Controlled Chaos - Summer National Derby, Heat Two

Summer National Derby - Atlanta, GA
Heat Two
Randy Tondreau, Ben Hadsell, Billy Edgington, Will Thompson, Steven Redden, Ricky Grimes, Jason Ingle, Reggie Banks, Kenny Rose, Jess Yates, Darrell Andresen, Bill Malbrough

Randy Tondreau (6th Tampa, 10th Seattle, 12th Jersey) misses his fifth final in a row as his vehicle stalled at the start and refused to re-fire, and the only other elimination in the first four minutes was that of Billy Edgington who did manage to re-fire from his stall at the beginning of the heat but five quick hits against. Two of those hits came from Darrell Andresen, the fellow Brit who put Edgington onto the injured reserve for months in the first event of the season.

Two minutes later and six-time finalist Andresen, who has a best finish of fourth place at the recent Indy Nationals, was the first of five quick exits, his coming at the hands of Jess Yates who was responsible for three of the seven hits against Andresen.

There was a two-for-one deal going for ninth and eighth places when Reggie Banks and Kenny Rose became locked together during their battle and, despite a solid hit from Jason Ingle, they were inseparable and counted out by race officials. As a result of that incident Bill Malbrough creeps in to the consolation heat along with Steven Redden, who was also counted out after Kenny Rose slammed him onto the barriers.

After the five back-to-back eliminations there was a short time to breath before the heat came to a suden halt. Fifth place finisher Ben Hadsell would have been hoping for an automatic qualification spot to the Summer International Derby final with three final appearances in his last four events, but the Frostbite winner has to go through the consolation heat after he lost a head-on with Will Thompson.

Jess Yates barely missed out on back-to-back finals after finishing fourth at the Summer Sizzler and fourth in this heat. After his hat trick of hits on Andresen, Yates became the first of two drivers blindsided in quick succession by Ricky Grimes.

Currently sitting 20.5 points behind Darryl Lozier in the championship standings Will Thompson will appear in his twelfth final with a fifth in a row. The Arizona Derby winner was a little fortunate after missing two of his intended targets in between laying two hits each on Grimes and Hadsell.

He is joined by Jason Ingle who reaches his sixth final but only has 8.5 points to show for his efforts, the points coming from the Spring Fling Derby (9th) and Lobster Nationals (tied-5th). Ingle was looking good as he finished off Andresen and Thompson but he had little chance in a one-on-one with Ricky Grimes as the latter was all over Ingle with five consecutive hits.

Grimes, moving on to just his third final of the year, almost saw his heat end as soon as it had begun with a lengthy stall leaving him wide open. But after re-firing he was relentless in his pursuit of Ingle and savage in how he attacked the runner-up on his way to a debut heat victory.

Race Result
1. Ricky Grimes
2. Jason Ingle
3. Will Thompson
4. Jess Yates
5. Ben Hadsell
6. Steven Redden
7. Bill Malbrough
8. Kenny Rose
8. Reggie Banks
10. Darrell Andresen
11. Billy Edgington
12. Randy Tondreau