By Gary Jacob
Batesville, AR -- After earning the 9th starting spot with a third place finish on Friday night, dirt late model super star Terry Phillips drove his GRT dirt modified to a $100,000 win in the second annual big money special at Batesville Speedway on Saturday night. Phillips had tuned up for the summer’s big dirt modified shows by racing his car in several events at the annual Early Thaw action in Casa Grande AZ back in January. He only led the final 3 laps of the big 100 lapper after being Tucson AZ teenager Jeremy Payne to a yellow flag late in the action. Payne had won the pole for the 100 lapper with his Wednesday night feature win in his Shaw by Taylor mount. Payne moved to the Midwest this summer to chase the USMTS Series, but began racing the Batesville races and living with Jeff Taylor when the traveling series had so many early season rainouts. Payne was the 2004 Barnett Harley Davidson Dirt Modified Series champion when he raced in El Paso TX and Las Cruces NM. Payne had led from lap 12 to lap 97 with his Ford, but settled for the $20,000 runnerup prize. Friday night feature winner B J Robinson from Shreveport Louisiana led the first 11 laps on Saturday night from an outside front row start, but settled for 19th place in the 100 lapper. Defending race champion Scott Bloomquist, another dirt late model star, put his Taylor built car in the middle of the front row with his Thursday night feature win, but settled for the $10,000 third place money in the 100 lapper. Track regular Shawn Walsh from Ash Flat ARK was a $5000 fourth ahead of dirt late model racers Wendell Wallace and Jeff Taylor. Wallace won $2500 and J Taylor $2000 as a last place finish in the 31 car feature paid $1500. NEXTEL Cup racer Kasey Kahne joined the action on Saturday night and thrilled the crowd by racing from 31st starting to a 9th place finish. Bill Elliott also started at the rear of the grid, but only completed 58 laps and ran 26th.
Just under 130 cars entered this year’s action and time trials on Tuesday night guaranteed the two fastest qualifiers starting spots in the 100 lapper. Illinois car builder Bob Pierce was quick time at 16.266 and Oregon’s Jon DeBenedetti won a tie breaker with USMTS dominator Kelly Shryock for that second spot. Each ran a 16.445 best, but DeBenedetti’s slow lap was faster. Minnesota’s Tommy Myer ranked fourth ahead of track regular Jared Landers. Payne was 9th quick, California’s Dustin Jenks ranked 10th, El Paso TX charger Troy Godwin was 17th and Curt Barnett ranked 25th. Tony Leiker from Gillette WY was 64th, California’s Darin Hawks 80th and California car builder Joe Carr 83th. Also representing the west was Medford OR promoter John Skinner, California’s John Pierce, Bakersfield’s Robert Sanders and Arizona’s Joe Parmeley. The top 9 finishers from the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night cards earned the starting spots in the 100 lapper. The feature was lined up three abreast on the wide racing surface with the Wednesday night teams on the inside, the Thursday qualifiers in the middle and the Friday qualifiers on the outside. Payne won the pole with his Wednesday night feature win. He was originally disqualified for taking a cool down lap before driving to the scales, but the officials later restored him to the win. Landers ran second on Wednesday ahead of Myers, South Dakota’s Jon Tesch, GRT’s Jack Sullivan, Little Rock’s Michael Murphree, car builder and dirt late model star Jimmy Owens, California’s Kellen Chadwick in another Taylor mount and Canada’s Steve Arpin. Bloomquist broke a rear end in his Wednesday night heat. The draw that was used for Wednesday night’s heats was completely inverted for the Thursday night action. Bloomquist easily won his heat and the feature on Thursday night with Peyton Taylor, younger brother to J Taylor, in second ahead of J Taylor, Tennessee’s Mike Marlar, Wisconsin’s Mike Mashl, dirt late model star Bill Frye, Texas super star George White, Tennessee’s Kenny Holt and Louisiana’s Garrett Durrett. Friday night’s feature went to Robinson in front of Walsh, Phillips, Batesville’s own Kevin Salter and Greg Waugh, W Wallace, Andy Milliken, Minnesota’s Jason Krohn and Chad Mallett. Behind those 27 cars came Pierce and DeBenedetti from time trials and the two NEXTEL Cup racers.
The 100 lapper was slowed 13 times by yellow flags and the last proved to the decider as Payne didn’t race as hard to the flag as Phillips did and Phillips emerged as the race leader with just 2 laps left to race. The top 17 finishers were all on the lead lap with Payne settling for the rich second place payoff ahead of Bloomquist, Walsh, W Wallace, J Taylor, Salter, Krohn, Kahne, Murphree, White, Chadwick, Owens, Mashl, Arpin, DeBenedetti and Frye. Pierce only lasted 9 laps, Sullivan 33, Elliott 58 and P Taylor 90. Owens builds the Loose Gruff Chassis that DeBenedetti runs.
Other action on Saturday night included a race of states for the fastest qualifier from each state to not make the 100 lapper. Wayne Brooks from Arkansas won ahead of Minnesota’s Trent Follmer, Bart Richardson from Tennessee, Iowa’s Shryock and California’s Jenks. A manufacturers dash was won by the GRT of Jon Mitchell ahead of Brandon Smith’s Shaw, the Dirt Works of Texan Vince Ogle, Dustin Duncan in an IRP and Phil Dixon’s FastOne. Shryock had finished 10th on Friday night and all the 10th place qualifying night finishers were awarded $750.
Feature Finish-Terry Phillips, Jeremy Payne, Scott Bloomquist, Shawn Walsh, Wendell Wallace, Jeff Taylor, Kevin Salter, Jason Krohn, Kasey Kahne, Michael Murphree, George White, Kellen Chadwick, Jimmy Owens, Mike Mashl, Steve Arpin, Jon DeBenedetti, Bill Frye, Tommy Myers, B J Robinson, Jared Landers, Jon Tesch, Peyton Taylor, Chad Mallett, Mike Marlar, Greg Waugh, Jack Sullivan, Andy Milliken, Garrett Durrett, Kenny Holt, Bob Pierce.