Alamo Derby - San Antonio, TX
Heat One
Joe Ramage, Lynne Higgins, Norm Gibson, John McCrory, Charlie Clayton, Ben Hadsell, Tommy Miller, Jamie Eilers, Chris Henton, Darrell Andresen, Ricky Grimes, Bambi Rogers
With a win in Milwaukee last week and a runner-up finish in St Louis two weeks before, Joe Ramage would have been forgiven if he thought his season had turned around from one final in nine weeks to his aforementioned good times. But, it was not to be as he finished dead last in the opening heat here. Only suffering two hits again, Ramage (1st Valentine's Day Massacre) did not help his cause by casually striking Miller and Higgins, bringing about a lot of damage to his own vehicle.
Since becoming champion of both the Summer Sizzler and Summer National Derby, Jamie EIlers has finished fourth (Louisiana Invitational), eighth (Arkansas Derby) and sixth (Bryen Family Open) but stalling out in San Antonio means he misses a fourth final in the last seven weeks, and Bambi Rogers (6th Arkansas, 11th Bryan) fails to make it three in a row as a hit to the blindside was the first of two shots from Ricky Grimes that finished her off.
Lynne Higgins (4th Arkansas) was right behind in ninth place after taking five shots, becoming stuck on the barriers and waiting for Grimes to get involved again to finish the job, and Norm Gibson (1st Lobster Nationals, 1st Texas Nationals) misses his second final in four on a tag-team sequence from Grimes and Hadsell.
Tommy Miller has a taste of the final now despite finishing thirteenth in last week's contest, but to repeat he will have to go through the consolation heat along with Ricky Grimes, John McCrory and Ben Hadsell. Out of this group it was McCrory who had the biggest adventure as Hadsell was inches away from destroying him, and he was shoved into the driver's side door of Grimes to earn a tough DQ.
Charlie Clayton reaches his seventh final of the year, a first in five rounds, after he raged on McCrory with three hits, battled with Hadsell and was ultimately dumped by Darrell Andresen who caught his opponent unawares.
Andresen would be unstoppable in the end with Chris Henton, finishing second as another blindside victim of the heat winner, making his way into a eighth final and third in a row. Henton was crushed hard by that surprise hit but he continued and tried to pass the pain on to McCrory who barely evaded a full speed collision that would have surely left at least one of the vehicles involved crippled.
It's a sixth heat win for Andresen and he improves his final streak to five for an eleventh appearance this season. His path was one of variety, laying eight hits on seven cars, but his day started on the wrong foot as Ben Hadsell caught him on the hop and nudged him hard from behind before shaking loose the cobwebs and taking two points for the win.
Race Result
1. Darrell Andresen
2. Chris Henton
3. Charlie Clayton
4. Ben Hadsell
5. John McCrory
6. Ricky Grimes
7. Tommy Miller
8. Norm Gibson
9. Lynne Higgins
10. Bambi Rogers
11. Jamie Eilers
12. Joe Ramage
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