All GRT Front Row as Phillips Goes Wire to Wire for Night Two Salute to the Veterans 100 Win
By: Ryan Neuharth
CASA GRANDE, Ariz – (February 23, 2008) Starting on the outside front row, Springfield, MO driver Terry Phillips made it look easy wheeling his Andy’s Frozen Custard/Don Babb Motorsports/Hatfield Racing Engines/GRT by Phillips to the 30-laps A-main win on Saturday night. The win also secured the outside front row for Sunday’s $8,000 to win A-Main event along side his teammate Jeremy Payne.
Phillips would take the lead on the initial green from his other teammate Eric Turner who slotted second from the pole. Tommy Weder swapped positions with Lance Mari as Jason Hughes rounded out the top five. Alan Sharpenstein took sixth, Ron Jones seventh, Jason Krohn eighth, Johnny Scott ninth and Zack Vanderbeek rounded out the top 10.
The yellow could quickly blink on for Royal Jones and Fito Gallardo on lap two, which was followed by a Lance Mari spin on the restart. Mari’s incident collected Aaron Mari, Marlyn Seidler and caused Fito Gallardo to slowly roll over the turn three banking.
During the yellow Jason Krohn retired to the pit area giving up his seventh position. On the double file restart Phillips would continue to lead followed by Turner as Ron Jones jumped to third as teammates Weder and Hughes ran side by side for fourth.
Hughes would take fourth on lap three and move by Jones two laps later for third. Weder then knocked Jones back one more spot on lap seven as Phillips pulled away from the rest of the field.
Phillips was the leader after ten with Turner, Hughes, Weder, R. Jones, Johnny Scott, Vanderbeek and Sharpenstein gave chase. The track was quickly taking rubber on the high side which caused Scott to pull into the infield with a flat right rear. At the same time Kenny Hawkins was loosing a drive shaft on the front straight to bring out the yellow once again.
On the lap 13 restart Phillips would continue to lead as Hughes jumped to second past Turner. Weder occupied fourth with Vanderbeek jumping past Jones for fourth. Another yellow followed one lap later for Terry Belcher, Jr and Vanderbeek was penalized two spots for jumped the previous start.
The new top five consisted of Phillips, Hughes, Turner, Weder and Jones. Vanderbeek was now sixth, Sharpenstein seventh, Jason Noll eighth from 18th, Christy Georges ninth and Terry Tipton rounded out the top 10 with ½ the 30-laps in the books.
Georges would give up her spot on lap 16 as she spun a drive shaft from her 44x machine, which set up the races first single file restart. Turner was able to take advantage of the low side in turns one and two moving past Hughes into second.
Hughes would not give up the spot easily as the two would race side by side for three laps before Turner secured the runner-up spot. At the same time, Vanderbeek would move by Jones into the final transfer spot with 10 to go.
Phillips continued to pull away from the rest of the field as Turner was also able to distance himself from Hughes. Hughes would then fall into the clutches of Weder as the two would race side by side between laps 25 and 28 before Hughes could secure the spot for good. Jones was also applying heavy pressure the back of Vanderbeek over the final five laps, making a bonsai move on the high side of turn one on the final circuit. The attempt failed as Jones slipped off the banking giving up a potential Sunday B-Main front row starting spot.
Phillips went unchallenged over the final five circuits to take the win and Sunday’s outside front row starting spot.
Sunday A-Main Top 10 Line-Up
1) Payne 2) Phillips
3) Shryock 4) Turner
5) Olexiewicz 6) Hughes
7) Krohn 8) Weder
9) Ayres 10) Vanderbeek
Modified Summary:
Heat 1:
1) Tommy Weder, Jr. 2) Ron Jones 3) Christy Georges 4) Johnny Scott 5) Duane Cleveland 6) Jay Rosales 7) Terry Belcher, Jr. 8) Chad Ayres 9) Kelly Shryock 10) Jason Noll
Heat 2:
1) RC Whitwell 2) Lance Mari 3) Marlyn Seidler 4) Aaron Mari 5) Ben Seidler 6) Robert Sanders 7) Fito Gallardo 8) Jim DiGiovanni 9) Sherman Barnett 10) Bumper Jones - DNS
Heat 3:
1) Eric Turner 2) Alan Shapenstein 3) Royal Jones 4) Jeremy Newberry 5) Cody Alvarez 6) Kenny Hawkins 7) Eric Elmer 8) Travis Gorsuch 9) Roy Poeling 10) Carlos Ahumada
Heat 4:
1) Terry Phillips 2) Jason Hughes 3) Zack Vanderbeek 4) Jason Krohn 5) Terry Tipton 6) George Fronzman 7) Mark Harrison 8) Bo Hatfield 9) Bo Partain 10) Dave Dulceak
B-Main 1:
1) Vanderbeek 2) Gallardo 3) Hawkins 4) Elmer 5) Hatfield 6) A. Mari 7) Sanders 8) Barnett 9) Cleveland 10) Gorsuch 11) Partain 12) Alvarez 13) Ahumada 14) B. Jones - DNS
B-Main 2:
1) Krohn 2) Tipton 3) Noll 4) Belcher, Jr. 5) Rosales 6) Fronzman 7) Shryock 8) DiGiovanni 9) Poeling 10) Newberry 11) Harrison 12) B. Seilder 13) Dulceak
A-Main:
1) Phillips 2) Turner 3) Hughes 4) Weder, Jr. 5) Vanderbeek 6) Sharpenstein 7) Tipton 8) Scott 9) Noll 10) Whitwell 11) R. Jones 12) Rosales 13) L. Mari 14) Hatfield 15) Fronzman 16) Elmer 17) R. Jones 18) Georges 19) Belcher, Jr. 20) Hawkins 21) A. Mari 22) Seidler 23) Krohn 24) Gallardo
Super Stock Summary
Heat 1:
1) Steven Ashcraft 2) Larry Brigner 3) Buji Lacy 4) Michael Harrison 5) Aaron Hetrich 6) Dwayne Hogan - DNS
Heat 2:
1) Mike Tahtinan 2) Brad Whitfield 3) Jody Henderson 4) Alex Stafford 5) Eric Armenta 6) Mike Brigner
A-Main:
1) Ashcraft 2) L Brigner 3) Lacy 4) Henderson 5) Harrison 6) Armenta 7) Stafford 8) Hentrich 9) Whitfield 10) Tahtinan 11) M Brigner 12) Hogan – DNS
Dwarf Car Summary:
Heat 1:
1) Sandy Matthews 2) Randy Johnson 3) Jerry Hartnett 4) Mike McGrellis 5) Chad Stewart 6) Jesse Patterson 7) Jeff Hoch 8) Todd Bennett 9) Austin Gemmell 10) Jerry Martzall
A-Main:
1) Stewart 2) Johnson 3) Bennett 4) Hartnett 5) Hoch 6) McGrellis 7) Patterson Matthews, Gemmell - DNS
By: Ryan Neuharth
CASA GRANDE, Ariz – (February 23, 2008) Starting on the outside front row, Springfield, MO driver Terry Phillips made it look easy wheeling his Andy’s Frozen Custard/Don Babb Motorsports/Hatfield Racing Engines/GRT by Phillips to the 30-laps A-main win on Saturday night. The win also secured the outside front row for Sunday’s $8,000 to win A-Main event along side his teammate Jeremy Payne.
Phillips would take the lead on the initial green from his other teammate Eric Turner who slotted second from the pole. Tommy Weder swapped positions with Lance Mari as Jason Hughes rounded out the top five. Alan Sharpenstein took sixth, Ron Jones seventh, Jason Krohn eighth, Johnny Scott ninth and Zack Vanderbeek rounded out the top 10.
The yellow could quickly blink on for Royal Jones and Fito Gallardo on lap two, which was followed by a Lance Mari spin on the restart. Mari’s incident collected Aaron Mari, Marlyn Seidler and caused Fito Gallardo to slowly roll over the turn three banking.
During the yellow Jason Krohn retired to the pit area giving up his seventh position. On the double file restart Phillips would continue to lead followed by Turner as Ron Jones jumped to third as teammates Weder and Hughes ran side by side for fourth.
Hughes would take fourth on lap three and move by Jones two laps later for third. Weder then knocked Jones back one more spot on lap seven as Phillips pulled away from the rest of the field.
Phillips was the leader after ten with Turner, Hughes, Weder, R. Jones, Johnny Scott, Vanderbeek and Sharpenstein gave chase. The track was quickly taking rubber on the high side which caused Scott to pull into the infield with a flat right rear. At the same time Kenny Hawkins was loosing a drive shaft on the front straight to bring out the yellow once again.
On the lap 13 restart Phillips would continue to lead as Hughes jumped to second past Turner. Weder occupied fourth with Vanderbeek jumping past Jones for fourth. Another yellow followed one lap later for Terry Belcher, Jr and Vanderbeek was penalized two spots for jumped the previous start.
The new top five consisted of Phillips, Hughes, Turner, Weder and Jones. Vanderbeek was now sixth, Sharpenstein seventh, Jason Noll eighth from 18th, Christy Georges ninth and Terry Tipton rounded out the top 10 with ½ the 30-laps in the books.
Georges would give up her spot on lap 16 as she spun a drive shaft from her 44x machine, which set up the races first single file restart. Turner was able to take advantage of the low side in turns one and two moving past Hughes into second.
Hughes would not give up the spot easily as the two would race side by side for three laps before Turner secured the runner-up spot. At the same time, Vanderbeek would move by Jones into the final transfer spot with 10 to go.
Phillips continued to pull away from the rest of the field as Turner was also able to distance himself from Hughes. Hughes would then fall into the clutches of Weder as the two would race side by side between laps 25 and 28 before Hughes could secure the spot for good. Jones was also applying heavy pressure the back of Vanderbeek over the final five laps, making a bonsai move on the high side of turn one on the final circuit. The attempt failed as Jones slipped off the banking giving up a potential Sunday B-Main front row starting spot.
Phillips went unchallenged over the final five circuits to take the win and Sunday’s outside front row starting spot.
Sunday A-Main Top 10 Line-Up
1) Payne 2) Phillips
3) Shryock 4) Turner
5) Olexiewicz 6) Hughes
7) Krohn 8) Weder
9) Ayres 10) Vanderbeek
Modified Summary:
Heat 1:
1) Tommy Weder, Jr. 2) Ron Jones 3) Christy Georges 4) Johnny Scott 5) Duane Cleveland 6) Jay Rosales 7) Terry Belcher, Jr. 8) Chad Ayres 9) Kelly Shryock 10) Jason Noll
Heat 2:
1) RC Whitwell 2) Lance Mari 3) Marlyn Seidler 4) Aaron Mari 5) Ben Seidler 6) Robert Sanders 7) Fito Gallardo 8) Jim DiGiovanni 9) Sherman Barnett 10) Bumper Jones - DNS
Heat 3:
1) Eric Turner 2) Alan Shapenstein 3) Royal Jones 4) Jeremy Newberry 5) Cody Alvarez 6) Kenny Hawkins 7) Eric Elmer 8) Travis Gorsuch 9) Roy Poeling 10) Carlos Ahumada
Heat 4:
1) Terry Phillips 2) Jason Hughes 3) Zack Vanderbeek 4) Jason Krohn 5) Terry Tipton 6) George Fronzman 7) Mark Harrison 8) Bo Hatfield 9) Bo Partain 10) Dave Dulceak
B-Main 1:
1) Vanderbeek 2) Gallardo 3) Hawkins 4) Elmer 5) Hatfield 6) A. Mari 7) Sanders 8) Barnett 9) Cleveland 10) Gorsuch 11) Partain 12) Alvarez 13) Ahumada 14) B. Jones - DNS
B-Main 2:
1) Krohn 2) Tipton 3) Noll 4) Belcher, Jr. 5) Rosales 6) Fronzman 7) Shryock 8) DiGiovanni 9) Poeling 10) Newberry 11) Harrison 12) B. Seilder 13) Dulceak
A-Main:
1) Phillips 2) Turner 3) Hughes 4) Weder, Jr. 5) Vanderbeek 6) Sharpenstein 7) Tipton 8) Scott 9) Noll 10) Whitwell 11) R. Jones 12) Rosales 13) L. Mari 14) Hatfield 15) Fronzman 16) Elmer 17) R. Jones 18) Georges 19) Belcher, Jr. 20) Hawkins 21) A. Mari 22) Seidler 23) Krohn 24) Gallardo
Super Stock Summary
Heat 1:
1) Steven Ashcraft 2) Larry Brigner 3) Buji Lacy 4) Michael Harrison 5) Aaron Hetrich 6) Dwayne Hogan - DNS
Heat 2:
1) Mike Tahtinan 2) Brad Whitfield 3) Jody Henderson 4) Alex Stafford 5) Eric Armenta 6) Mike Brigner
A-Main:
1) Ashcraft 2) L Brigner 3) Lacy 4) Henderson 5) Harrison 6) Armenta 7) Stafford 8) Hentrich 9) Whitfield 10) Tahtinan 11) M Brigner 12) Hogan – DNS
Dwarf Car Summary:
Heat 1:
1) Sandy Matthews 2) Randy Johnson 3) Jerry Hartnett 4) Mike McGrellis 5) Chad Stewart 6) Jesse Patterson 7) Jeff Hoch 8) Todd Bennett 9) Austin Gemmell 10) Jerry Martzall
A-Main:
1) Stewart 2) Johnson 3) Bennett 4) Hartnett 5) Hoch 6) McGrellis 7) Patterson Matthews, Gemmell - DNS
