SidelineStrategy.com Derby - St Louis, MO
Heat Two
Joe Ramage, Bob Alexander, Rob Remaley, Timmy Barnes, Sam Harbin, Ben Hadsell, Dick Garrett, Ed Smith, Bill Malbrough, Darrell Andresen, John Ruiz, Will Murphy
Heat two started in similar fashion to the first with the first elimination coming off the start when Bob Alexander (6th Arizona, 3rd Lobster, 9th Texas) stalled and only ever moved when Rob Remaley struck him while passing by.
Next to come was the elimination of Ides of March winner John Ruiz who goes an eighth straight week without reaching a single final. Ruiz' frustration may have got the better of him in St Louis when he clearly targeted the driver's side door of Joe Ramage, leaving the race officials no option but to disqualify him.
The rest of the pack was going about their business through the opening six minutes after which Dick Garrett (6th Ides of March, 5th Seattle) continued his poor form of reaching just one final in nine events - seventh in the Summer Sizzler - as Ben Hadsell rounded n him for three hits, and Timmy Barnes (12th Spring Fling, 4th Big Apple Smash Up) was freed from an early lock up with Sam Harbin but could only finish in ninth place.
With eight finals through the first twelve rounds this season, all resulting in a top six finish, Will Murphy has since gone on to miss all six finals since then, including last week's absence through injury, and here he just misses out on the consolation heat due to seven hits on him, two of which came from Darrell Andresen to finish him of while he was stalled.
Moving on into the consolation heat is Sam Harbin who initiated contact with Barnes at the very start to lock them together before mowing through the pack with four hits, and Ben Hadsell who freed up the pair while doubling up on both Andresen and Garrett before Ed Smith's two swift hits exposed his weakness to the pack.
Joining them is Smith who was a creature of habit with three hits on Hadsell and a pair each on Barnes and Malbrough, the latter of which becoming the closest this week to breaking his final duck among the five drivers who have yet to qualify but ends up in fourth place after surviving an assortment of stalls and stuck situations.
It is the first final in four weeks for Darrell Andresen, the British driver making contact with his opposition on eight separate occasions and avoided a lot of reprisals by hanging around at the back. His time run out when Joe Ramage only had two targets remaining and focused all of his attacks on Andresen.
A third final in the last nine rounds gives Rob Remaley a ninth appearance of the season but has to settle for a runner-up place in the heat as, apart from a blindside bit by Hadsell very early on, had only one opponent hit him while Remaley struck seven other vehicles with his eight hits; Hadsell receiving two.
That means Joe Ramage takes his first heat victory this season and it's thanks in no small part to the abuse he put Remaley under with five of his ten hits going to his last opponent. It's a seventh final for the Valentine's Day Massacre champ but only his second in the last ten weeks.
Race Result
1. Joe Ramage
2. Rob Remaley
3. Darrell Andresen
4. Bill Malbrough
5. Ed Smith
6. Ben Hadsell
7. Sam Harbin
8. Will Murphy
9. Timmy Barnes
10. Dick Garrett
11. John Ruiz
12. Bob Alexander
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