|
|
PHIPPS WINS SUPERCLEAN MODIFIED SERIES TITLE DURING A CRASH FILLED NIGHT IN BLYTHE By Dave Grayson The SuperClean Modified Racing Series officially closed out its 2009 season with a championship night held October 17th at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway in Blythe-California. This series is well known for its hard charging, door to door, open wheel racing with very few on track incidents. Somehow that fell apart on this night in Blythe. There were a whopping nine yellow caution flags and four red flags. At one point series co promoters Greg Scheidecker and Bill Rozhon were actually seen examining the Blythe skyline checking for the presence of an unscheduled full moon. There was drama long before the green flag fell on the series' 75 lap feature that night. There was a skin tight points battle for a rather lucrative points championship. Andrew Phipps came to town with a six point lead over James Cole and a 16 point lead over Chris Gerchman in third. It was a points race that was too close to call in a racing environment where literally anything could alter those points numbers without warning. However Phipps came up with the right solution to the points race. In an effort to protect his points lead, he simply led the last 72 laps of the race for his third win of 2009 and his first championship worth $3,500 in post season cash bonuses and sponsor merchandise. But this is not to imply that the new champion had an easy night of it. Far from it. This race was loaded with drama from Saturday afternoon qualifying all the way to the 75th lap of a wreck marred feature. It all began Saturday afternoon with qualifying when 14 year old Austin Barnes made it very clear that his track time during the practice session held the night before paid off in a very big way. The Escondido-California driver toured the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway's quarter mile paved oval in 14.617 seconds. But the pre race inversion ceremony turned up the number four. That put James Cole and Tim Morse on the front row of the 75 lap feature. Prior to the start of the race, the field observed their recently established tradition of doing some parade laps while carrying small American flags. With patriotic music from the track's public address system, this really was an awesome sight and the fans in the packed grandstands stood and cheered loudly. Unfortunately it would turn out to be the last positive thing that happened in this race prior to the crowning of a new champion. Even starting this race was not going to be easy. Before the field could complete the first lap there was a caution flag due to a turn four spin out. That necessitated a complete restart. But once again the complete field failed to make a complete lap. This time the problem was a multi car crash on the frontstretch. The third time was the charm and the SuperClean championship night was finally underway. James Cole jumped into the lead and paced the field for the first three circuits. After that Andrew Phipps made what would turn out to be the race winning move and took a lead that he never relinquished. Throughout this race there were all those yellow flags with the causes running the gamut from single car spins to multi car crashes. Again, totally out of character for this series. There was even a yellow flag to remove a lapped car from the track because the driver refused to heed the move over flag and would not get out of the way of the leaders. There was actually a very large reason for this unusually high level of intensity. The SuperClean Modified Racing Series awards post season bonuses to the top 15 drivers in the standings. Going into this final race the points spread among the top 15 were even closer than the championship contenders. For example there were three drivers tied for seventh with a fourth driver only eight points behind them. There were two drivers tied for 15th, the final post season bonus position with a driver in 17th only six points away from them. This was the final night for drivers to improve on their points status and the cash bonuses that came with that. The final caution flag of the race came out on lap 69 and, once again, Phipps watched his lead over the field evaporate. By now 2008 champion Jimmy Dickerson was in second and a late race showdown for highly anticipated. But on that final restart the rear of Dickerson's modified wiggled to the right. It only took a fraction of a second to straighten out the situation but that's all the time Phipps needed to open up a three car length lead as he came across the start finish line. Dickerson quickly closed that gap and did everything he could to steal the win on the final laps but Phipps wasn't going to have anything to do with that. Tim Morse, Doug Carpenter and James Cole followed them under the checkers to complete the top five. After parking his Spartan Trucking-Ron's Rear Ends modified in the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway's victory lane. It had been a long race. He was very tired but very happy. After the race the very happy winner said "our goal was to come out here and win the race. We said from day one that we wanted to win races and the points will fall where they will. It's been a tough year. This series is so competitive and the guys here are really tough. The roll of the dice on the pre race invert and how that falls can be huge. There's so many guys driving at the same speed that sometimes it's really hard to pass them. I got lucky tonight and had a good starting spot. I was able to get into the lead and I took care of my tires while everyone else had to race their butts off to try and get to me. It worked out. I can't believe that we finally won one here at Blythe. It's a tough little track. I've just got to thank all of my guys who worked really hard. It was really a lot of fun." Series co promoter Greg Scheidecker, after reflecting on the race, said "I really don't want to say I expected it but I just had a feeling. When you've got 17 positions that can change in the points, and did, then every body's fighting to move up one position and that's exactly what we saw tonight. This was probably one of the more difficult nights we had trying to put on our show. There was a lot of pushing, a lot of shoving and not a lot of patience." The complexion of this race may likely implement a location change for next year according to Scheidecker who said "I was talking to (head tech inspector Allan Brown) Brownie and Bill, (Rozhon series co promoter), and we agree that Blythe is not your typical race track. This is a very tight bullring. Next year we do not want the championship race held at a place that doesn't allow that extra two inches where the Havasu 95 Speedway does. So next year we're going to finish our season at a race track that is probably more favorable for our type of racing. All in all my God what a night. There was even racing in the pits tonight I mean it was all over the place." But Scheidecker was very happy for his new series champion and said "it really makes me feel good to see all of these competitors come over to congratulate him. That's what this is all about. The man has paid his dues. Last year he was leading in points and suffered a part failure. Then this year he comes back leading the points but this time he finished it off. The man earned it, he really put it to them." In addition to its title sponsor the SuperClean Modified Racing Series is supported by a highly potent marketing concept known as "Team Lucas." Team members include: Lucas Oil Products, E3 Spark Plugs, R&L Carriers, Dixie Chopper, General Tire and K&N Performance Filters. There is also the strong support from the official series sponsors which includes SuperClean Products, Hoosier Tire West, Budweiser, Blue Water Resort and Casino, Sunoco Fuel, Frank's Radio, DJ Safety, Steve Teets of STR-Short Track Race Cars, Poly Dome Plastic Products, Racing Plus and Mac Tools. |