Twenty-Three of dtr2's best drivers showed up Monday night for WFO's season opener in their portion of the WFO/Doit Lucas Oil Summer Sizzler race at the newly remodeled Thunderbird Raceway in Muskogee, Oklahoma. WFO_Rainman won the dual series opener on the previous Thursday at Doit at the same track by over six seconds. The competition would have to step it up a notch to beat him tonight.
Heat 1 would see a dogfight between joshow20, BLS_00, VLR_Shock, Jammin, and Ice before Ice would get spun in turn 1 after trying to avoid a slowing car. BLS_00 would get the win followed by joshow20, and VLR_Shock would finish 3rd. The top two cars from each heat would automatically transfer to the 75-lap feature event.
A loaded heat 2 would see Rain continue his dominance at this track by winning an intense battle with VLR_Wheel and Doit 5. WFO’s newest member Invader would run 4th and go to the B.
In heat 3 WFO Ranger would grab the win while ERL_Goat would grab the 2nd transfer spot. VLR_Renegade would be the odd man out finishing 3rd and Bullet would grab the 4th spot.
“D” Feature action would see Ice start on the pole and not look back as Rac would finish 2nd. JFR_Jim would finish 3rd and ERL_BDog would be the final transfer to the “C” Main.
“C” Feature action would see JSN and Invader break away from the field and finish 1-2 with Ice moving from 7th to 3rd. BLS_34 would be the last car to make the “B” Main.
“B” feature would see Shock get to the point and not look back as he tried to make up for a blown tire at Doit last Thursday which knocked him out of second place. Muskogee's own WFO_Ice would work his way from 9th to 2nd to make the home fans happy. D5 would settle with 3rd and BLS_42 would be the final driver to get in the 75 lap “A” Main.
16,525 fans would be on their feet as BLS_00 would lead the all-star field of drivers to the green flag. 00 would lead the until turn 4 of the 1st lap but Rain would quickly make the pass for the lead and pick up where he left off on Thursday. Shock would quickly make his presence felt and move from 7th to 4th by the second lap but was still in very heavy traffic as he worked his way past Ranger for the 3rd spot.
However as soon as Shock was able to get to 3rd, Ice and Ranger would make slight contact going down the front straight and Ranger would get into turn 1 to hot and put Shock into the wall sending him back to the 7th spot, where he started the race. Fan favorite Ice would use the contact to get up to 3rd and the hometown boy was looking to make his move and garner a win.
Wheel (VLR_18) had other ideas however as he would make his way around Ice for third on the tenth circuit. Meanwhile a battle for 5th was brewing between Joshow20, Doit 5, and VLR_Shock as the three exchanged the positions several times. Meanwhile up front Rain would start to methodically pull away from the field in what looked like would be a repeat from last Thursday when he dominated the field. On lap 23 Wheel would make his way around the 00 machine and Ice would follow on the next lap. Just as things started to settle down the caution would fly due to some debris from the D5 car after making contact with the J0 machine.
The field would bunch back up and Rain would lead them back to the green on lap 28. Rain would immediately get a jump on the field and get his lead built back up to around .3 seconds. Ice would battle with Wheel for a few laps before VLR stalemate Shock would make the pass on Ice for 3rd on lap 32. Shock would then find himself right on the back bumper of Wheel and the 2 would start to work together to try to catch the x59 car. On lap 43 D5 and Ranger would make contact coming out of turn 2 sending Ranger spinning with a cut right front tire and retiring him for the evening.
Wheel and Shock would continue to work together for the final 28 laps in order to catch Rain but it was to no avail as the x59 machine would find the checkers for his 2nd win in as many races at Thunderbird 2k11. Wheel would cross the line in 2nd side by side with his teammate VLR_Shock, who finished third. Ice would finish in the 4th spot after an adventurous night coming from the “D” feature. D5 would round out the top 5. 00 would fall to 6th after choosing the wrong tire compound and BLS_42 was able to finish in 7th. J0 would garner the 8th spot being the final car on the track. Ranger and Goat would receive 9th and 10th after loading up on their trailers early.
After the race, Rain was once again able to celebrate with daughter Elizabeth in his arms. “Wow, what a great run. I thought I had it in the bag again this week but that caution really hurt and made me work for it. I got a great restart and was able to get just enough separation that they couldn’t sniff my draft and was able to stay just far enough ahead. I defiantly had to work for this one knowing that Wheel and Shock was back there.”
Wheel was happy but also disappointed in finishing 2nd. “I had a great run today and was as fast as Rain but I wasn’t faster. I thought with Shock behind me we would be able to run him down but we just couldn’t get it done…Talk about frustrating!”
3rd place finisher Shock was clearly frustrated, “Man I felt like I had a monster under the hood tonight. I just couldn’t get around Wheel to take my shot at Rain. I was hoping that Wheel would let me around and try to push me a little to see if we was faster. I think him ramming me in the rear for a change would make us a little quicker and could have had a 3-way with Rain up there but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Hometown driver Ice was clearly exhausted after the race. “I think I ran about 150 green flag laps tonight and I have nothing left. Getting in that accident in the “B” sent me into the “D” and I was able to get my backup ready and I had a rocket until I got to the feature. I think I was the 4th best car tonight and that’s where I finished.
Join the Lucas Oil Summer Series on Thursday as we take our talents to the East coast and try to tackle the famed BLS_Superspeedway for round 3. (Ding)