Terry Dease turned a horrible night into a decent night last weekend at Orange County and finds himself in the points lead of the track’s headline Late Model Stock Car division at the season’s halfway point.
After spinning once and being involved in three crashes, the Oxford native managed a second place finish in the 75 lap late model feature following the disqualification of race winner Chuck Lawson. Original second place finisher R.D. Smith protested Lawson and was awarded the victory when Lawson refused post race inspection.
The post race drama followed a wild race which saw three different leaders in the last five laps. Barry Beggarly appeared headed to a win when his engine blew in turn three on lap 71. Oil from the exploded engine coated the track and sent the next running cars of Lawson, Layne Riggs, Daniel Moss and Dease spinning. All but Lawson made wall contact with both Riggs and Moss joining Beggarly on the sidelines. On the restart, Lawson tried to charge from fourth place to first in the fourth turn, but lost control and caused a collision between Dease and Chris Denny. Denny was done, but Dease continued with a badly damaged car.
Lawson got the better of Smith on a final restart and seemed to take the triumph. Both Dease and Smith were highly critical of Lawson’s late race driving during post race remarks. “I’ve got along fine with everyone over here except for the 42 car (Lawson)” stated Smith. Hours later, he was elevated to the front for his first OCS win.
The late model cars will be featured in the Spring Sizzler 100 on July 23. The race will pay $2500 to win with a 12 car field and $3000 to win if 20 or more cars compete. The event will pay $350 to start and will be run in two 50 lap segments with a 15 minute break and a redraw of positions for the second 50 laps. Dease will head into the night with a 40 point lead over Denny in the battle for the track championship. The special event will be part of a Ladies Night program that will also include twin 15 lap features for the Grand American Modifieds and regular distance races for the Limiteds, Pure Stocks, Street Stocks and Super Mini Trucks.
