Terry Phillips Cruises To Checkers In Larry Phillips Memorial

With my Saturday plans at Shiverfest pushed back a day, Barry Johnson and I decided to load up and head south for the Larry Phillips Memorial event at the Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri. The weather was perfect, the show featuring Late Models, Modifieds, Sport Mods and Bombers was offering an attractive purse and if I would have stayed home I would have been bouncing off the walls watching the weather forecasts for Sunday. Barry and I actually started our 2009 season at Springfield with an event that fought a chilly rain all day where only the Sport Mod feature was completed before Mother Nature won out, so it was good to get back to the track owned and operated by Modified chassis builder Jerry Hoffman with assistance from Doug Bland for what would be a full show.

We pulled in just minutes before the 4:45 starting time and could see that the pits were full with 37 Late Models, 33 Modifieds, 28 Sport Mods and 18 Bombers. The track was in great condition as drivers were able to find racing grooves from top to bottom during the heats and cautions were at a minimum. The second Sport Mod heat saw the lead pack go five-wide down the back straightaway and the fourth Late Model heat was perhaps the best five consecutive laps of racing that I saw all year as John Beck, Eric Turner and Brad Looney ran three-wide for the lead without touching each other to the checkers.

Brad Looney (23), Eric Turner (99T) and John Beck (28B) thrilled the crowd with five straight laps of three-wide racing for the lead before Beck prevailed at the checkers - Barry Johnson photo

The Sport Mod A-Main was up first and pole-sitter Steve Muilenberg assumed the early lead. On lap three David Kirkland, who had started fourth driving a Hoffman Race Car with a “For Sale” sign on it, advertised well by driving past Muilenberg on the high side of turn four to take the lead. Only one caution on lap six slowed the twenty-lap event and as the laps clicked away Muilenberg’s low line came back into play and he closed in on Kirkland. On the final lap Muilenberg pulled even with the leader entering turn three and then made it stick coming off of four to nip Kirkland at the line by about two feet to take the victory. Dean Wille finished third, 2009 track champion Billy Street was fourth and J.C Morton rounded out the top five.

Steve Muilenberg (33) had to hold off Billy Street (4) for second before he could make the last lap pass of David Kirkland for the win - Barry Johnson photo

Dean Wille (67) and David Kirkland (2) race for position early in the Sport Mod A-Main - Barry Johnson photo

The Late Model headliner would follow and front row starters Terry Phillips and Bill Frye ran the first three laps side-by-side before Frye established himself as the pacesetter on lap four. Phillips stayed close though and on the tenth lap it looked like he was shot out of a cannon coming off the low line of turn two to take the lead away from Frye. With the leaders now in heavy traffic Jeremy Payne, Brad Looney and Justin Wells closed in and it looked like we were setting up for quite a battle until the caution waved on lap eighteen for a flat tire on Bobby Maggard’s car. On the restart Phillips took off and hid from his contenders leaving the battle for second between Frye and Payne the race to watch. As the race neared its end most of the drivers had settled into the low groove and it appeared that there would be no change of position over the final laps. But on the final circuit going into turn three Payne inexplicably drove into the left rear quarter panel of Frye, flattening his tire and turning him around, before Payne jerked the wheel to the right and continued on to what appeared to be a second-place finish behind his teammate Terry Phillips. The crowd jeered Payne and cheered Frye as the veteran drove up and over the nose of Payne’s #74 as he came back around on the cool down lap, but cooler heads prevailed and that appeared to be the extent of the extra-curricular activities. It was never officially announced over the p.a. system, at least that I heard, but Payne was disqualified for rough driving putting Brad Looney into the runner-up spot at the pay window followed by Justin Wells, Eric Turner and Tony Jackson Jr.

This is how the first three laps of the Late Model feature looked as Terry Phillips (75) and Bill Frye (66) raced side-by-side for the lead - Barry Johnson photo

The Modified finale was up next and it was all Johnny Fennewald as he shot from the outside of row one and was never seriously challenged. Rex Merritt chased Fennewald throughout the twenty laps and finished second, Erik Maggard came home third with Jody Tillman and Jamie Ragland next in line. The Bomber feature closed out the evening, however with the Iowa Michigan State game down to the closing minutes I opted to head for the car and the call from WHO as the Hawkeyes pulled out the dramatic victory to remain unbeaten.

Johnny Fennewald was unstoppable in the Modified main event - Barry Johnson photo

A big “thank you” to Jerry Hoffman and his staff at the Springfield Raceway for their hospitality and for putting on a quick, efficient and entertaining night of action on a cool late October night. They started right on time at 4:45 and the racing concluded a little before nine o’clock. You can still catch one more show at this racy little quarter-mile this season on Saturday afternoon November 28th with the annual Turkey Classic. For more information visit http://www.springfieldraceway.com/.