Winter heat Road Course Races

Race 4

Winter Heat 4 started out a bit rough. It was difficult to run in the tires because the track was wet most of the day. It was a tossup to throw rain tires on the car, or to stay with the race tires. We ended up on race tires for the day because the track eventually dried out. Again, my patience was growing smaller and smaller with people being incredibly stupid on the track, and I began to fall into my old ways of knocking bumpers off to make my way through the field. This paid off with a 4th place finish in the feature, and a neat photo sequence from the local photographer of me making it 4 wide on the start of one of the heat races....

Winter Heat Race 2 & 3

Race 2

The second race started out with getting run down in the grass by Pierce during the heat races again and again. My patience was zero with him from this point on for the rest of the season. I was forced to start 6th in the feature, ending up 5th fighting an ill handling car all day.
Race 3

The third race started out good with a heat win, and strong finish in the second heat putting me on the outside pole for the feature. It started to rain while sitting on the grid, and as the other teams scrambled for their rain tires, we decided to wait. They all didn't make it as we went out on the track soon after, all on race tires on a damp track. The pole sitter almost spun on the formation lap, throwing mud all over turn 2. This worked to my advantage in the first corner, but I fell to third by the time we got to the backstretch of the first lap behind Stroupe in Kyle Beattie's personal car... Somehow I was able to pass Stroupe on the outside, and begin to run down Kiser, who had stretched out a considerable lead. I ended up second, and just ran out of laps as the track dried.

Winter Heat 2008-2009 Stories Race 1

The winter heat series started out with three races on the oval, and five races on the road course. Originally, I thought that I would be better on the road course, so this was going to be a great season, and I was exactly right. After teaming up with Chris Rogers Motorsports for the season, our oval setup was perfected. This meant we were hopefully going to be strong at both tracks. We started out the season with a 7th place finish after getting mixed up with a couple of cars in the feature. This race was difficult because everything was put together at the last minute, and the decals for the car had not come in yet. We were forced to run with orange duct tape numbers, which didn't look too bad. Ended up losing a chunk out of the RF fender due to one of my teammates that decided to try to take out the entire field on the first lap of the feature.... Other than this, it was a good day considering I hadn't been in the car for a year and a half.

James Phipps finishes 3rd overall in WINTER HEAT 2008-2009 series....Full story coming soon....