Miles Captures Opening Street Stock Feature; Phipps, Harmon and Tharp Also Victorious

Muncie’s Bret Miles started the 2009 season leading all 30 laps of the Street Stock feature Saturday at Anderson Speedway.

Miles was chased for all 30 laps by Josh Burton, who finished second. At the start the front duo was pursued by Rob Allman and Ronnie Rose, as the front runners ran nose to tail. But that all changed a third of the way into the race.

On the 12th circuit a transmission problem on the back straight caused Ronnie Rose to make contact with Rob Allman while the pair was running third and fourth. With the back straight partially blocked the cars of Randy Hoppes and Jake McElfresh were collected. All four drivers were finished for the night.

From there Miles was able to pull away slightly from Burton with Rich Boyer holding off Danny Acrey II for third. Calvin Parham came home in fifth.

Even before the feature began fast qualifier Joe Beaver was forced to the pits with a flat left rear tire and was unable to run in the event.

“It was a real good race,” Miles said. “I hated that Joe (Beaver) had a flat tire at the start.”

Rob Phipps, who set a new track record in qualifying, weaved his way through traffic to capture the Thunder Car feature. Phipps took the lead on the 12th lap by going inside of leader Paris Swallows entering the fourth corner. Swallows subsequently got loose and spun into the infield and knocking him out of contention for the win.

Once on the point Phipps pulled away for the win. Rob Allman and Johnny Magee took advantage of a restart with four laps remaining to use the outside line to finish second and third followed by Terry Malone Jr. and Lonnie Burton.

The caution was caused when Ronnie Rose and Nick Warner were battling for the fourth position. Rose got loose entering turn one causing both drivers to spin.

Ricky Tharp took the lead on the second lap and went on to capture the ImmediaDent Figure 8 feature followed by Mike Riddle Jr. and Ronnie Phipps.

Josh Tharp led the first lap and was running second until lap nine when a leaking radiator knocked him from competition.

Defending Front Wheel Drive champion Kevin Harmon led all 20 laps to capture the event and withstood a strong challenge from Trever Abbott followed by Andy Keller.

“I had a good run on the outside and was able to hold him (Abbott) on a couple of restarts,” Harmon said. “He probably gave me more room than he should have at the start.”

A total of 84 cars in four divisions were on hand for the opening night of the racing season.

During qualifying Anderson’s Rob Phipps set a new track record in the ThunderCar division turning a lap at 14.791-seconds, that broke the mark of 14.870 seconds set by Sam Folsom in September, 2007.

The Champion Racing Association kicks off the 2009 season for the Late Model North Division on Saturday with a 125-lap event. There are already 20 cars entered for the event at Anderson Speedway. Entered for the event is defending champion Scott Hantz, Illinois drivers Eddie Hoffman and Boris Jurkovic, Ohio competitor Jack Landis, and local drivers Kenny Tweedy, Aaron Pierce and Rick Turner.

Racing starts at 7 p.m. with the ImmediaDent Figure 8 and Front Wheel Drive on the oval also on the program.