Jones sets the local pace on a busy night at Port City At Port City Raceway, the difference between a good night and a long ride home can be one groove, one restart or one car parked directly between you and the transfer spot.
Sand Springs racer Ryker Jones avoided most of that drama and delivered the best A-feature finish among the area’s drivers, bringing the No. 22 home sixth in the 20-lap Restrictor Micro main event.
Jones started sixth and finished sixth, which may not look particularly theatrical on paper. At a racetrack, however, holding your ground for 20 laps while everyone around you is searching for traction, points, daylight and occasionally divine intervention, is respectable work.
He had already demonstrated that the car had some hustle, winning his heat after starting second.
The feature belonged to Brexton Busch of Mooresville, North Carolina, who started 14th and staged a jailbreak, passing 13 cars in 20 laps to claim the checkered flag. Busch finished ahead of Cade Wolfe and Levi Ballard.
Lathan Knott and Jesse Bell won the division’s two B features, where the racing tends to be desperate, crowded and entirely uninterested in anyone’s long-term emotional well-being.
Lucito punches his ticket
Giovanni Lucito of Sand Springs had to earn his place in the Junior Sprint main event the old-fashioned way: by racing his way clean through the B feature.
Lucito started third in the 12-lap qualifier, moved into second and secured one of the six transfer positions. No invitation, no velvet rope, no complimentary beverage — just finish high enough and keep racing.
He started 14th in the 20-lap A feature and finished 16th aboard the No. 56L.
Oklahoma City’s Bryton Buoy won the Junior Sprint feature after starting third. Bentley Thompson finished second, followed by Jaxson Evett, Breck Buoy and Cash Wright.
Brody Lewis won the B feature, with Lucito directly behind him and safely on his way to the main event.
One spot keeps Long out of the big show
The Non-Wing Micro division attracted the largest group of area racers, including Sand Springs drivers Ethan and Shawn Wicker and Mannford drivers Jensen Long, Ruston Moss and JT Moss.
It also supplied the night’s most aggravating local finish.
Long started eighth in the third B feature and carved his way forward five positions, finishing third in the No. 28L.
Normally, gaining five spots in 12 laps is the sort of performance that sends everyone back to the trailer feeling pretty good.
Unfortunately, only the top two transferred. Long missed the A feature by one position, which in racing is approximately the width of the Grand Canyon when you are the driver sitting on the wrong side of the cutoff.
Crispin Beaver won the race, while Jack Kassik grabbed the second and final transfer position.
JT Moss also competed in the third B feature, starting 10th and finishing 13th in the No. 33M. He placed seventh in his heat race earlier in the program.
In the second B feature, Sand Springs racer Ethan Wicker moved forward from 10th to sixth in the No. 27E. It was a steady fourposition climb through a field in which nobody was particularly interested in moving over and helping.
Shawn Wicker started fifth and finished ninth in the No. 20. Earlier, he had gained one position in his heat, moving from fifth to fourth.
Mannford’s Ruston Moss started 11th and finished 14th in the No. 51M after placing seventh in his heat. Kris Carroll won the B feature, with Hank Soares securing the other transfer position.
The Non-Wing A feature went to Broken Arrow’s Cody Barnes, who started third and worked his way to the front.
Jase Randolph finished second, Cash Lacombe was third and Kyle Larson — yes, that Kyle Larson — charged from 17th to fourth.
Larson gained 13 positions but did not win, which is a useful reminder that even internationally famous race car drivers occasionally arrive at a dirt track and find somebody local occupying the preferred line in a car that’s been dialed in tight.
Brock Berreth, Carroll, Beaver and Logan Heath won the four Non-Wing B features.
Wilson earns a place in the Sportsman feature Mannford’s Brett Wilson raced his way into the 20-lap Sportsman Micro A feature in the No. 15M.
Wilson began the night by starting sixth and finishing fourth in his heat, gaining two positions and putting himself into the main event.
He started 13th in the feature and finished 20th. The final result may not have been what Wilson wanted, but making the A feature meant he was still racing while others were already loading cars and explaining to friends that the setup had been “close.”
Tulsa’s Bobby McIntosh started from the pole and won the Sportsman feature.
Brad Best finished second, Dugan Ridenour was third and Lonnie Fraley placed fourth, giving Tulsa drivers a sweep of the first four positions. Apparently, the hometown crowd decided sharing was unnecessary.
Sand Springs racer Ayla Jones competed in the Sportsman B feature, starting and finishing 15th in the No. 77A. She had placed seventh in her heat race.
Darrius Myers won the B feature, followed by Jake Rogers and Robert Randolph.
When the dust settled, five Sand Springs drivers had competed across the program: Ryker Jones, Giovanni Lucito, Ethan Wicker, Shawn Wicker and Ayla Jones.
Mannford sent four racers into the mix: Jensen Long, Ruston Moss, JT Moss and Brett Wilson.
The local contingent did not leave Port City with a feature trophy, but Jones posted a topsix finish, Lucito and Wilson raced their way into A features, and Long came within one position of joining them.
At a track where the cushion moves, the openings disappear quickly and the transfer line has all the sympathy of a parking meter, that still counts as a night worth talking about.