Terry Phillips tied Billy Moyer for the most career Late Model winter wins in Arizona by taking the $3,000 top prize at Tucson International Raceway Friday night. The Winter Xtreme series saw the first new Modified winner of the week as Fito Gallardo ended Rodney Sanders three-race streak with a $1,000 victory.
Pennsylvania based veteran Ron Davies jetted out to the early lead in the 30-lap Late Model finale building a full straightaway cushion over the first ten laps. But as Davies started working lapped traffic the lead started to shrink rapidly and two laps later Phillips drove by Davies for the lead coming off of turn four. Moyer, who had started seventh, followed Phillips into second on the following lap and was able to keep the leader within his sights as the laps clicked off. It was around lap twenty when Phillips boldly split the lapped cars of Billy Moyer Jr. and John Kuchar that he was able to put some more distance between himself and the elder Moyer. The race went green to checkers and took right around ten minutes to complete on the fast and racy 3/8-mile oval with Phillips posting the win over Moyer. Will Vaught started next to Moyer in the fourth row and the Wednesday night winner moved up to third at the checkers. Davies held on for the fourth spot while Shane Clanton came from the eleventh row after winning the second B-Main to finish in fifth. Unofficially the rest of the top ten was R.C. Whitwell in sixth, Jimmy Mars seventh, Tim Fuller eighth after starting 24th, Don Shaw was ninth and Clay Daly tenth.
The USRA Modified main event went right down to the wire as Jason Krohn was able to slip by Fito Gallardo with two laps to go as the leaders navigated through three lapped cars, but Gallardo charged back into the lead going down the back stretch and would take the win. Defending track champion Jake O'Neal finished third, Minnesota driver Matt Gilbertson charged from the tenth row to take fourth and Alex Stanford was fifth. Stanford was running in the third spot mid-race when O'Neal got into him and sent him for a spin, but the California driver kept the car running, faded to eighth and then came back to pass Rodney Sanders late to crack the top five.
TIR Notes......42 Late Models and 34 Modifieds signed in for competition tonight......Jordan Yaggy of Rochester, Minnesota, ran an aggressive first heat muscling past Moyer Jr. for second and then nearly drove leader Jason Papich into the turn one wall with four laps to go. Both drivers made an amazing save and finished first and second with Moyer expressing his thoughts by giving Yaggy a shove after the checkers.....The fourth heat saw front row starters Mike Balcaen and Kyle Beard get together not once, but twice as they tried to get the race started. The second contact sent Beard to the pits with a flat left front tire and Balcaen's right rear went flat three laps into the race......The fifth heat had some drama as Joey Moriarty was chasing leader Tony Toste in second when his engine let go in turn three. Behind him Chris Simpson was making a run at Lance Matthees on the outside racing for fourth. As Moriarty slowed, Matthees moved up the track to miss him putting Simpson above the cushion where he grazed the retaining wall in turn four ending his night. Once back to action Toste looked like he had the fifth heat race in the bag which, by the way, would have given the California drivers three of the five heat wins, but something broke on the #91T with two laps remaining giving the win to Matthees.......Christy Georges had the third Modified heat in the bag before the caution waved on the final lap for a spin on the front stretch. After circling the track for a lap under caution she pulled to the infield and headed to the pits apparently thinking that the race had been scored complete. The track later added Georges to the back of the Modified feature as a provisional......Matt Gilbertson was on the move from the back in the feature and he held on for fourth at the finish, but it was Blake Jegtvig who was showing his fellow Minnesotan to the front after starting seventeenth. Jegtvig was in fourth when the caution waved on lap nine, but he could not hold the position and faded back out of the top five......NASCAR Truck Series regular Matt Crafton drove a Modified tonight to get some dirt track experience before the trucks invade Eldora late this season. Crafton made the feature through his heat race and the raced near the back during the 25-lap event.
I was completely impressed with the facilities and the racing for my first visit ever to Tucson International Raceway and I encourage you to put this track on your "to do" list sometime down the road. Perhaps during this event in 2014!
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