Phippen meets challenge> Bar Harbor driver holds on to win Dodge Dealers 100

HERMON – The talk among the drivers and spectators at Speedway 95 Sunday centered around the racetrack’s newly paved outside lane and 7-degree banked corners.

The reviews of the improved racing surface were excellent, but John Phippen Jr. preferred to stay on the inside “groove.” Phippen took the lead at the start and held it for 99 laps while speeding to a slim, 1 1/2-car-length victory in the Maine Dodge Dealers’ 100.

Phippen, a 15-year racing veteran from Bar Harbor, withstood a challenge by Jon Austin of Otis. Austin rode the new outside edge often, but could not get by Phippen, who earned a $2,000 first-place check with his first victory of 1995.

Chuck LaChance of Cushing, who took the lead briefly on lap 39, placed third. Harrington’s Dave McLaughlin wound up fourth in the 14-car field.

“Actually, I wasn’t running out there, except for when I was passing cars,” Phippen joked when asked about the revamped track. “Jon Austin ran out there the whole time, at least when I was watching him, and he was doing pretty good.”

Austin, last year’s Speedway 95 Late Model Sportsman season points champ, had better luck on the high side of the track, but couldn’t solve Phippen.

“I gave it all I had,” Austin said. “I was just trying to catch him. The way the car went today, it feels just as good to me as if I’d won the race. It was perfect, but Johnny (Phippen) was perfect today, too.”

Phippen held on, despite blistering the severely worn tires on his No. 59 Buick Regal.

“The four (tires) that are on the car are the ones I’ve been racing,” Phippen explained. “They’ve got three weeks on them right now.”

Phippen never led by more than six car lengths, but faltered only once. LaChance, driving the 9x, slipped into the lead on the 38th lap after Jack Dyer tapped Phippen, then careened off the track.

That precipitated the first of only two yellow flags in the feature. On the restart, Phippen bolted back into the lead for good.

Phippen may not have had much rubber left on his tires at the end, but there was no question he had plenty of engine. That came as somewhat of a surprise, since the car had not been running well until a third-place finish Friday night at Wiscasset Speedway.

“It takes a while to get everything back up and going, and it looks like we’ve finally come back,” said Mike Allen, Phippen’s crew chief.

Things didn’t start out perfectly for the Phippen team. The car lost a rod 10 laps into the race, leaving him without first gear and reverse.

Otherwise, the car ran perfectly and Phippen used the experience that earned him five victories last year at Speedway 95 to claim his first win of the year.

Austin utilized the fresh asphalt on the outside groove.

“That’s where my car was working best. It was a little twitchy down low,” Austin said. “That racetrack is so much different now that they’ve got that pavement on the outside groove.”

Drivers and crew members believe the new Speedway 95 surface will enhance future racing there.

“Nobody wants to come and pay $15 to get in and watch a train go around because nobody can pass,” Allen said. “I think they did the right thing on the way they fixed it.

Sunday’s other Speedway 94 results

Limited Sportsman: Ken Robinson, East Machias; Mike Thomas, Brewer; Larry Smith, Steuben

Super Street: Bill Harnish, Winterport; Scott Modery, Stetson; Jim Carr Jr., Clifton

Strictly Street: Bruce Johnson, Old Town; Bernie Thayer, Levant; Jay Parks, Old Town

Sport Four: Jim Robichaud, Orrington; David Nason, Winterport; Keith Pierce, Bradford

Tiger: Lyndon Adams, Glenburn; Terry Bragg, Bangor; Earl Young, Glenburn