5.12.2008
Weekend Wrap
After a long weekend of dodging rain drops, Team Phillips get busy preparing cars for the Memorial Day Show Me 100 special. The action packed weekend kicked off on Wednesday, May 7th, as the MLRA rolled into the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, KS. As rain threatened the speedway all day keeping drivers and fans from making the trip, Terry and Jeremy made the haul, and it was worth their while. Jeremy picked up a win in his heat, and Terry brought home a 3rd place finish behind WOO drivers Clint Smith and Shannon Babb. Jeremy grabbed the early lead, and held off several challenges from Clint Smith throughout the feature for the win, with Terry coming in 3rd ahead of MLRA regular Al Purkey and NASCAR star Clint Bowyer.
The team would move to the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO. The trio of Terry, Jeremy and Eric would prepare for double duty in the Late Models and Modifieds. The scheduled Thursday night practice would be postponed due to the heavy rains that had fallen the day before. On Friday, 80 Late Models and 85 Modifieds checked into the gate for action. Bloomquist topped the charts in Late Model qualifying. In Friday night Modified action, Jeremy would pick up the heat race win over teammate Eric, while Terry would win his heat race. Other heat winners would be Ragland, Holman, Bone,Jr., and Landers. Merritt, Beckham, and Hudson would transfer through the B's. As the feature started, Terry would take the early lead and try to fend off Jeremy. When entering lapped traffic, Terry would try to squeeze between 2 cars, only to have the slower cars close the hole allowing Jeremy to move low and into the lead. Terry would hold on for 2nd, with ET finishing 6th. What should have been night #2 was moved to Sunday afternoon, after 2 rounds of heavy rain, high winds, and hail moved across the region. As the heat races for the late models took to the track, heat #1 would see Jeremy manage to hold on for the 3rd and final transfer spot behind Bloomquist and James. Vaught, Blankenship, and Schlieper went to the A from heat #2. While heat #3 took Babb, Owens, and Casey, heat #4 saw Moyer, Casebolt, and England moving on. Heat #5 saw Pearson, Jr., Eckert, and Richards headed to the A. Heat #6 would bring Eric and Terry out. On the start, Brad Neat would get sideways and nearly flip in the melee. Terry would suffer severe body damage. Eric held his own to finish 2nd, while Mars took the win, and D. Turner finished 3rd. B Feature wins would go to Lanigan and Francis. Terry would opt for a provisional in the A main.
Shannon Babb would lead all 100 laps with very few challenges from the rest of the contenders. Terry, Jeremy and Eric would all fall victim to mechanical woes and fall from contention. In Modified action, they would divide into 3 B Features taking the top 8 on to the A Feature. The first B would see all 3 out on the track. They would finish 1,2,3,-- Jeremy, Terry and Eric. The A feature would see Jeremy take the lead, once the feature got started. Terry would run in 2nd and Eric in 3rd. Late race contact would end Terry's night. Jeremy would pick up the win, with Eric finishing in 2nd.