Dennie Gieber beat polesitter Keith White into turn 1 at the start of the 25-lap IMCA Southern SportMod Championship. White fought back getting the lead on the back stretcth, while Jeff Turner was trying unsuccesfully to use the high groove, losing several spots. Sid Kiphen moved into third, Cody Smith fourth as Edward Oakes was getting turned around by Bobby Mercer. Dillon Smith, Tom Earl, Chris Cogburn, got collected in the melee, withothers getting a small piece of the action.
Mercer was sent to the pits, D. Smith and Scotty Wallace were forced to pit for repairs, but rejoined the tail of the field for the restart. Once back to green, Earl, who got his spot back, took another one from Turner. Turner quickly got back by, followed by Tim Clonch for sixth and Cogburn for seventh. Clonch then passed Turner on lap 3 for fifth.
Up front White and Gieber were easily pulling away from Kiphen, and C. Smith who were side by side. C. Smith got the position as Kiphen fell victim to Clonch for fourth. Turner then moved in on Kiphen with Cogburn in hot pursuit. Kiphen and Turner were wheel to wheel on lap 9 for fifth, while Cogburn was fallng off the pace, eventually pulling off. Gieber turned up the heat on White on lap 11, but fell back slightly after being denied the spot.
At the mid-point it was White with six car lengths on Gieber, C. Smith, Clonch and Turner in the top five. Gieber slowly closed back in on White and got the nose inside on lap 17. The two played a little door tag in turn 3 causing no major problems for either driver. C. Smith and Clonch were then were able to close on Gieber. Clonch got third from C. Smith on lap 20 about the time White was hitting slower traffic.
White, the two-time IMCA Southern SportMod National Champion, continued to hold a few car length lead over Gieber as the top four diced through traffic. As the white flag waved, White had a five car edge over Gieber with a lap car between the two. Gieber tried to get by the slower car of Dean Abbey, but got turned around instead. White in the Tracy’s Auto Sales, Central Texas Pest Control, D&S Painting, Finishline Restoration, RC Racng Converters, Dan Corbin & Associates, Belton Pipe & Steel, Pflugervile Engine & Machine, Big Chief Chassis scored the big win, while Gieber recovered to finish fourth behind Clonch and C. Smith.
“I think we actually won this on Thursday night, ” replied White. “We won the qualifier and got to start on the front tonight. We came up here and practiced last Sunday, so we may have had a little head start too. It was worth our $50 to come practice I guess. “
“This is definitely one my biggest wins. You want to win it, but I think more importantly you want to do it front of these people racing on the same level. We know all these people here, we may not race with them every week, but see them these big end of the year shows. Here we can get in the spotlight and showcase what we an do. “
“After Jeff(Turner) beat me out for the championship this year, this is a good capper to my season. I’m all about winning. Jeff’s a great guy, and he’ll be a good champion. I’m not happy we’re no longer the ‘only’ SSM Champ, but the weather hurt us a lot this year. We lost 17 races between Killeen and Waco because of ran outs. That definitey hurt us in the points. “
“It’s a lot bigger track than most of us have raced on and I think it’s good for us and the local economy of racing. This is really awesome. I’ve been pushing for this(IMCA) show because I’ve never raced here. It’s always been an open competition show and the weekly IMCA racer can’t afford to keep up with those guys. Wherever you go for an IMCA you know you have a shot at winning because of the rules they have and the tech that they do. “
“I was worried about Dennie(Gieber) coming around in lap traffic. There was really one groove there and another groove will develop because of cars being passed. When he showed me the nose I was purposely staying up off the bottom, but I guess it got better. Once he tried there I figured I had better get down there. That’s bad that Dennie got taken out by a lapped car. ” IMCA Southern SportMod Championship results
1. 1W Keith White
2. 118 Tim Clonch
3. 171 Cody Smith
4. 114 Dennie Gieber
5. 41 Jeff Turner
6. 53 Edward Oakes
7. 95x Jimmy Day
8. 58 Sid Kiphen
9. 281 Gabe Tucker
10. 7 Scotty Wallace
11. 4E Travis Evans
12. 014 Zach Hamilton
13. 177 Jason Armstrong
14. 197 Kevin Nixon
15. 46 Tom Earl
16. 03 Dillon Smith
17. 30 Chase Jupe
18. 14 Kevin York
19. 45T Eric Tomlinson
20. 37x Dean Abbey
21. 48 Bradley Poor
22. 5c Chris Cogburn
23. 38 Matt Meuller
24. 5m Bobby Mercer
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