Halloween Open - Akron, OH
Heat Three
Will Murphy, Charlie Clayton, Rob Remaley, Bob Alexander, Bambi Rogers, Ed Smith, Don Davis, Jason Ingle, Matt Welliver, Reggie Banks, Will Thompson, Jamie Eilers
The final heat saw no early exits and it wasn't until four minutes in that Rob Remaley (3rd Ides of March, 4th Seattle Derby, Tied-4th Summer National Derby) took his fifth hit against for the first elimination, forcing him to miss an eleventh straight final, and then quickly afterwards Bob Alexander (6th Arizona Derby, 3rd Lobster Nationals, 9th Texas Nationals) received the same treatment to leave him without a point in thirteen weeks despite a pair of final appearances.
Another back-to-back elimination occurred two minutes later when Reggie Banks (1st Firecracker Open, 10th Ohio Derby, 10th Fall Nationals) was swarmed over by Ingle and Welliver after two blindside hits from Will Thompson, and then Will Murphy (2nd Tampa, 3rd Spring Fling Derby, 3rd Idaho Invitational, 3rd Big Apple Smash Up) receives a double-tap from Clayton to leave him with three finals in the past seventeen events. This after starting the season with eight appearances in the first thirteen.
Don Davis (2nd Jersey Derby, 7th Summer Sizzler, 9th Arkansas Derby), in for the injured Billy Edgington, produced one attack, that striking the vehicle of Jamie Eilers, with the rest of his heat re-firing a stall, extricating himself from the barriers and warring with Jason Ingle, a battle he would ultimately lose.
Davis' loss by finishing eighth is the gain of Clayton, Ingle, Thompson and Eilers with Clayton stalling, re-firing and then pulling out with a fire. Ingle attacked both Remaley and Alexander twice each as part of his seven hits delivered while Will Thompson started strongly with seven consecutive hits before a pair of misses and a stall continued to leave him open to the pack. The final consolation heat entrant, Jamie Eilers, could not earn an automatic final place after Matt Welliver forced him into the barriers and continued to assault his prone opponent.
Welliver had to end up settling for third place, taking him to his twelfth final this year and fifth appearance in seven, but he was seconds away from not getting anywhere near that accolade due to stalling at the very start and barely getting the engine re-fired in time. Davis and Thompson both took a single shot off of him but Banks took a pair and Eilers three in a row before Ed Smith charged in to wipe out Welliver.
For the second heat running there was a tiebreak situation but this time the points were shared as Bambi Rogers, reaching her first final in eight weeks and third all time, was involved in a unique tie with Ed Smith, entering his fifth final of the year.
Rogers was on form with ten hits and only a late shot by Smith stopped her in her tracks by causing a fatal stall, Smith, who was struck twice early on by his final opponent, doubled up on Davis, Murphy and Thompson as he landed eleven hits on the pack but in the end a rut in the torn-up arena pushed him offline and he somehow missed a stalled Rogers and crashed into the wall. Circumstances got a little stranger still as the officials were just counting out Bambi when Ed made contact, resulting in a tied heat win.
Race Result
1. Ed Smith
1. Bambi Rogers
3. Matt Welliver
4. Jamie Eilers
5. Will Thompson
6. Jason Ingle
7. Charlie Clayton
8. Don Davis
9. Will Muprhy
10. Reggie Banks
11. Bob Alexander
12. Rob Remaley
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