CATOOSA — The Moss brothers rolled into Port City Raceway with something to prove — and by the end of the DRC Memorial weekend, they absolutely did.
Friday and Saturday at the Tulsa dirt oval drew a combined 322 race-night entries across six divisions, with 154 cars Friday and another 168 Saturday. In other words: nobody backed into a good finish this weekend. They earned every inch.
33M
Mannford’s J. T. Moss earned plenty.
The Shoreline Boat and RV Repairsponsored 33M driver spent Saturday throwing haymakers in the stacked Non-Wing and Non-Wing Outlaw fields, surviving one of the nastiest programs Port City has hosted this season. After a sixth-place finish in Non-Wing Heat 4 forced him into B Feature 2, Moss clawed forward to fourth in the B Main — barely missing transfer position in the standard Non-Wing class.
But that was only the appetizer. Moss came back in Non-Wing Outlaw and flat-out fought his way into the A Feature. He started fifth in Heat 1 and transferred cleanly, then lined up 15th in a loaded 21-car Outlaw main that included Brecken Reese, Kris Carroll, Jett Nunley, Cole Roberts and Isaiah Garcia. By the checkered flag, J. T. had not only held his own, but muscled the 33M up to 12th against one of the deepest outlaw fields Port City has seen this spring — grinding.
Friday had started rougher for J. T., with a seventh-place run in Non-Wing Heat 3 and a DNS in the B Feature. But Saturday completely changed the tone of the weekend.
51M
Meanwhile, older brother Ruston Moss spent the weekend battling the brutal A-Class division, where every heat race looked like a jailbreak.
Ruston drove the Shoreline Boat and RV Repair-sponsored 51M in A-Class both nights and stayed competitive in packed fields that routinely needed multiple B Features just to sort out the main-event lineup.
Friday, Ruston finished fifth in Heat 3 before ending ninth in B Feature 2. Saturday followed a similar pattern: fifth in Heat 2 and eighth in B Feature 2.
No, Ruston did not crack the A Main. But context matters here. A-Class at Port City right now is loaded with killers — Jett Nunley, Frank Flud, Kris Carroll, Camden Kroening, Ryker Morrow, Josh Marcham and a long list of drivers capable of winning any given night. Ruston was not out there getting lapped. He was running with the pack all weekend.
Collectively, the Moss brothers turned in one of the stronger area performances of the weekend simply by surviving traffic and staying competitive in fields as deep as those at Port City.
28L
Jensen Long, another Mannford-area standout, quietly put together one of the better weekends in the building.
Long raced in both A-Class and Non-Wing competition and made himself hard to ignore. Friday night, he finished 12th in the A-Class feature and sixth in the Non-Wing feature.
Saturday was even stronger. Long won A-Class B Feature 2 to transfer into the main event, then finished 12th in the A-Class A Feature against a 20-car field. In Non-Wing, he charged to fifth in the 55-lap feature after winning Heat 3 earlier in the night.
That is a lot of laps in a mechanically violent weekend of racing.
56L
Sand Springs drivers also left fingerprints all over the DRC Memorial.
Young Giovanni Lucito turned in one of the cleanest Junior Sprint weekends among area racers. Friday, Lucito finished fourth in the Jr Sprint feature after taking second in Heat 2. Saturday, he again qualified through the heats before ending 18th in the feature after starting fourth — a finish that does not fully reflect how strong the 56L looked early in the night.
22
Ryker Jones had one of the better Restricted-class weekends in the region.
Friday, Jones won Restricted Heat 1 and later finished 20th in the A Feature after starting sixth and getting buried in heavy traffic. Saturday was much better. Jones won Heat 2 and powered to sixth in the Restricted A Feature against a 20-car field.
27E
Ethan Wicker showed speed in Saturday’s massive Non-Wing field, finishing second in Heat 1 before bringing the 27E machine home seventh in the 55-lap A Feature.
Shawn Wicker doubled up across divisions and spent most of the weekend surviving chaos. Friday, he finished 18th in the Non-Wing feature after transferring through the B Main. Saturday, he finished 14th in the Non-Wing Outlaw A Feature and also competed in the standard Non-Wing class.