Arizona Derby - Mesa, Arizona
Heat 3
Randy Tondreau, Will Murphy, Ed Smith, Phillip Ruffin, Andy Bing, Will Thompson, Jason Ingle, Steven Redden, Norm Gibson, Bill Malbrough, John Ruiz, Bob Alexander
Another exciting heat in Arizona as only three drivers fell by the wayside in the opening seven minutes. Steven Redden and Bill Malbrough both stalled out early on, the latter not even moving from his start position, and Randy Tondreau was left down in tenth after he was hit five times out of a total ten collisions.
There were plenty of vehicles that stalled in the heat but the remaining drivers all refired their engines in the end so all other eliminations were down to good old fashioned crash and bang. This was especially true for the eighth and ninth placed drivers Phillip Ruffin and Ed Smith who drew competitors to them like magnets with Smith heavily contributing to the downfalls of both Tondreau and Ruffin.
These two exits started a chain of five eliminations in less than three minutes as Bob Alexander was blindsided by John Ruiz and Norm Gibson became the favourite target of the pack. The fifth place man Jason Ingle hit no less than six different drivers during the heat but found a willing partner in Frostbite's fourth place finisher Will Thompson, coming off second best in that contest to end outside of the automatic qualification spots.
The final four would make the derby last another few minutes with Murphy and Ruiz finishing off Andy Bing after he had gone hard at the pair of them throughout the heat. The climax saw Thompson go first. He had stalled four times only to go on and reach the final but not before he was blindside by Murphy, and John Ruiz had a trio of stalls himself before his final collision with Murphy stopped him for good. And to keep the stalling theme going Will Murphy came close on two occasions to being counted out in the heat.
Race Result
1. Will Murphy
2. John Ruiz
3. Will Thompson
4. Andy Bing
5. Jason Ingle
6. Norm Gibson
7. Bob Alexander
8. Phillip Ruffin
9. Ed Smith
10. Randy Tondreau
11. Steve Redden
12. Bill Malbrough
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