Mile High Open - Denver, CO
Final
Lynne Higgins, Phillip Ruffin, Tom Gariepy, Norm Gibson, Chris Henton, Ed Smith, Will Murphy, Jason Ingle, Jamie Eilers, Matt Welliver, Will Thompson, Sam Harbin
There would be no teamwork between title rivals Will Thompson (1st Arizona Derby, 2nd Summer Sizzler, 2nd Bryan Family Open) and Norm Gibson (1st Lobster Nationals, 1st Texas Nationals), both men with twenty-eight finals and fifteen top five finishes between them, as the former struck the latter off the start causing a fire in both cars. The drivers were ok but this means, outside of Thompson's win in heat one, no-one inside the top six of the standings will collect any points this week.
While this was going on Jamie Eilers (1st Sizzler, 1st Summer National Derby) stole a point simply because the officials counted him out for a stall after the first two eliminations, and Lynne Higgins, who has finished fifth four times with a season best fourth place at the Arkansas Derby, takes her leave after a second shot from Harbin, this coming just before Murphy finished the job Higgins had started on Phillip Ruffin (9th Ides of March, 8th Big Apple Smash Up).
Matt Welliver (6th Smash Up, 1st SidelineStrategy.com Derby, 4th Ohio Derby), who is in back-to-back finals for the rest time since the start of the season where he took three eleventh place finishes in a row, began his journey to a seventh place finish with a nifty move to avoid a hit before striking Ruffin Three hits against him almost took him out in tenth spot, but he was able to persevere and tackle harbin twice before Gariepy took full advantage of him stalling.
Chris Henton (1st Spring Fling Derby, 2nd Arkansas) continues his fine form with points in each of the last five rounds, elimination coming here thanks to Gariepy's four attacks, and Will Murphy (2nd Tampa Open, 3rd Spring Fling, 3rd Idaho, 3rd Smash Up) makes it eleven top six finishes out of eleven finals after laying on six hits with Smith nailing him with a hat-trick for the elimination in revenge for an earlier blindside shot.
Ed Smith (11th Texas, 7th Ohio) only got in five hits in his eight minutes of action, but only took three in reply. A hit on Higgins was followed up by a one-two punch on his blindside from Murphy and Welliver, the former earning all of his attention to essentially take them both out.
A season high finish for Jason Ingle (9th Spring Fling, tied-5th Lobster, 7th Louisiana) was rather uneventful as he was involved in only seven collisions, with two of his four hits connecting with Murphy, and ended in third place thanks a stalling and then being pushed into the barriers where Harbin finished him off.
Sam Harbin, who struck Welliver and Smith either side of a double-attack on Higgins, almost stalled out in ninth place before managing to re-fire and take on Gariepy and Ingle. Harbin (6th Spring Fling, 6th SidelineStrategy.com Derby, 5th Ohio) taks his second runner-up finish of the year (Arizona) after proving to be popular with three of his opponents as Welliver's two shots led straight into another pair from Henton which then resulted in Gariepy doubling up on him to take his victory.
A third win of the season and second in five games, Tom Gariepy (tied-2nd Valentine's Day Massacre, 2nd Alamo) adds to his Wisconsin Invitational and Arkansas Derby crowns, moving him up the standings into third place. Only Welliver took one shot from him, Henton (4) and Harbin (2) were where his focus lay as he also worked hard to avoid being hit, taking just three shots in the ten minutes final.
Race Result
1. Tom Gariepy
2. Sam Harbin
3. Jason Ingle
4. Ed Smith
5. Will Murphy
6. Chris Henton
7. Matt Welliver
8. Phillip Ruffin
9. Lynne Higgins
10. Jamie Eilers
11. Norm Gibson
11. Will Thompson
No comments:
Post a Comment