Andrew Phipps scored his second SuperClean Modified Racing Series win of the season, September 5th, when he crossed under the checkers in the K&N Air Filters 75 at the ASA sanctioned Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino-California. Phipps passed James Cole on lap 22 of the event and led the remaining laps in a very dominant performance.
Phipps started his weekend at the Orange Show Speedway by winning the Budweiser Pole in qualifying. His fast lap of 13.612 seconds earned him a $100 bonus. However the pre race inversion ceremony turned up the number four and that's where Phipps started the race.
But this is not to imply that it was an easy night for the Simi Valley-California driver.Far from it. Some early race contact from pole sitter Austin Barnes forced Phipps to deal with, and compensate for, a bent steering mechanism. That aspect made his win even more impressive.
The other aspect the race leaders had to deal with, during the K&N Air Filters 75, was an extraordinary amount of caution flags during this event. The race had a total of eight yellow flags during the 75 laps. Six of those cautions presented itself within the first 16 laps. Unusual for the series was the fact that the first two cautions came out before the first lap of the race was completed.
14 year old series rookie Austin Barnes and series points leader James Cole led the field of 22 starters under the initial green flag to officially launch the start of the K&N Air Filters 75. Again, it was not going to be an easy process. The race made it to turn one when Nevada driver Craig Stewart slid into the turn one wall. The effort to get the race restarted only made it to the second turn when Dave Phipps was hit from behind a did a 360 slide through the Orange Show Speedway's turn two. Three other cars also did the slide job trying to avoid the situation.
Cole managed to lead the field through a full lap before the third caution flag came out due to Bryan Harell's turn two spin. The yellow flag returned seven laps later when Gary Rodriquez and David Gerchman Sr collided in turn two. The third flag presented itself on lap 15 when Scott Osborn and Randy Ussery found each other in the middle of a busy turn two. One lap later front row starter Austin Barnes found himself parked along side of the turn three wall.
From that point the SuperClean Modified drivers seemed to re establish their race rhythm. The race quickly became a case of James Cole fending a hard charging Andrew Phipps. Cole paced the field to lap 22 when Phipps made his race wining move with a low inside pass going into turn one.
For a driver with steering mechanism issues Phipps made seemingly quick work of running away from the field while quickly working his way through lapped traffic. But, again, this was not going to be an easy win because Phipps had to deal with more caution flags that completely eradicated any lead that he could build up.
The seventh yellow of the race came out only lap 40, due to a Gary Rodriquez spin in turn two, which wiped out the half a straightaway lead that Phipps held. Following the ensuing restart, Phipps roared away from the field yet again only to see a whopping 4.2 second lead evaporate following the final yellow flag of the race, on lap 60, when Gary Rodriquez and Scott Osborn got together in the middle of the second turn.
Following the final restart of the race, Phipps once again took off and made quick work of running out the final laps to finally win the K&N Air Filters 75. Cole followed under the checkers while Tim Morse, Chris Gerchman and Doug Carpenter completed the top five.
After parking his Vision Airlines-Spartan Trucking-Ron's Rear Ends #22 in the Orange Speedway's victory lane, Andrew Phipps said "our car was really good tonight but, there at the beginning of the race, Barnes in the #51 car got into me and banged me into the wall when I was trying to run beside him on the outside. It really messed the steering on my car. I understand James Cole had the same exact problem. We both wound up driving in first and second place with bent steering while doing the best that we could."
San Antonio-Texas' James Cole, and his Mission Auto Parts-Swenson Racing-Screen Pro Graphics-Fly Navy #11 team, arrived in San Bernardino as the series' point leader but it was only a two point lead. He now finds himself tied with Phipps for the points lead in a championship run that will likely go down to the final lap of the final race of the season.
"We had a really fast car tonight," Cole said adding "but it's unfortunate about what happened on the start.The #51 car, (Austin Barnes), who's a little inexperienced in this type of racing, ran me up on the groove during both starts to the race and it put me into the wall. It knocked the toe out and bent all of the steering components in the front before we even took the green flag twice. We had a fast car and it's really unfortunate. I'm really happy to salvage a second place finish. Tonight I just had to let Andrew Phipps go because our car was so out of whack and I was just trying to save it. My guys work really hard and they deserve the win they we could have pulled off. Congratulations to Andrew he drove a good race. We don't like racing like this but we'll get it fixed, we're still good in the points and we'll focus on Havasu and Blythe down the road."
Burbank-California's Tim Morse was very pleased with his third place finish and considered it redemption for the hard luck night he had during the series' previous race at Las Vegas. The driver of the Sunoco Fuel-CMJ Racing Inc-Ron's Rear Ends-Burbank Speed and Machine-Lee's Power Steering #10 modified said "we had a really long weekend at Vegas then we came back tonight", he said adding "I really owe this night to Jameel Saied of CMJ Racing. He went through our car and it was just phenomenal all weekend. We really didn't have to do too much to it. It was fast and I think we had a good winning car but this little track is tough. If you're not in the right position at the right time you just can't get it."
Offering his assessment of the K&N Air Filters 75 was series co promoter Greg Scheidecker who said "it took about 15 minutes to run the first five or six laps . There were most unusual situations going on to get our race started. I really hate to see race cars torn up. I saw a couple of situations that are not accustomed to our racing series. I saw some drivers that were not on their toes and we had drivers who were reaching for that extra little bit to make sure they were getting an extra advantage. What goes around comes around. The leaders, on a short race track like this, put the front bumper into play. This is our answer to the Bristol Motor Speedway and it is what it is."
Commenting on the new status of the championship points race for the SuperClean Modified Racing Series, Scheidecker said "our points battle is considerably deeper than just first and second. There is a points battle going on between the tenth and 15th place positions from drivers who are trying to get some of the post season bonus money. The 15th place in our standings, at the end of the season, is worth $700 in cash and prizes and we've got one terrific battle for that going on."
Scheidecker was particularly pleased with the top finish earned by Doug Carpenter and said "Doug Carpenter tonight was the highlight of the show. That man was here to race. He passed six or seven cars on the outside cleanly. I can only hope that our television production does him justice."
Moreno Valley-California's Jim Mardis claims the Orange Show Speedway as his long time home track and was heavily favored to win the K&N Air Filters 75. But the local favorite experienced some severe mechanical problems that ended the team's night before it even began. Describing the situation Mardis said "It was a rough night. The transmission broke during practice. We ran back to the shop to get a different one but the drive line didn't fit. We couldn't find a suitable drive line that would fit so we tried to make the one we had work. During the parade laps it just came apart and killed out whole night."
Mardis arrived at the Orange Show Speedway third in the SuperClean Modified Series championship standings and took a big hit in the points with a 22nd place finish. Despite the setback Mardis did express appreciation for all of the help his team received while trying to repair the problem. "I've got to thank the guys from the #11 car, (James Cole's team), they came over, gave us a new distributor and helped us put the trans in. Those guys are really a class act. They really didn't have to do that for us. They offered us anything in their trailer that we needed. What we have here is good racing and good people. Hopefully we can get everything fixed in time for the next race in Lake Havasu City."
Throughout the evening it was noticed that there were quite a few cases of teams helping other teams. "That's what it's all about," Scheidecker said adding "this is the kind of thing that we want and we need. Racers help racers. They don't want to get beat in the pits. They want to get beat on the race track and I think that really showed tonight."
Greg Scheidecker was also pleased to note the presence of K&N Performance Filters executives Tony Yorkman and Bob Harris as well as Lucas Oil executive Bob Patison who were seated in the speedway's VIP area enjoying the SuperClean Modified Series action.
The series returns to action September 26th with a 75 lap feature at the Havasu 95 Speedway in Lake Havasu City-Arizona. The regular points season will conclude October 17th at the Lucas OIl I-10 Speedway in Blythe-California.
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 Inc, E3 Spark Plugs, R&L Carriers, Dixie Chopper, General Tire and K&N Performance Filters.
There is also the support of series sponsors which includes SuperClean Products, Hoosier Tire West, Budweiser, Blue Water Resort & Casino, Sunoco Fuels, Frank's Radio, DJ Safety, Steve Teets of STR-Short Track Race Cars, Polydome Plastic Products and Racing Plus
