It was cold outside, but things were heating up inside the Delta Plex Arena. The 1,100 fans that
attend this race watched some great side by side racing with lots of action in between. The fans
that came out to enjoy the tailgate party and the qualifying witnessed a new track record set.
Qualifying started out with Tim Phillips going out on the track and beating his current track
record of 7.955 to the new record of 7.953. All of the other times were much quicker from
previous weeks as well and then came Dave Sensiba in his newly painted yellow and blue WIP,
ALS Association number 46. Dave hit the track and on lap one and ran a 7.914 setting the new
track record and putting Dave in the A Main. The pill draw did not make it easy for Dave putting
him in 7th for the A Main.
The first race of the night was the C-Main and the pill draw put 14 year old Clay Sanders of
Joker Motorsports making his first Arena Racing appearance on the Pole. Clay started out
strong, but the 29 car of Aaron Langlois driving newly painted yellow Pennzoil car was coming
quickly. The racing was exciting with a lot of action and on lap 29 Dave Price in the number 35
Custom Transport car took over the lead of the 29 and the 3 car of Scott Swem followed suit by
taking over second. The race wrapped up with the Top four running nose to tail with Dave Price
taking the checkered flag.
The action does not stop in the Delta Plex. During the intermission the fans got to enjoy some
great racing by the High Speed tractors on the track for the first intermission and the Quarter
Scale R/C cars made their second appearance of the season.
The A-Main started out with the 84 of Jay Niewiek on the pole and Clayton Marvel driver of the
Waterworks number 1 car on the outside. It did not take long for the action to take off as
Clayton got out to an early lead with the Advance Automotive number 34 of Tim Phillips and
the Hooters number 7 car of Scott Phillips starting to make their way to the front on Lap 8. On
Lap 11 Tim Phillips took the lead. On Lap 14 Marvel and Scott Phillips got into each other
sending both of them to the back of the field. This put the Number 16 HS Die car of Kelsey
Steele in a great position as she took the lead on lap 16. On Lap 22 Scott Phillips got loose and
spun causing a restart. As the field was coming to a restart the leaders Tim Phillips and Kelsey
Steele came together causing the field to back up and the 1 car of Clayton Marvel took the
worst of it as he found himself upside down in turn 3. The 16 car was not able to finish and the
34 car was sent to the back of the pack. This made for some exciting racing to watch with Tim
Phillips trying to fight his way back through the field. This put Dave Sensiba in great position to
take his first A Main win of the season. Lap 22 started with Dave getting a commanding lead
and Phillips working his way toward the front as the laps were winding down. Phillips was
pushing hard to get around the number 18 Carpet Bonanza/Perfect Circle car driven by Mitch
Meppilink and the 84 of Niewiek and the caution came out on lap 42 bringing the half lap lead
back to zero for Sensiba and giving Phillips a shot to regain the lead. The green flag came out on
lap 42 and Niewiek jumped out to the lead and Sensiba fought back on lap 46 with Phillips
following him through and the race wrapped up with the Dave Sensiba taking his first A Main
race win of the season and Phillips keeping the points close taking second. Coming in to
tonight’s race Sensiba and Tim Phillips were tied for first in the point’s standings.
With the addition of two new drivers Arena Racing Grand Rapids brought back the last chance
race. This race gives all of the cars that did not qualify for the Top Dog Feature through the A or
C Main Races one last chance to be part of the big show. The 25 lap race started out with the
number 8 car of Megan Carpenter looking strong and leaving the 36 of Paul Brockie, the 5 of
Nick Bryne and 6 car of Brandon Hermiller fighting it out for the final three transfer spots. It was
a tight battle for second, third and fourth. On lap 15 the 6 car made his move to take over the
third spot of Bryne and started to run down the 36 car for second, but he just ran out of time.
The winner of the Last chance race and her first time at the track was the number 8 of Megan
Carpenter. Megan has raced a variety of different cars at her young age and thought she would
try her luck in Arena Racing. Megan took advantage of the practice time earlier in the week and
found herself upside down and working hard to figure the car and the track out. In qualifying
Megan once again sent the car upside down putting her into the C-Main and missing the chance
to advance by finishing eighth putting her into the Last Chance race. Megan and her crew
worked hard to get the car dialed in and giving her a chance to compete in her first ever Top
Dog Feature. Megan will be one that you will want to come out and watch the progress of
during the year.
The last race of the evening and the feature was the Top Dog Race. Dave Sensiba has won all of
the Top Dog races in the 2010 season and is looking for the Turkey. This would be fitting as this
is the Thanksgiving Day weekend.
The cars line up with the Percor Manufacturing number 19 of Katey Nieymeyer on the pole and
the Number 7 of Scott Phillips on the outside. The green flag flies and the drivers get ready to
run fifty laps around the 1/10th mile track. Katey gets out front and holds of the 18 of Meppilink
and the 34 of Tim Phillips for the first 12 laps until Clay Sanders, Brandon Hermiller and Megan
Carpenter get into each other right in front of Katey as she was coming up to the tail of the
field. Lap 12 restarted with Katey out front once again and on lap 15 the 18 car of Mitch
Meppelink ran her down and took over the lead with Tim Phillips and Dave Sensiba right on his
tail. On Lap 25 the caution came out with the 29 spinning right in front of the leaders, but they
all got through safely. On lap 25 the 18 of Meppilink is still the leader and the double file restart
put the 46 of Sensiba to the outside and Niewiek and Phillips in the second row. This made for
an exciting finish of the Top Dog race. Rick Beebe dropped the green flag and that Top Line for
Sensiba looked to be the fast line. Sensiba was able to make the pass to take the lead on lap 26
leaving a very tight race for second between Meppilink, Phillips, and Niewiek. The caution came
out at lap 40 and the leaders hit the brakes and the 34 of Phillips got into the back of the 84 of
Niewiek as they were all trying to avoid the wreck and Niewiek found himself upside down. The
safety crew got him put back on his wheels quickly and they lined up for the 10 lap shootout
with Sensiba in the lead. Sensiba once again takes the Top Side with Meppilink on the bottom.
Sensiba got out front and 18 followed in line leaving Niewiek and Phillips fighting it out for 3rd.
Phillips was working hard to pass on the top side and then the bottom and they came to the
finish with Niewiek taking third by the nose of the car.
The field rounded out with Katey Nieymeyer in fifth, Scott Phillips in sixth, Scott Swem in
Seventh, Brandon Hermiller eighth, Clay Sanders in ninth, Aaron Langlois in Tenth, Megan
Carpenter in eleventh, Nick Bryne in twelfth, Dave Price in thirteenth, and Paul Brockie in
fourteenth.
If you missed the action this weekend Arena Racing will be back on track December 11th at the
Delta Plex at 7:30pm.