SALINA, Okla. — Whit Gastineau added his name to the elite list of OCRS AmeriFlex Challenge winners on Saturday night at Salina Highbanks Speedway.
Gastineau took an early lead on the high-banked Salina three-eighths-mile oval and went the distance over a 21-car field to pocket $3,000 and become the sixth different challenge winner since 2016.
“Finally. We have been close quite a few times and were close last year and Blake (Hahn) got us,” Gastineau recalled of his second place finish in 2021. “I am glad he showed back up this year. I don’t know how close he was.”
Hahn, who won last year driving for Elizabeth Phillips, was once again in the No. 08E sprinter and chased after Gastineau just 0.424 seconds behind at the finish.
“I ran a lot of good laps but I had some bad laps also,” Gastineau said. “We did the best we could. The car was good but I wish I had done some things different.”
The AmeriFlex/OCRS IMCA win, his 33rd with OCRS, came after a rough night on Friday at Thunderbird Speedway where he blew an engine and went to his backup power plant for the feature.
“It kind of sucks that we hurt that motor,” Gastineau said. “I think we would have won that one too.”
Gastineau was happy with the track surface in the 25-lap feature.
“The track was perfect,” Gastineau said. “It had a top and a bottom. You could not ask for a better track.”
Hahn went to the high groove hoping to build enough momentum to catch Gastineau much like he did last year. He got close, but came up short.
“With this 305 (cubic inch engine) we were better when we went to the top and got going,” said Hahn. “We gave it all we had. Felt like we had good speed. Second is pretty good, but after winning last year we wanted another one.”
Hahn felt he was closing on Gastineau late in the race.
“I felt I was gaining on him,” Hahn said. “Lap traffic was definitely helping me out. But he (Gastineau) was really good on the bottom and did not make a mistake all night. I knew if I was going to have any luck it was going to be in lap traffic.”
Two-time challenge winner Alex Sewell closed a little on Hahn but settled for third after winning a feature at Salina earlier this season.
“We really needed a yellow there to be able to do anything,” said Sewell who came from eighth starting position. “We had a good car all night. We did the best we could with what we had.”
Sheldon Barksdale came from 11th to finish fourth and three-time champion Zach Chappell was fifth.
Feature (25 Laps)
1. 2-Whit Gastineau[1]; 2. 08$-Blake Hahn[4]; 3. 8-Alex Sewell[8]; 4. 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[11]; 5. 50Z-Zach Chappell[13]; 6. 26M-Fred Mattox[2]; 7. 9$-Kyle Clark[18]; 8. 5$-Danny Smith[16]; 9. 22M-Rees Moran[15]; 10. 5-Joe Bob Lee[21]; 11. 8X-Austin Shores[3]; 12. 17E-Blake Edwards[9]; 13. 31-Casey Wills[20]; 14. 51-Jeremy Campbell[12]; 15. 6-Cameron Hagin[7]; 16. 29L-Lane Goodman[19]; 17. 22X-Corey McGehee[10]; 18. 12M-Mitchell Barros[14]; 19. 10-Jordan Knight[17]; 20. 8R-Ryker Pace[5]; 21. 24-Cody Hays[6]