PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — Kyle O’Gara scored his first sprint car victory Friday night at Showtime Speedway when he captured the 30-lap opening night of the Dave Steele World Non-Winged Sprint Car Championship 125.
O’Gara took advantage of a Kody Swanson miscue to take the top spot and never looked back.
In a bizarre twist of events, several of the top contenders were involved in a first-lap accident exiting turn two. Sport Allen, Johnny Gilbertson, Shane Butler, L.J. Grimm and Swanson were all collected in the pileup.
When the green flag waved, Allen got the jump and led the first seven circuits of the three-eighths-mile asphalt oval. Allen began to get loose and this allowed Swanson to take the top spot. But two laps later, Swanson got too high exiting turn four, allowing O’Gara the opportunity he needed on lap 10.
O’Gara would go the rest of the distance to claim his first sprint car feature victory.
Following O’Gara were Tyler Roahrig, Grimm, Swanson and Dakoda Armstrong.
“I wish it was a little bit closer to home,” O’Gara stated in victory lane in reference to his first sprint car win in Florida despite calling Indiana home. “We’re happy to get the win tonight and get some momentum rolling for this weekend.”
O’Gara described his opportunity to take the lead from Swanson on lap 10.
“I saw a rare error out of him (Swanson) and we took advantage of it and kept rolling. I thought he overshot the entry to three and broke away there. But it’s hard telling. It’s a rare error out of him,” concluded O’Gara.
Saturday night will conclude the weekend’s racing action with the “Dave Steele World Non-Winged Championship 125”. The 125-lap feature event will pay $5,000 to the winner.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): Kyle O’Gara, Tyler Roahrig, L.J. Grimm, Kody Swanson, Dakoda Armstrong, Joe Ligouri, Travis Bliemeister, Ronnie Wuerdeman, Stan Butler, Tommy Nichols, Troy Thompson, Nick Andrade, Sport Allen, Dude Teate, Johnny Gilbertson, Shane Butler.