DICKERSON MAKES IT TWO IN A ROW IN THE SUPER CLEAN MODIFIED SERIES.

Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 05/05/2008

El Cajon-California's Jimmy Dickerson won the 75 lap Super Clean Modified Racing Series feature, presented by Jim Beam, May 3d at the Havasu 95 Speedway a quarter mile paved oval located in Lake Havasu City-Arizona. It was the series' second race on their 2008 schedule. It was also Dickerson's second series win in a row.

When the Super Clean Modified Series launched its 2008 schedule, April 12th at the Lucas Oil I-10 Speedway in Blythe-California, Dickerson took the green flag from his second row starting position and only needed one lap to make a race winning move to the front of the field. He led all but one of the 75 lap feature and claimed the $1,000 winner's check as well as the bragging rights of being the first ever points leader in the series' championship standings.

However, at the Havasu 95 Speedway, Dickerson had to work a little harder. It took him all the way to lap 15 before he was able to make his race winning pass and collect another $1,000. His second, consecutive, series win was the crown jewel of a very good Saturday night for Dickerson. He began the day by setting a new track record during qualifying. He toured the speedway's D shaped oval in 15.742 seconds. During the driver's meeting the roll of the inversion dice had him actually starting the race on the outside of row two.

Mike Salm and Scott Brown led the 22 starters under the initial green flag with Salm taking command of the race. The first of five yellow flags came out on lap four when Jeff Gibson brushed the wall and had to pit to replace a flat right front tire. Back under the green again Salm had a rear view mirror full of Dickerson's car and they staged a torrid duel that had them side by side, and often bumping tires, before the second yellow flag came out, due to Tim Morse's spin on the front stretch, which again slowed down their race rhythm. On lap 15 Dickerson managed to get underneath Salm on the front stretch and was able to complete the race winning move.

From that point Dickerson was on his way to a second win but it wasn't going to be easy. Andrew Phipps moved into second on lap 29 and tried everything possible to get around the race leader. They ran a close one-two battle to lap 54 when the caution flag came out again due to Ed Patton's turn two spin. An effort to restart the race again failed when James Cole, Tim Morse and Chris Stress got together in turn two to bring the yellow flag right back out. Just prior to these two yellow flags both Dickerson and Phipps had passed five cars to put them a lap down. On the ensuing restart these five lapped cars were lined up between Phipps and Salm. It was a tough break for Salm because it completely ruined any chance he had to get to the leaders and contend for the win. Dickerson ran out the final 20 laps with Phipps still right behind him while Salm, Chris Gerchman and Brown completed the top five.

After pulling his STR, Competitive Metals, Applied Decorative Concrete modified into victory lane a very happy Dickerson said "the car was good. It ran awesome and I just made sure that it stayed on the bottom. STR,(Short Track Racers), set the chassis up on this brand new car." Commenting on lapped traffic he said "it's still frustrating. You catch those guys and some of them are pretty good about giving you room and then some of the guys want to get down there and try to block you to keep you back there. But we got through it and it's all good right now."

Andrew Phipps was having fun at the Havasu 95 Speedway and said "we were laughing and joking on the radio the whole time during the yellow flags. My guys were keeping me pepped up. It was a lot of fun. It's exactly what I wanted. We;re competitive and we're fast. There were points in this race where we were faster than the 61, (Dickerson), and there were points where he was faster than I was. The main thing is we're competitive and I'm hanging out with the top guys in the series and I think we're going to win one of these races. These guys are really good and they're really hard racers. I really want to thank my main sponsor, Spartan Trucking, they came on board to give me some help. I would not be able to make these races without their help. Also there's Ron's Rear Ends who has been building me free gears. At all of these tracks you need to change the gears. At every track you need a different gear ratio and they're very expensive and he's been giving them to me every week to help keep me going"

Adding to Phipps' fun was the fact that the Havasu 95 Speedway allows the drivers to bring their young children into the pit area. He was accompanied by his ten year old son, Logan, and his 12 year old friend Steven. "It was the first time that my son got to come into the pits. We've raced at other tracks where they don't let them come into the pit areas. They got to work in the pits and they worked hard all weekend. They got to be on the radio and spotted for me during practice. They learned a lot and had a lot of fun. They were my only two helpers during the whole weekend."

Mike Salm scored another top three finish, in his Salm Engineering and Grading modified, and said "it was a busy night on the track tonight. We had a car that was leading there for awhile and we were good on short runs but when it came to the long green runs our car just wasn't quite as good as Dickerson or Phipps. Overall it was a good night. We were a third place car. We qualified third and, after we started outside on the front row, we finished exactly where a third place car should finish." On the subject of the lapped traffic that hampered him Salm said "it was a little bit of a pain. That caution came out and we got stuck behind those lapped cars that the leaders passed before the yellow came out. It took us awhile to get around them and by that time they, (the leaders), were gone. But all in all it was a good night."

Also enjoying the night was Greg Scheidecker, the Super Clean Modified Series' Technical Director and Co-Promoter, who said "there were two or three times during this race that I thought the lead was going to change again with Andrew, (Phipps), coming on. But the race, from third to 14th, was furious. There was a lot of good racing going on there. There was a little confusion going on out there with restarts because the line up reverts back to the previous completed lap and we do use transponders to keep track of the race order but we'll get those kind of things straightened out."

The race was videotaped and will be the subject of a future national television broadcast on the Versus Channel. The series returns to action on May 17th at the Bullring in Las Vegas.

In addition to Super Clean the series is also sponsored by Team Lucas which is comprised of Lucas Oil,Jim Beam, K&N Performance Filters, Blue Water Resort and Casino, General Tire, Dixie Chopper, Fatheadz Sunglasses, Torco Racing Fuels, Hoosier Racing Tires, R&L Carriers, E3 Spark Plugs, Budweiser, Poly Dome Plastic Products and Sencon Concrete LLC.

See Also .:

News Index | E-mail to a Friend