HUMBOLDT, Kan. — Despite a storied career that’s been ongoing longer than most of his competitors have been alive, to say that Thursday was monumental on many levels for Terry Phillips would be a monumental understatement.
Against a teeth-gnashing pack of 62 formidable challengers, the second-generation racer from Springfield, Mo., stood alone at the top after dominating the opening night at RacinDirt USMTS King of America XII presented by Shock Hitch.
In his more than 40 starts here at the Humboldt Speedway, this was his third feature win and second in a King of America preliminary feature.
The $12,000-to-win main event—which takes place Saturday—remains the lone crown jewel event missing from the hall-of-famer’s trophy case.
The 56-year-old veteran was the Sybesma Graphics Pole Award winner and he parlayed that advantage into a wire-to-wire victory in Thursday night’s 35-lapper at ‘The Hummer.’ He led every lap to pocket $3,000 and his 39th career USMTS triumph.
Phillips’s first 38 were behind the wheel of a GRT, but this was his first for his new Bloodline Race Cars chassis company.
“Man, it’s been a lot of hard work. I’ve got Cole my main here that helps build these cars here with us tonight, my daughter, Tommy Boy my new crew chief here,” Phillips said. “I’m a little emotional tonight because I just retired from Late Model racing today. Sold out. So it’s all about the Modifieds now. Maybe we’ll be hard on ‘em or something.
“I’m a bit of a perfectionist but in the end I think it pays off — I was taught that way by my Dad (hall-of-famer Larry Phillips) so it’s just a great night to feel this good and put a pretty good whoopin’ on them… He had me welding frames together in high school so it started a long time ago. I’m proud of the bloodline crew tonight and there’s more of these to come.”
The race was nothing close to a runaway though. As is usually the case in a summit USMTS main event with 29 starters on a tight quarter-mile bullring, lapped traffic midway through the feature kept the rest of the top five within sight of the leader.
The two constants were four-time USMTS National Champion Jason Hughes — the winningest driver at Humboldt with 13 career wins, including King of America V in 2015 — and Dan Ebert who is slowly but surely piling up wins and experience on the USMTS campaign.
Help arrived for Phillips when a mid-race caution gave him a clear line of sight and allowed him to jump out ahead of his pursuers. It also brought into play Ryan Gustin as ‘The Reaper’ patiently searched for a way around the side-by-side second- and third-place runners Hughes and Ebert, but nothing would stand in the way of Phillips as he pedaled to an emotional and historic win on Thursday night.
“Gustin, he can drive anything with four wheels whether it’s a go kart or a drag car. Total respect for him,” Phillips added. “I knew Jason was there because he hit me in the bumper on every restart.”
“I just kind of pushed him,” Hughes said laughingly. “I didn’t know when he was gonna start and I wasn’t gonna be left there behind. I knew he’d try and sucker us on that.”
Hughes came from sixth on the grid to finish second while Gustin slipped by Ebert late to claim the third sport on the podium.
The finish:
Terry Phillips, Jason Hughes, Ryan Gustin, Dan Ebert, Darron Fuqua, Tyler Wolff, Jake O’Neil, Zack VanderBeek, Tanner Mullens, Johnny Scott, Rodney Sanders, Alex Williamson, Will Krup, Tyler Davis, Brandon Givens, Tom Berry Jr., Jared Russell, Dereck Ramirez, Carlos Ahumada Jr., Austin Siebert, Dylan Thornton, Tanner Williamson, Kyle Brown, Jacob Bleess, Jeremy Nelson, Austin Bonner, Jim Chisholm, Ryan Gierke, Jake Timm.