ANDREW PHIPPS MOVES ONE STEP CLOSER TO A SUPERCLEAN MODIFIED CHAMPIONSHIP.

Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 09/22/2008

Andrew Phipps proved that he's serious about winning the 2008 SuperClean Modified Racing Series championship and moved one step closer to that goal by winning the series A main, on September 20th, at the Havasu 95 Speedway in Lake Havasu City-Arizona. The Simi Valley-California driver made a race winning move on lap 6 and maintained the lead all the way to the checkers for his third series win of the season. During the final laps of this race Phipps held off an eleventh hour challenge from his championship rival Jimmie Dickerson, also a three time winner this year. Dickerson, from El Cajon-California, did everything that he could to catch the race leader but just simply ran out of laps.

After the race Phipps said "I was really worried about the 61 car, (Dickerson), because I knew that he had worked his way to second and he was coming. I was trying to take care of my car because I knew that he would catch me eventually. Luckily he ran out of laps because they shortened this race a little." The race actually was ten laps short of its scheduled length due to time constraints that was launched by an unusually high number of yellow flags from this event. The caution flag flew a total of seven times with the first four of them coming within the first 14 laps of the race for a variety of reasons that included spin outs, debris and oil on the track. This was deemed by many as being completely unprecedented for the SuperClean Modified Racing Series because all year long their races has featured long green flag runs with a highly competitive nature and very few disruptions.

One of the reasons that the Phipps car ran so well during this race was due to last minute changes to the car's set up just before the race lined up the staging area. Explaining that the winning driver said "the car was pretty good last night, (during the Friday night test and tune session), and then we really struggled in practice this afternoon. Some of these guys just drove right by me so we decided to change a lot of things. My guys here worked so hard to get the car ready. But right after the trophy dash I said the car's good but I think it's going to hurt the right rear tire before the race is over so we changed the right rear spring right after the trophy dash. But that's the fun part of this series, working on it at all of these other tracks we race on. Man, when you're struggling and then you get it right and the car runs the best that it has all day during the feature well that's just great."

Chris Gerchman put on a strong performance during this race and was in second most of the evening until he found himself involved in one of major highlights of the event. It was a torrid duel for position with Dickerson that went on lap after lap while the fans were on their feet cheering them on. The pair of drivers ran wheel to wheel and door to door. The only time they separated was for a few fleeting seconds to negotiate their way around a lapped car. With only five laps left in the race Dickerson finally cleared Gerchman for second to took off to make one last shot at Phipps before time ran out.

"Racing with Gerchman was a lot of fun," Dickerson said after the race adding "he's a clean driver and people like that you can race hard with. He was racing hard and I was racing hard and we really had a lot of fun." When asked if he had a shot at passing Phipps if the race would have ran the entire 75 laps Dickerson said "I don't think the outcome would have been any different but you never know. I think we could have caught him but whether or not we could have done anything with him is a different story. He was pretty quick tonight."

James Cole had a rock solid run in this race and finished fourth. The driver from San Antonio-Texas who collects a lot of frequent flying miles to make the series' events started this race on the outside of row one after making an impressive qualifying run leading observers to think that this team is headed towards an improvement upswing.

The same can be said for Tim Morse who scored his third consecutive top five finish and remains third in the series' points standings still within shouting distance of Phipps and Dickerson. The Burbank-California driver also collected the Budweiser bonus for setting the fast time during qualifying something he has managed to do for the second consecutive time. Morse was literally all alone during his effort at the Havasu 95 Speedway. Due to some unusual circumstances, he was the driver, crew chief and crew for this race. He recruited a Lake Havasu local to be his spotter but, other than that, he handled everything else on his own and the effort was quite remarkable.

After the race SuperClean Modified Series co promoter Greg Scheidecker seemed to be a little amazed by the frequent caution flags in this race and said "it's amazing that we can go to a real tight quarter mile race track like the Orange Show Speedway, (in San Bernardino-California), and put on a competitive show then come to the Havasu 95 Speedway where it's wider and larger and for whatever reason just have a real rough night. All of those yellow flags within the first 13 laps tonight is just not the driving style of our competitors. It was a full moon night of racing. I may be a little disappointed tonight but, at the same time, I still maintain an extremely positive attitude towards the series. We're going in the right direction with our car count and in the right direction with neighboring race tracks who want us to come and race at their facilities and bring the type of show that we can put on."

Scheidecker absolutely agreed that the major highlight of the race was the duel for second between Gerchman and Dickerson and said "you know that young, (Chris), Gerchman is absolutely an up and coming star as a race driver. Jimmie Dickerson and him put on a show that was second to none. It was good, clean, hard racing and very good racing."

There are only three races left to determine which driver will be crowned the new SuperClean Modified Racing Series champion and, at this point in time, the race for the series title is still too close to call. Unofficially, pending a completed review of the scoring sheets by series officials, the new standings should show Andrew Phipps with a 28 point lead over Jimmie Dickerson and a 70 point lead over Tim Morse in third. The series will pay its final visit for 2008 to the Havasu 95 Speedway on October 4th followed by a double stint at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway on October 18th and November 8th.

In addition to its title sponsor the SuperClean Modified Racing Series is supported by a highly potent marketing concept known as "Team Lucas" which includes Lucas Oil Products Inc, Jim Beam, Hoosier Racing Tire, K&N Performance Filters, Blue Water Resort and Casino, General Tire, Fatheadz Sunglasses, Dixie Chopper, Sencon Concrete LLC, Poly Dome Plastic Products, Sunoco Racing Fuels, R&L Carriers, E3 Spark Plugs, and Budweiser.

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