ELDON, Iowa — Sawyer Phillips has been racing with the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders for several seasons, but he hadn’t broken through until Friday.
The Pleasantville, Iowa native picked up his first win with both the Sprint Invaders and the ASCS-Midwest Series, as the two sanctioned the event at Eldon Raceway. The victory came aboard the Dan Sparks No. 7s.
The 25-lap feature got off to a very rocky start with cars coming together and Tanner Gebhardt flipping hard and getting hit by other cars. He was alert, but taken in for observation. John Klabunde also got upside down in an incident that also eliminated the cars of Evan Semerad and McCain Richards.
After a lengthy delay, a total restart was called with Jack Thomas called for jumping the initial try. Tasker Phillips took the early advantage over his brother, Sawyer, Cam Sorrels, Thomas and Dustin Clark. Two laps in, Josh Schneiderman broke a front end and spun, setting up another restart.
This time, Thomas gained third from Sorrels and Cam Martin moved into the top five. By lap eight, Tasker was in lapped traffic, closely pursued by Sawyer. On lap 13, disaster struck, when Tasker suffered electrical issues and came to a stop.
Sawyer led Thomas, Sorrels, Martin and Clark back to green flag racing. On lap 15, Sorrels worked under Thomas to gain second. Cody Wehrle worked into the top five with eighth to go.
Sawyer got into lapped traffic with five to go, but was never headed. Thomas broke a torque ball on the final lap, ruining his podium run.
Sawyer’s win came ahead of Sorrels, Martin, hard-charger Wehrle and Terry McCarl.
“The car was fast,” said Phillips. “I made it harder on myself in the heat race, hitting the infield tire and spinning out. That put us from fifth, back to seventh, but we came back to get second. When Tasker fell out, I thought I’ve never won one of these, and it’s time to go get one. I don’t know if anyone was close or not, but we got the job done. We were right there with (Tasker). There’s a difference between being with him and clearing him. But we’re faster than we have been the first couple weeks. I’ve got to thank Dan Sparks with Destiny Homes for giving me this opportunity and Don Dawson for the work on the car. This thing kind of fell in my lap a month or two ago, and I’m trying to make the most of it.”
“We were really good from the start,” said Sorrels. “We won our heat race and then when on to the Dash, and honestly, didn’t feel great. We slowly worked our way up there in the feature. I don’t know what happened to Tasker, but we got to third there. I thought it was a long shot to go to the bottom of one and two, but we got to second (with the pass of Thomas). I pulled the wing back and drove through the middle and almost got there. We’ve done this twice (finishing second) and hard work will pay off eventually.”
“It was definitely a long race, starting out with a couple of reds,” said Martin. “We kind of hung on to what we could. The car wasn’t 100%, and I knew I made a few mistakes. Just things we can work on in the future, and we should come back even faster. Overall, we’re happy with a third place, the second best finish of the year. We’re still hunting for that first win of the year.”
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 7s, Sawyer Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (4) 2. 57, Cam Sorrels, Hallsville, MO (3) 3. 4, Cam Martin, Ankeny, IA (5) 4. 40, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (18) 5. 24, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA (12) 6. 23, Devon Dobie, Wapakoneta, OH (9) 7. 16, Dustin Clark, Agency, IA (6) 8. 5A, Alex Vande Voort, Knoxville, IA (7) 9. 20I, Kelsey Ivy, Fremont, OH (13) 10. 88, Riley Scott, Quincy, IL (16) 11. 9L, Lincoln Martin, Monmouth, IL (8) 12. 63, Jack Thomas, Bates City, MO (1) 13. 33, Alan Zoutte, Knoxville, IA (21) 14. 11x, Kaden Alexander, Knoxville, IA (11) 15. 1TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (2) 16. 77, Bret Klabunde, Fort Calhoun, NE (14) 17. 49, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (19) 18. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (10) 19. 31, McCain Richards, Burlington, IA (15) 20. 77x, John Klabunde, Fort Calhoun, NE (17) 21. 59, Evan Semerad, Malcolm, NE (20).
