Terry Phillips held off Bobby Malchus in Thursday’s main event at the 5th Annual World Modified Dirt Track Championship presented by Red Tail Tackle at the end of a never-ending barn-burner that saw the pair swap the lead seven times during the 30-lapper.
And this was just the first of three nights.
Phillips started on the outside of the front row and never wavered from his line around the top side of Deer Creek Speedway’s high-banked 3/8-mile clay oval.
Meanwhile, Malchus, who started third, grinded his way around the low side of the racing surface and sliding up on the exit of every corner, leaving Phillips just enough room to squirt back by on the outside.
Malchus inched ahead at the flagstand to lead the fifth laps, but Phillips roared back and held the top spot for the next ten laps before Malchus regained the lead and looked to have the momentum to drive away to an opening-night victory and his first United States Modified Touring Series triumph.
Phillips, however, never went away and used some lapped traffic on lap 20 to put his familiar red and black No. 75 GRT back to the front.
While this was going on, defending WMDTC champion Rodney Sanders was embroiled in a similar tussle with Joey Jensen for the third spot with Brandon Davis close behind in fifth.
With four laps to go, Malchus again nosed ahead of Phillips and again on lap 28, but Phillips had enough left in the tank to ride the high side back to the lead as the white flag appeared and beat Malchus to the checkered flag with a car length to spare.
Sanders bested Jensen in the battle for third, and Davis kept the fifth spot.
Brad Dierks did the most passing in the feature race, coming from 19th to finish sixth. Keith Foss, Ben Kates, Casey Arneson and Cory Crapser rounded out the top 10.
Points standings after day 1 of 2: Phillips 643.5, Jensen 636.5, Sanders 631, Malchus 622, Davis 599.5, Dierks 570, Crapser 561, Foss 560.5, 9. Kates 550.5, Arneson 548, Craig Thatcher 535.5, Jason Hughes 515.
At the conclusion of Friday’s show, the top 12 in overall points will be locked into the first 12 starting spots inSaturday’s $20,000-to-win finale.
The 5th Annual World Modified Dirt Track Championship presented by Red Tail Tackle continues Friday where fans will witness a complete program of qualifying and main events for the USMTS Modifieds plus USRA Stock Cars and WISSOTA Midwest Mods.
USMTS drivers will have last-chance races and the $20,00-to-win finale on Saturday. Points are awarded for time trials, heat races and qualifying features on Thursday and Friday with each driver’s total combined points for the first two days determining the main event line-ups on Saturday.
Saturday will feature an “alphabet soup” of main events and last-chance races with the top 12 points-earners locked into the championship main event. The 13th-highest points-earner from the first two days will be on the pole of the “B” Main and the lowest points-earner starts last in the lowest feature race.
Saturday’s main event will have a new twist this year as Saturday’s championship race will be divided into two segments. The first segment will be 25 laps and pay a minimum of $5,000 to win and $500 to start.
At the conclusion of the first segment, competitors will have a maximum of ten minutes to make any needed changes to the racecar.
The second segment will be 40 laps, start heads-up by the finishing order of the first segment and pay a minimum of $15,000 to win and $1,000 to start.
Racing starts at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Saturday’s show gets started at 6 p.m.
