It Was A Night of Thrills At Anderson Speedway

A Night of Thrills and craziness thrilled a vast throng at the Anderson Speedway Saturday evening with Anderson drivers Jonathon Pitts copping the ThunderCar Oval, Josh Tharp the ThunderCar 8 and George Baker Jr. capturing the Chappy's Rent To Own Front Wheel Drive headliner.

A super ThunderCar Figure 8 started off the program and it quickly turned into the "Tharp" show. Matt Tharp grabbed the lead at the start and quickly found the crossover a crowed place! Matt found Bill Riall in the "X" on lap four  but avoided disaster.  Bub Beachboard, who was in hot pursuit of Matt wasn't so lucky on the next lap when he and Riall had a heavy hit severely damaging both cars.  Josh Tharp took up the chase at this point and made a great inside move on lap 13 to take the lead.  Josh took the Tharp Brothers Racing Caprice on to victory over Matt, James Peterson, Jonathon Pitts and Ranny Hinton.

Jonathon Pitts led the 28-car field to the green flag in the ThunderCar Oval and never relinquished it.  Pitts, driving the Pitts Racing Monte Carlo, was able to get a break from traffic and build a sizeable lead but a late race tangle in traffic almost proved his undoing. Roy Grissom, Sr. was able to peddle through traffic and pull along side Pitts at the white flag. Grissom himself got caught in traffic and had to settle for second followed by Brandon Leisure, Tim Adams and Ranny Hinton. Leisure was the fastest qualifier with a record 15.857 second clocking.

In the Chappy's Rent To Own Front Wheel Drives first  timer Jessica Jennings held the point until lap six  when George Baker Jr.  took control. Baker had a late race brush with a slower car that almost cost him the win but was able to hang on and take the Tire Barn Beretta to victory over Jerry Baker, Al Gabel, Chris Jennings and Paul Baker.

The "Backwards Race" was next where the entrants literally backed around the high banks, a feat in itself!  Hits, spins, bounces off the wall and five laps of wild action saw veteran Ronnie Phipps master yet another way of winning at the Anderson Speedway! Trailers were Kevin Rhodus, Gary Moore, Toby Andis and Virgil Patterson.

The 12-lap "Mattress Race" was next where the entrant had to hold a mattress on top of their car with one hand while racing!  If you go too fast, off they go!  In the end, it was Ricky Gabel leading all but the 1st lap to win over Toby Andis, Paul Butler, Jack Taylor and Bobby Tucker.

The always popular Roll Over Contest was next where the entrant gets as many as three tries at rolling his car over with one point for each side that hits the ground.  Anderson's Dewayne Williams had two complete rolls plus to record 12 points and take the win over Geoff Lehman, Rick Tharp, Jim Saxon and Donnie Ellis.

The School Bus Figure 8 was next and the crowd was on their feet!  They saw slams, hits, pushes, scrapping off the wall and believe it or not, three abreast racing! The lead actually changed three times with Roy Grissom Jr. the victor.  He was pursued by Tim Stanley, Michael Day, II, Ranny Hinton and Eric Dover.

Twenty-one cars intentionally crashed each other in the demolition derby.  When the smoke had cleared it was Connersville's Ed Woodward standing alone as the last car running.   Finishing second through fifth were Bobby Townsend, Glenn Lukenbill, Bill Evans and Shawn McDaniel.

Certainly, what turned out to be one of the highlights of the evening was the spectator drags.  Fans with a pit pass and proper safety equipment were allowed to bring in their street cars and go one-on-one against another fan.  This got wild in the semi-finals as two cars came together and then bounced off the wall! In the final it was Rick Moss in his already mangled classic car and Jeff Etchyson in a hot truck. Both had won in the past. Coming out of turn two, Moss got loose and nailed the backstretch wall!  The car was hauled off on a wrecker!  Etchyson in his Chevy truck, took the victory.