Controlled Chaos - Bluegrass Derby, Heat Two

Bluegrass Derby - Louisville, KY
Heat Two
John McCrory, Darrell Andresen, Steven Redden, John Ruiz, Charlie Clayton, Ben Hadsell, Darryl Lozier, Ricky Grimes, Tommy Miller, Billy Edgington Leo May, Danny Krol

It was a short stint for Ben Hadsell (1st Frostbite Winter Nationals, Tied-2nd Summer National Derby, 2nd Texas Nationals) as Darryl Lozierand Tommy Miller joined forces to imbed him into the barriers where he was counted out, and Billy Edgington (9th Firecracker Open) was hammered four times in as many minutes after he double-tapped John McCrory before trying to seek revenge against Darrell Andresen for an earlier attack.

Tommy Miller (13th Bryan Family Open) was wrecked by Ricky Grimes; John Ruiz (9th Arizona Derby, 1st Ides of March, 8th Seattle Derby) took six hits, two each from McCrory and Charlie Clayton; and Darrell Andresen (4th Indy Nationals, 5th Firecracker, 5th Arkansas Derby) hit Steven Redden three times but was eliminated in eighth place by Darryl Lozier's heavy attention, the sixth and seventh hits that struck him.

After surviving that onslaught, Steven Redden moves on into the consolation heat along with John McCrory, the man who finished the job on Redden before he succumbed to the beating handed down by Danny Krol and Leo May. Joining them in the second chance heat are Leo May who laid four of his seven hits onto Krol and Ricky Grimes, and Charlie Clayton who stalled out seconds before he would have been a finalist; his attentions drawing him to Ruiz and May for repeat custom.

Out of the three who would qualify for the final it was Ricky Grimes who had the biggest uphill battle, taking eight hits against and delivering nine. His seventh final this season started with a brief stall before going back-and-forth with Tommy Miller. He struck Ruiz either side of hits to May before going on to hit the latter two more times, all the while riding challenges with May (2) and Lozier (4) his main attackers.

Darryl Lozier and Danny Krol both doubled up on the pack by dishing out hits twice as often as taking them. Lozier, qualifying for his nineteenth final, delivered twelve shots with Clayton (2) and Grimes (4) his go-to targets. Two of the six hits against, however, came from Danny Krol whose second strike was the killer blow and earned the now eight-time finalist his fourth heat victory. Krol, also a repeat attacker on Clayton with three shots, just had to ride five hits in the fourteen minute heat with just one from Lozier who left his final assault too late.

Race Result
1. Danny Krol
2. Darryl Lozier
3. Ricky Grimes
4. Charlie Clayton
5. Leo May
6. John McCrory
7. Steven Redden
8. Darrell Andresen
9. John Ruiz
10. Tommy Miller
11. Billy Edgington
12. Ben Hadsell