and Arizona’s Jayden Ferneau, giving theSand Springs the “W” it deserved.
It was an emphatic performance in one of the night’s largest fields.
Jones began his heat two rows deep but gained two positions to take the victory. That result put the No. 22 at the front of the feature, and he made the position count. Jones started first and finished first while 19 challengers continuously sorted themselves out behind him.
Nelson advanced from third to second, while Ferneau produced one of the feature’s strongest runs, moving from ninth to third. Broken Arrow’s J.J. Beason and Dewey’s Hudsyn Truitt completed the top five.
Jones, however, never surrendered the No. 1 spot.
Lucito moves forward in Junior Sprint
Sand Springs’ Giovanni Lucito gained ground every time he buckled up in the Junior Sprint division.
Lucito started sixth in the second heat and moved forward one position to finish fifth. He began the eight-lap feature from the 10th starting spot and again got by a couple cars, finishing eighth in the 14-car field.
The night’s Junior Sprint trophy went to Iowa driver Garrett Mohrfeld, who started third and advanced two positions for the victory. Oklahoma City’s Bryton Buoy came from seventh to finish second, with Bentonville, Arkansas, driver Grayson Logan taking third.
Lucito’s eighth-place finish made him one of only six Junior Sprint competitors to improve upon his feature starting position. His twoposition gain matched the advances made by Lane Stewart, while Buoy’s five-position charge was the largest in the race.
Mannford drivers hit trouble in A-Class feature
TheA-ClassMicroprogrambegan with two Mannford drivers solidly entrenched in the conversation.
Ruston Moss started second in his heat and held the spot throughout the eight-lap race, finishing behind Broken Arrow’s Chase McDougal. In the third heat, Jensen Long started fourth and drove to second, gaining two positions behind heat winner Ryker Morrow.
Those performances placed both Mannford racers inside the first four rows for the 25-lap feature.
Long started second, while Moss rolled seventh. The feature proved far less forgiving than the qualifying races.
Moss was scored 16th after losing nine positions from his starting spot. Long fell from the outside of the front row to 17th, finishing the race 15 positions behind where he began.
Long’srunner-upfinishandMoss’ second-place heat performance put each of them in contention before the feature turned against them.
Owasso’s Ryker Morrow completed a flawless A-Class evening, winning his heat after starting second and then leading the feature from the pole to the checkered flag.
Behind him, the field churned.
Travis Smith of Parsons, Kansas, charged from 11th to second, while Rockwall, Texas, racer Justin Robison climbed from ninth to third. Nick Thrower made the largest move of the race, rocketing from 17th to sixth.
Wegener climbs into the Non-Wing top 10
Cushing’s Gary Wegener quietly assembled one of the strongest local feature runs of the night in the Non-Wing Micro division.
Wegener began his heat from the ninth starting position and moved forward to finish eighth. That placed him 14th on the grid for a 25-lap feature loaded with traffic and potential trouble.
He did not stay 14th.
Wegener gained five positions and finished ninth, earning a top-10 result in the 18-car field. Among the local drivers in the Non-Wing feature, only Wegener finished higher than he started.
His five-position advance matched Steven Bennett’s improvement and trailed only Blake Parmley, who stormed from 18th to fifth, and Taitum McElvany, who climbed seven places to finish sixth.
Tulsa’s Brock Berreth won the Non-Wing feature after starting third. Luke Porter finished second, with Justin Robison third and A-Class winner Ryker Morrow fourth.
Wickers show heat-race speed
Sand Springs racers Shawn Wicker and Ethan Wicker each showed their ability to move through traffic during Non-Wing heat competition.
Ethan started eighth in the first heat and drove forward three positions to finish fifth. Shawn produced an even larger charge in the second heat, climbing from sixth to second behind winner Dexter Thompson.
That four-position gain gave Shawn one of the strongest heatrace performances in the division and placed him on the front row for the feature.
The main event did not unfold as favorably.
Shawn started second but was scored 13th after dropping 11 positions. Ethan began seventh and finished 11th, four positions behind his starting spot.
The bare results offer no explanation for the reversals, but the heat sheets show both Sand Springs drivers possessed the speed to advance. Shawn passed four cars in eight laps, while Ethan worked from the back half of his heat into the top five.
Moss and Long return for Non-Wing competition
Mannford’s J.T. Moss and Jensen Long also entered the Non-Wing program.
Moss started fourth in the second heat and finished sixth. He then began the feature from the 11th position and finished 14th.
Long started fourth and finished fourth in the first heat, securing the ninth starting position for the feature. His night ended before the green flag, however, as Long was listed as a DNS.
It was an especially frustrating conclusion for Long, who had already qualified near the front in two divisions. He finished second in his A-Class heat and fourth in his Non-Wing heat but endured a difficult A-Class feature before being unable to start the Non-Wing main event.
Simpson takes Sportsman victory The final class winner of the evening was Coweta’s Justin Simpson, who controlled the Sportsman Micro feature from the pole.
Simpson had earlier driven from sixth to second in his heat, a fourposition advance that helped earn his front-row feature assignment. Once placed at the head of the 20lap main event, he stayed there.
Tulsa’s Bobby McIntosh finished second, followed by Arkansas racer Chris Stowe.
The division’s biggest charge belonged to California’s Chris Parmley, who tore through the field from 17th to fifth. Shelly Ward advanced three positions to finish sixth, while Mekentzi Potter gained five spots for seventh.
Five divisions, five winners When the engines finally went quiet, the Aug. 1 winners were Garrett Mohrfeld in Junior Sprint, Ryker Morrow in A-Class Micro, Ryker Jones in Restrictor Micro, Brock Berreth in Non-Wing Micro and Justin Simpson in Sportsman Micro.
For the local racers, the night carried a little of everything.
Lucito moved forward in both of his races. Wegener carved out a top-10 finish from the seventh row. The Wickers demonstrated speed in their heats. The Mannford contingent earned strong starting positions before running into feature-race adversity.
And Jones delivered the result everyone else had spent the night chasing.
He started the Restrictor feature beneath the lights, with 19 cars lined up behind him and 20 laps of dirt waiting ahead.
When it was over, they were still behind him.