Bluegrass Derby - Louisville, KY
Heat Three
Reggie Banks, Bob Alexander, Norm Gibson, Timmy Barnes, Bambi Rogers, Bill Malbrough, Jess Yates, Joe Ramage, Lynne Higgins, Will Thompson, Phillip Ruffin, Ed Smith
Bob Alexander (6th Arizona Derby, 3rd Lobster Nationals, 9th Texas Nationals) was under attack from three fronts right off the start as Reggie Banks, Timmy Barnes, and Jess Yates converged onto his position and making him desperate enough to hit Ramage unfairly for a DQ result, and Joe Ramage (1st Valentine's Day Massacre, 1st Bryan Family Open) will drop down at least one place from his current fifth place in the standings after Scott Hutchins' victory in heat one. His elimination also coming via disqualification after taking five tough hits.
Phillip Ruffin (9th Ides of March, 8th Big Apple Smash Up, 8th Mile High Open) remains on three final appearances all year thanks to an early stall leaving him a sitting duck from attacks by the pack. His dismissal was quickly followed by those of Reggie Banks (1st Firecracker Open, 11th Alamo Derby, 10th Ohio Derby) who suffered few attacks but misjudged his own hitting attempts on five different drivers, and Bill Malbrough who started out with a stall before targeting Banks twice and eventually coming unstuck on a hit by Bambi Rogers.
The foursome who enter the consolation heat are Timmy Barnes who survived an onslaught from Gibson before battling hard with Rogers, Ed Smith who laid on eight hits to seven different drivers, Norm Gibson who was hard on Barnes and the two ladies, and Bambi Rogers after laying out an impressive nine hits while only taking five in return; Will Thompson was her favourite target striking him thrice, and Barnes was her common foe as he came back for seconds.
Despite getting blitzed for multiple hits each by Rogers (3) and Lynne Higgins (4), Will Thompson is heading into his nineteenth final, and his third in a row. Yates, Gibson, Malbrough, and Ruffin were all struck by Thompson before the heat was stopped so officials could check the secure nature of his gas tank. He passed the inspection and continued carving through the pack with his eight hits, but only Yates earning a second shot.
After he was softened up by Rogers, Thompson was put down by a trio of hard hits from Lynne Higgins after she had previously struck him. Ruffin (3), Yates (2), and Gibson (1) were also forced into contact by Higgins as she took only three hits against all through her thirteen minutes of derby.
The final battle with Jess Yates raged on for three of those minutes, and it was Higgins, who moves on into her eleventh final and fifth in seven, who edged the war two hits to one, but in the end what looked like a costly miss, his second miss-step in short order, by Yates turned into a blessing as he found himself in position to smartly ride the last challenge from his remaining opponent and keep moving while Higgins; vehicle gave up the ghost. Only delivering six hits while taking seven, Jess Yates takes his third heat win of the year and enters his fourth final, his second in five weeks.
Race Result
1. Jess Yates
2. Lynne Higgins
3. Will Thompson
4. Bambi Rogers
5. Norm Gibson
6. Ed Smith
7. Timmy Barnes
8. Bill Malbrough
9. Reggie Banks
10. Philip Ruffin
11. Joe Ramage
12. Bob Alexander
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