Tom Maier enjoys the spoils of victory after winning at I-70 Speedway.
Maier, driving a 1970 Chevelle, wasn’t about to let leader Trickle nudge his 1970 Mustang past him and put another lap on him on the 194th circuit of the 200-lap contest.
As the two drivers were flying down the frontstretch, Trickle, who led most of the race, attempted to get past Maier on the outside. There wasn’t enough room, and Trickle’s right rear tire scraped the retaining wall. On the following lap, the tire was virtually flat. And on lap 196, with the tire shredded and running on the rim, he was black flagged.
Two laps later, Trickle pulled into the pits and finished behind Maier, Larry Phillips of Springfield, and David Goldsberry of Bolivar, in fourth place.
The race looked like the usual cut-and-dry finish for Trickle, who won 67 feature events in 1972, is noted for. He bolted from his pole position on the first lap, beating Goldsberry to the first turn.
For the first 134 laps, Trickle held the lead. On that lap, he pitted for gas and a fresh right rear tire, yielding the lead to Phillips.
However, Phillips had gambled that his 22-gallon gas tank was big enough to get him through the entire race. It wasn’t, and on lap 189, he made a quick pit stop for fuel.
Trickle regained the lead, only to lose it to Maier, who had made his pit stop early, under yellow.
Trickle lost nearly two laps in the pits, while Maier’s crew got him back on the track without losing a lap.
All Maier did was stay close to Trickle and Phillips and it paid off in big dividends - $2,000 in fact – his winning share of the $12,000 purse.
Rounding out the top five was Vance Cook of Jonesboro, Ark.
Although Trickle didn’t win the main event, he grabbed the spotlight during time trials, clocking a 18.55 second lap, bettering Dave Wall’s 1972 mark by .02 seconds. Wall drives out of Kansas City.
The time of the race – 1 hour, 13 minutes and 22.18 seconds – was more than three minutes faster than the clocking of Ernie Derr’s 200-lap victory here in 1969.
An estimated crowd of 3,000 viewed the feature, which had been postponed twice for inclement weather.
Results –
1. Tom Maier, Midland, Mich.
2. Larry Phillips, Springfield
3. David Goldsberry, Bolivar
4. Dick Trickle, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
5. Vance Cook, Jonesboro, Ark.
6. Joe Wallace, Lawrence, Kan.
7. Bob Williams, Independence
8. Fritz Wilson, Denver, Colo.
9. Roger Heim, Hume
10.Don Conner, Shawnee Mission, Kan.
11.Don James, Minneapolis, Minn.
12.Bill Crane, Kansas City
13.Jerry Nussbaum, Oak Grove
14.Gene Chapman, Independence
15.Tom Karrick, Kansas City
16.Jon Backlund, Independence
17.Jim Evert, Richmond
No comments:
Post a Comment