BELLEVILLE, Ill. (July 19, 2013)—Cale Thomas drove to a convincing feature victory in the opener of the third annual National Speed Sport News 66 Mike Phillips Memorial on Friday, out-running runner-up Chris Andrews by seven car lengths at Belle-Clair Speedway.
The 15-year-old Thomas of Fairland, Ind., earned the pole position for tonight’s $10,000-to-win 66 Mike Phillips 40-lap finale. It was the third victory of the season in the POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series for Thomas and his most impressive. The field of 97 entrants included many of the best Micro drivers in the nation. It also was Thomas’ fourth victory in his past five events overall, including a $5,000-to-win against a strong field in the HighBanks Hustle at Southern Illinois Raceway in Marion on July 13.
“It feels great,” Thomas said of winning four out of five. “It’s awesome.”
The top six finishers are locked into tonight’s feature, which has a total purse of $35,000, and will start in the 24-car race in the same order they finished. It puts Andrews, the 28-year-old from Tulsa, Okla., on the outside of the front row. He won the 66 Mike Phillips a year ago.
Todd Kirkman of Kokomo, Ind., finished third, followed by Joe B. Miller of Millersville, Mo., Andrew Peters of Converse, Ind., and Nathan Benson of Concordia, Mo.
Thomas started on the outside of the front row and took the lead exiting turn two on the fifth lap by passing pole sitter Jason Lair of Dell City, Okla. Thomas was in command in his Suzuki-powered Suzuki the rest of the 30-lap distance.
“I was able to finish second (to Arnold) in my heat and win my qualifier and get a good starting spot up front,” Thomas said. “The track was so racy I could run bottom to top and switch about every corner. Doing that was especially good when I got into traffic.
“I went to the top early in turns one and two and it got better. I mostly ran the bottom in turns three and four.”
Andrews started 14th, the outside of the seventh row.
“We didn’t have a good qualifier (third) and we regrouped after it,” Andrews said. “Justin Blevins, my crew chief, made the right adjustments and gave me a rocket. We’ve been together six or seven years and I always trust what he gives me.”
Andrews prefers the low line and he drove it to fourth by the ninth lap. A caution on the 14th lap bunched the field and two laps later, Andrews’ Sawyer-Kawaski went past Kirkman and Benson, who were racing on the outside, on the back straight to take second.
The final restart came on lap 20. Andrews never got close to Thomas.
“He didn’t make many mistakes on the cushion,” Andrews said.
Kirkman, who started fifth, eventually won his battle with Benson and held off Miller, who started ninth, for third.
“Our car (Yamaha-powered MT) was working well on top,” Kirkman said. “We were good.”
Miller has won twice at Belle-Clair this year, both in POWRi features, and is happy to be racing in the 66 Mike Phillips at a track he likes. He struggled in the previous two events, failing to make the grand finale feature in 2011 and barely making it in 2012. Miller finished 10th last year.
“We started ninth, jumped the cushion, fell back and worked our way back up,” Miller said. “We’re finally on a track I like. We’re going to give Cale a run for his money.”
Peters started 10th. “We ran the top, bottom, middle. It was good. The car (Sawyer-Yamaha) was fast. Nobody here is a slouch, you’ve got to be on top of your game.”
Benson, second in the POWRi championship, slid to sixth in the closing laps, holding off seventh-place Jake Neuman and eight-place Andrew Felker for the final position secure in tonight’s big money feature. In addition to $10,000 to win, second pays $5,000, third $3,250 and fourth $2,000.
“It’s going to be hard to beat that 15-year-old kid,” Andrews said. “He’s been on a rail all summer.”
Thomas is feeling confident. Winning four out of five races against many of the nation’s top drivers will have that affect.
“Chris Andrews is the biggest threat,” Thomas said. “I need to make good corners and make good starts and I think we can win it easy.”
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature results (30 laps): 1. Cale Thomas, 2. Chris Andrews, 3. Todd Kirkman, 4. Joe B. Miller, 5. Andrew Peters, 6. Nathan Benson, 7. Jake Neuman, 8. Andrew Felker, 9. Tyson Hall, 10. Trent Wilson, 11. Kevin Bayer, 12. Trey Marcham,13. Jason McDougal, 14. Tyler Gordan, 15. Tyler Stump, 16. Luke Thomas, 17. Drew Shiveley, 18. Ryan Leek, 19. Scott Sawyer, 20. Tyler DeVault, 21. Scott Evans, 22. Jason Lair, 23. Travis Harris, 24. Nate Lauderbaugh.
Lap leaders: Lair 1, Cale Thomas 2, Lair 3-4, Cale Thomas 5-30.
For more information, go to www.POWRi.com.