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Enduro Win Goes to Blevins
(May
1, 2011) –
Benny Blevins passed Herb Rose with 60 laps remaining
to capture the 200-lap Enduro for the WMDH ThunderCars at Anderson Speedway
on Saturday.
Rose took the lead on lap 69 when he got inside of Rob Noel with an inside
pass entering turn one and led a race high 70 laps before Blevins, who
started 15th in the field made the determining pass.
The driver on the move in the second half of the race was Williams who made
up three laps to the leaders by lap 173. Williams moved inside of Mike
Phipps for third on lap 175 and set his sights on Rose.
Williams, the fast qualifier, moved into second with an outside pass of Rose
entering turn two and set his sights on Blevins. He closed to less than half
a straight away with two laps remaining.
The entire complexion of the race changed between lap 55 and 60 when leader
Johnny Magee lost an engine and on lap 59 David McConnell hit the outside
retaining wall collecting Pam Neal and leader Williams.
That set up a series of four lead changes over the next ten laps between
Noel and Rose. Blevins moved into the second spot on lap 81 when he used the
high groove to get around Noel on the front straight.
At the checkers it was Blevins holding off Williams by .602-seconds, Rose
came home in third followed by Phipps and Noel, who started 18th.
“I knew he was coming,” Blevins said of Williams following his victory.
Williams said he was worn out after turning 200 laps at Anderson Speedway.
“I guess we did all right for being three or four laps down,” he said in an
understatement of the team’s strong run.
Rose, who has been competing at Anderson Speedway for 51 years, turned in an
amazing run to come home third in a car with a badly damaged front
suspension after making contact with Noel on lap 128.
“It was a handful,” he said of the car. “It just didn’t handle after the
contact. I think I could have won, if not for that.”
Noel, who made the switch last year from the Pure Stock to the ThunderCars,
was all smiles after his fifth place run.
“During on of the red flags, I looked at the scoreboard and saw the number
2,” he said. “I wondered if there was another 2 in the field. “
Before the race even started the cars of Rod Phipps and Hannah Lundy, who
qualified second and fourth quick were scratched with mechanical problems.
Early in the race Nick Warner went out with a mechanical problem, but he was
to return later. Rob Allman suffered two flat tires and Ronnie Rose also had
a mechanical problem.
The race was slowed nine times, but featured eight lead changes among six
different drivers.
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