Special to the Phoenix



OKTAHA — It was more of the same for Greg Skaggs in racing at Outlaw Motor Speedway here Friday night.

The Bixby driver, having a season like no other racer in the brief six-year history of the three-eighths mile clay oval, captured his 15th feature win of the year. And, like his last eight wins, he made it look extremely easy.

Skaggs, starting on the inside in row six, was running second by lap three and after a restart on lap four realigned the field and took him back to fourth, he was quickly challenged for the lead a lap later.

He got the outside advantage over Muskogee’s Jared Havens completing lap five, floating to the high side in turns one and two. Exiting into the back straight-away, he powered his way to the lead and never looked back.

Havens was a distant second while Locust Grove’s Jeremy Ross was third.

Skaggs has failed to win the feature only twice in the last nine weeks of racing. In one of those races, he was leading with one lap to go when he had to pull into the infield with mechanical problems.

“I’m running out of things to talk about,” said track manager Eric Shannon of his interviews of Skaggs during the trophy presentations. “He is so hot. His consistency is just beyond belief. What he has done this season might not be duplicated anytime soon.”

In the last race of the evening, 85 rookie drivers participated in the special 100 lap Enduro race. It started well past midnight.



Pure Stock

Just when four cars emerged as the front runners in the feature, disaster struck when race leader Jason Ward and the three cars chasing him got together and slammed into the buffer protecting the light pole going into turn three.

Two of the four cars were towed to the pits — Ward and Andy Simmons’s racer — while Darin Austin, of Muskogee, and Russell McClain, of Chouteau, remained in the race, but restarted at the back of the pack.

The accident opened the door for Checotah’s Kay Burris and Chouteau’s Brandie Levassuer to battle for the checkered flag. Levassuer eventually prevailed, winning her fifth feature of the season and first since May 23.

Levassuer got ahead of Burris with three laps remaining and then won by four car lengths over Muskogee’s Jon Richardson. McClain battled all the way back from the accident to finish third while Greg Carmack took fourth, followed by Muskogee’s Mike Bantaa. Burris slipped to sixth.



Super Modified

Carl Conley chalked up his second straight feature verdict with some nifty driving on a restart midway though the race.

The Porter racer passed Martin Hemphill between turns one and two one lap after the race was slowed when Jake Kelley pulled his lame car to a stop in turn two with a flat tire. On the restart, Hemphill and Conley battled door-to-door through lap 10 before Conley got the advantage on the outside heading into turn one.

From there, he survived another restart and eventually held off a determined charge by William Gould — that ended on lap 15 when the Fort Smith driver and Muskogee’s Shannon Reheard made contact out of turn four, sending Gould fish-tailing into the straight away.

Regaining control of his car, Gould turned hard into Reheard and the two came to a rest in front of the grandstands along the wall. Gould emerged from his car and sitting in the window had words with Reheard.

Both cars were towed from the track. Gould was black flagged for rough driving.

In the meantime, Conley scrambled ahead on the single-file restart and easily beat Patrick Goodnight to the finish. Third went to Hemphill.



Hobby Stock

Dale Richardson took advantage of a restart on lap 13 to forge ahead to win his 10th feature of the season. The Muskogee driver blitzed past Justin Green on the backstretch after the restart.

From there, he smoked the field to win by more than a dozen car lengths over Green. His win broke a string of three straight feature triumphed by Spiro’s Brookin Stephens, the division point leader.

Stephens, bidding for his ninth win of the year, left the race after three laps, pulling to the top of the clay oval in turn three with a flat tire. When he was allowed to return to the track — after a caution at the midway point of the 20-lap run — he was six laps down.