Chapman, Phipps, Baker, Grissom and Greenwood Madness Masters

Fireworks from the sky and from the Figure 8 course thrilled a huge crowd Friday evening at the Anderson Speedway with Mother Nature even tossing in a firework show of her own.

Five Anderson drivers were the victors in the Annual Figure 8 Madness Fourth of July Celebration. Curtis Chapman captured the Anderson Figure 8 headliner while Rod Phipps took the Open class feature, David Baker the Chappy's Rent To Own Front Wheel Drive Main, Roy Grissom Sr. the ThunderCar Feature and Bobby Greenwood the School Bus Thriller.

A straight-up inversion always promises a great figure and it was that.  It didn't take long for the crossover to get busy with Dan O'Bryant and Robert Brumback crashing in the cross-over on lap two eliminating both cars.

Twenty laps of criss-crossing excitement with the 27 eligible cars made this event a dandy. Curtis Chapman, Ronnie Rose and Ronnie Phipps were glued together the distance with several near misses at the intersection thrilling the fans. Chapman captured his second win of the year defeating Rose, Ronnie Phipps, Jason Pitts and Joe Hart, Jr.

Rob Allman started in eighth and came on to take the lead on lap seven and the win in the hard fought first heat over William Coffman and Ranny Hinton. Bobby Long led the second heat until the white flag when his mount broke handing the win to Hart. Trailers were Chapman and Shawn Cullen. Ronnie Rose was fast qualifier.

R.J. Norton looked like a shoe in for the open class, totally dominating his competitors. Then on lap 35, much to everyone's surprise, his lightning fast racer came to a stop and a surprised Rod Phipps found himself on top.

Phipps went on to the $1,000 pay day over Jeff Swinford, Andy Sherley, Bruce McFall and Norton. Norton was fast qualifier at 18.750 seconds.   

The Chappy's Rent To Own Front Wheel Drives went into action with their first ever Figure 8 race. David Baker proved to be the bravest of the bunch as he led it from flag to flag. On lap seven, Baker came to the intersection as Dustin Tomlinson and Larry Phillips also arrived with all three coming to a halt not knowing which one was going to give. Baker survived to take the victory over Tomlinson, Phillips, Chris Teepee and Mike Milliner.

ThunderCar Figure 8 racing action saw Ranny Hinton lead the first five laps of the 20-lap affair before Roy Grissom Sr. came from his third starting position to take control. Josh Tharp had charged through the pack from ninth starting position to now be on the bumper of Grissom. The duo fought hard, high and low, side by side for the lead.

On lap 16, Tharp bounced off the wall while attempting a pass Grissom ending any more serious challenges for the top spot.  Grissom went on to the checker defeating Tharp, James Peterson, Jim Brown and Tony Hart.

Last, but certainly not least was the exciting School Bus Figure 8. Eight big, yellow, lumbering machines put on an awesome show. Things started off with a bang, literally.

On lap 2, Dave O'Bryant's bus got crosswise in Turn 1. Michael Day II was right there, hitting O'Bryant in the side and sending O'Bryant's bus over on it's side. After bringing in Maynard's Recovery Big Dog wrecker to upright the fallen warrior, O'Bryant started it up and rejoined the race. Action continued with hits, slams and near misses at the cross-over. Bobby Greenwood captured the victory over Ranny Hinton and Day.

For additional information contact Anderson Speedway at (765) 642-0206.