Derrick Backus Leads All but One Lap to Win Dion Parish Memorial at Kalamazoo Speedway
December 4, 2018 – Kalamazoo, MI…In a race that went green to checker, Derrick Backus held the lead nearly from the drop of the green flag, and won the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), 15th Annual Dion Parish Memorial at Kalamazoo Speedway. Keith Powell reeled Backus in with 15 laps to go but couldn’t get by the Mexico, NY firefighter. Powell finished second, while Rob Warren held off multiple charges by Steve Callahan and Bob Gangwer to come home third.
Derrick Backus ran a perfect race to win the 15th Annual Dion Parish Memorial at Kalamazoo Speedway. (Victory Lane Art by BreezeGraphics.com).
Happy Backus
“I’m extremely happy, I never expected this,” exclaimed Backus after the exciting race. “I never really thought I had a shot, I don’t know if I’ve ever even run this track before.”
“To win one of these memorial races, especially the Dion is huge,” he said. “Coming into tonight I never really expected this, so this is really exciting.”
Hard Work, Good Luck
Backus qualified fastest and was nearly into the 10.2 second range. After the redraw he found himself on the pole position, but explained he had to do some work prior to the start of the feature and couldn’t just rely on his lucky draw. “I found a good qualifying car, then did a few fuel runs,” he began. “Then I took a bunch of gear out and wanted to protect the tires.”
His changes certainly helped because, while the rest of the field had a barn-burner of a race going on behind him, he was able to stretch the lead to over two seconds at some points early in the race. Backus said, “I could just ride around early on and it, (his supermodified), was just really neutral. 62 laps doesn’t seem like a lot here, but the momentum and the speed really chews up the tires.”
Former Winners Close In
While his early lead was nothing to sneeze at, towards the end of the race, four former winners of the race were trying to chase him down. “I saw the gap start to close up and I started to push a little more and the right front got a little hot,” stated Backus. Led by Keith Powell, who had the best shot of getting past Backus for the lead, Rob Warren, Steve Callahan and Bob Gangwer, all were pushing hard with less than 10 to go. “I didn’t honestly know until the end who was in second but I knew they were coming,” Backus said.
When the checkered flag flew, fifth place finishing Gangwer was less than five seconds behind the winner, and second place finishing Powell was practically pushing Backus across the finish line. Backus was fully aware of how narrow his margin of victory was in this important race saying simply, “At the end, they were all over me.”
Powell Runs Out of Time
Powell, who’s in a very heated battle for the SUPRS Gold Crest Championship XV was doing all he could to find a way past Backus at the end. After starting in fifth place, he spent much of the race trying to get around his arch rival in the championship, Rob Warren. The two battled tooth and nail and side by side before one small slip by Warren allowed Powell to power past and set off after Backus.”I needed more laps or maybe if I could have gotten into second sooner, I may have gotten him (Backus),” said Powell dejectedly. He then quickly changed his focus and in a good show of sportsmanship said, “Congrats to Derrick, I think it’s his first one and that’s a big deal.”
The Icings on Top sponsored racer explained that it was more than just points he was after. “I love this race. It’s important to SUPRS, but to me too. I really wanted this one. I really wanted to win it for my dad’s birthday. I’ll take a second and go get them next week.” For his efforts though, Powell received 10 bonus points for being the SUPRSCharger after moving up three places from where he started.
Christmas Special Next
The SUPRS racers will be back in action for the last time in December next Tuesday December 11 for the running of the 15th Christmas Special at Rander Speedway. The highest finishing SUPRS Gold Crest Division member receives a Burgers’ Smokehouse Ozark Country Ham delivered to their doorstep in time for Christmas dinner. Full details can be found on the SUPRS schedule page. Make sure to tune in on race night for live streaming video, timing and scoring along with stats and track telemetry via the SUPRS LIVE! page starting at 9:00pm est.
Get Social with SUPRS
Fans can learn more about the original and oldest online supermodified sim sanction, the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, when they visit www.SUPRS.net. Join SUPRS active and vibrant Social Media channels by “Liking” SUPRS on Facebook, Circling SUPRS on Google+, Following @SUPRSOnline on Twitter, and viewing SUPRS videos on YouTube.
SUPRS RACE RESULTS:
15th Annual Dion Parish Memorial
- Race 15 of 46
- December 4, 2018
- SUPRS rFactor W v7.3 mod
- Kalamazoo Speedway
- Kalamazoo Speedway
Time Trials (showing car number, driver name, hometown, sponsors, lap 1, lap 2-best lap underlined)
- 61-Derrick Backus; Mexico, NY; Disturbed Motorsports: 10.300, 10.307
- 55-Steve Callahan; Cuyahoga Falls, OH; Exide Battery, CPR Motorsports: 10.339, 10.398
- 41-Keith Powell; Carrollton, OH; Icings on Top, CPR Motorsports: 10.453, 10.356
- 25-Bob Gangwer; Goshen, IN; RW Woodworking, B&G Racing Photos: 10.487, 10.414
- 35-Rob Warren; Pulaski, NY; 1st to Finish Race Servers, Designs of Elegance: 10.446, 10.469
- 7-Nelson Rodrigues; Stoneham, MA; Star Speedway: 10.788, 10.483
- 3-Brad Keysor; Liverpool, NY; Southern Hills Storm Football, Justice League: 10.589, 10.663
- 38-Kyle Clark; Mexico, NY; Walker’s Cleaners & Tuxedo Rental, Disturbed Motorsports: 10.891, 10.712
Feature-62Laps (showing car number, driver, name, bonus, starting place, fastest lap, distance behind winner)
- 61-Derric Backus: * | ** | P1 |
- 41-Keith Powell: ^ | ! | P5 | | +0.187
- 35-Rob Warren: * | P2 | | +4.211
- 55-Steve Callahan: P6 | | +4.394
- 25-Bob Gangwer: P7 | | +4.604
- 3-Brad Keysor: P8 | | +4.88
- 7-Nelson Rodrigues: P3 | | +9.929
- 38-Kyle Clark: P4 | | DNF (pulled off) +6 Laps
Time of Race: 11:04.773
- * Denotes Lap Led
- ** Denotes Most Laps Led
- ! Denotes Fastest Lap of Race
- ^ Denotes SUPRSCharger
Race Notes:
- Derrick Backus led a total of 61 green flag laps
- Rob Warren led one green flag lap
- Keith Powell advanced the most positions at three
- Keith Powell had the fastest lap of the race at 10.391 seconds
- Rob Warren had the top speed of the race of 137.944 mph
- Derrick Backus had the best lap consistency of the race at 99.12%
- There were no cautions
- Keith Powell, Rob Warren, Brad Keysor, and Kyle Clark had the least amount of incidents at zero
- Nelson Rodrigues had the most incidents at 7
