TORC: Phil's Inc Bark River II summary

Phil's Inc. Sportsman Drivers Run Well at Bark River II
Steinhardt Wins, Ruppel Runner-Up, and Krieman Top-5

Evanston, IL - The three primary sponsored Phil's Inc. TORC Sportsman race teams returned to Bark River International Off-Road Raceway looking to build momentum as the season heads to Crandon for the final weekend of the series. Mark Steinhardt driving the #331 1600 Buggy and Eric Ruppel driving the #837 Ford F-150 Stock Truck are among the class leaders, and the #18 Super Buggy of Stephanie and Steve Krieman are looking to finish in the Top 3 in their class .

Mark Steinhardt took the win in Round 7, and a fifth place finish the following day. Saturday's Round 7 victory was a flag to flag win; while the competition got their revenge as "Steiny" could only muster a fifth place on Sunday. With only two rounds of racing left in the season Steinhardt and his Phil's Inc. BFGoodrich equipped Buggy has a 22-point lead over second place Mike Seefeldt.

Eric Ruppel started off the weekend with a less than stellar performance in his #837 Phil's Inc. Art Carr AMSOIL BFGoodrich Ford F-150 as Round 7 saw the 2008 class champion get pushed and spun around early in the race, only to finish eighth. On Sunday, Ruppel rebounded nicely with a runner up finish in Round 8. The podium finish put the white and blue Ford only one point behind the class leader, Don Demeny. In fact, the top four drivers in Stock Truck are only separated by six points.

The #18 Phil's Inc. Krieman Construction Bertils Super Buggy had a driver change. The past few years Stephanie Krieman has been behind the wheel, but for the first time in three years, her brother Steve, took over the controls. The results were a fourth place finish on Saturday and a fifth place finish on Sunday. Both days saw the yellow Super Buggy lead several laps before miscues allowed a few competitors to pass. This puts the brother/sister team fifth overall in the Super Buggy Championship points chase.

Congratulations also go out all the Phil's Inc. customers that competed in the Traxxas TORC Series presented by AMSOIL in Bark River on August 8-9.

-credit: phil's inc