Rager Phillips has Successful Florida Trip!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
(Bill W) Pleasantville, Iowa's Rager Phillips took his Spring Break a little early this year. Rager is a sophomore at Iowa State University, but took last week off for his first love...racing! Rager headed to Volusia Speedway to compete against the best in the business for six straight nights of All Star Circuit of Champions and World of Outlaws racing.
Though he didn't make one of the feature events, he enjoyed his time in Florida, and did a lot of testing and tuning. "I enjoyed the 70-80 degree weather, that's for sure!" says the 19 year old driver. "We had some motor problems. The first night we only got three laps in. We got our own motor put in and ran pretty well the last five nights. The competition there was as tough as it is anywhere. A couple of tenths of a second were about 20 spots in qualifying, and that hurt us."
The B main on Saturday night saw a great run by Phillips. He drove by veteran Randy Hannagan and Terry McCarl to secure the last transfer to the A. McCarl came back and Rager slid him for the spot on the final lap. Unfortunately, Brian Paulus was running the low side and passed both of them. A last ditch effort in turn four saw Rager fall a half a car length from a transfer to the main event. "That was the best I've felt in the car," he says. "We got it right. I was able to drive wherever I wanted to. I had the transfer wrapped up until the final corner of the last lap. Those guys have a lot more laps than I do right now."
The performance was not lost on some of the World of Outlaws. "We got to meet quite a few people," says Rager. "Chad Kemenah and Craig Dollansky made a point to come and tell me I was doing a good job. I've never even seen Chad before, other than on the track. He's a really nice guy."
All in all, it gave Rager a bit of a jump on the Knoxville competition heading into 2008. He's looking to improve on his 15th place performance in the 2007 410 Knoxville standings. "It's the first time I've ever driven outside of Iowa with the 410," he says. "We tried a whole bunch of different setups, stuff that I've never tried before. I just had a great time with my dad and my brother-in-law."
Ricky Logan
Ricky Logan won his 8th feature in New Zealand last week. Read about it in our "Driver News" section!
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