Post by buddhaofdirt on Jul 28, 2009 19:35:59 GMT -4
World of Outlaws Late Model Series News & Notes: Wrapping Up Ohio Speedweek
CONCORD, NC - July 27, 2009 -
FAMILY AFFAIR: Tim Fuller's convincing victory in Saturday night's ‘Buckeye Bash' at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, meant more to him than the end of his year-long, 46-race winless streak on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
It happened to mark the first time that his wife Lori and four-year-old daughter Ainsley had an opportunity to celebrate a dirt Late Model triumph with him.
The five previous wins in Fuller's three years as a steady dirt Late Model driver – including the three career WoO LMS A-Mains he captured over the two seasons in the far-off locales of North Dakota and Wyoming – came with his family not in attendance. But both of his girls were at Sharon and met him in Victory Lane.
“They've been there when I won (DIRTcar big-block) Modified races, but they never saw me win a Late Model show,” said Fuller. “It feels great to finally win one of these things with them here. Now I don't have to just tell them about it.”
Fuller, whose $10,600 victory came less than one week after he pocketed $6,000 for finishing second in the inaugural DIRTcar Racing All-Star 100 for big-block Modifieds on July 19 at Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y., started off Ohio Speedweek with an eventful outing the previous night at Attica Raceway Park. He used a provisional to start 24th in Attica's A-Main after relinquishing the lead on the final lap of the first B-Main because his car's starter broke bolt off and caused a vibration that busted the driveshaft. Quick work by his crew got him to the starting line with the same machine and he planted it in the outside groove to charge forward for a satisfying seventh-place finish.
WHAT A PRESENT: Steve Shaver also enjoyed a special family moment after winning his first-ever WoO LMS A-Main on Friday night at Attica.
“Today is my son's birthday,” Shaver told WoO LMS announcer Rick Eshelman after emerging from his car in Victory Lane. “So happy birthday!”
Shaver then hugged his eight-year-boy Dylan, who said to his dear old dad, “Nice present!”
“He asked me if I was gonna win for him tonight because it was his birthday,” Shaver said of his son. “I told him I was gonna do my best. I'm glad I was able to get it done for him.”
Buoyed by his strong run at Attica, Shaver was itching to continue on the Ohio Speedweek trail to Saturday night's stop at Sharon. But the 45-year-old had to bypass the event because he was committed to attending a high school reunion back in West Virginia.
WHAT A GUY: WoO LMS veteran Clint Smith proved he's a class act during Saturday night's show at Sharon.
Despite experiencing a frustrating evening that saw him plagued by a sour-running motor, Smith didn't flinch when Iowa's Jill George approached him just minutes before the start of the A-Main and asked if she could take the green flag in his backup car. Smith had his chief mechanic, Darrell (‘Don Vito') Cooper, hastily pull out the second machine for George, who was scheduled to start 24th in the 50-lapper (track officials decided to put all 26 entered cars in the A-Main) but was without a ride after her car was sidelined by terminal mechanical trouble during heat action.
“I can't thank Clint enough for letting me start the race in his car,” said George, who became the first female to qualify for a WoO LMS A-Main through a heat race on July 16 at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D. “When I walked over to him he put his arm around me and said, ‘What can I do for you?' I asked him if I could take his backup car out for a lap and he just said, ‘Sure.'”
“She needed some help,” Smith said of George. “I've needed help before, so I helped her out.”
George was credited with a 26th-place finish, while Smith struggled to a 16th-place run.
OUCH: Darrell Lanigan was so focused on trying to win Saturday night's A-Main at Sharon, it took him awhile to realize that he had a problem with his left hand.
“A rock came up off the track and hit my (middle) finger about lap 10,” said Lanigan, the defending WoO LMS champion. “I didn't realize my finger was bleeding until I started feeling some blood on the steering wheel.”
Lanigan, who was not wearing driving gloves, ran the remainder of the distance with his finger bleeding from a cut. He held his bloodied hand out the window of his car during a caution period to show his crew that he had been injured; later, after Lanigan climbed out of the machine following a second-place finish, blood was visible splattered throughout his thingypit (and a chunk of his car's rock-guard was missing where it was hit by the rock).
“It's O.K.,” Lanigan said of his finger, which he wrapped with a bandage in his hauler after the race. “It's no big deal.”
Lanigan had another interesting experience during the A-Main. When the race's first caution flag flew, on lap 29, he was running second but mistakenly thought he was in the lead. He had to be directed during the caution period to catch up to the pace car and leader Fuller, who had been ahead by nearly a half-lap.
“I saw a 19 (Fuller) up on the scoreboard as the leader, but I had just passed a 19 (Steve Francis) and I thought that maybe they hadn't changed the board yet,” said Lanigan. “Fuller was so far ahead I couldn't even see him.”
NECK-AND-NECK: Following an Ohio Speedweek that saw two races completed (Attica and Sharon) and two shows postponed by rain during qualifying (Thursday's show at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio, was rescheduled for Aug. 20 and Sunday's program at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., was reset for Aug. 23), the battle for the WoO LMS points lead is nearly a three-man dead-heat.
Josh Richards (fourth at Attica, fifth at Sharon) headed into the tour's two-and-a-half-week break leading the standings by a mere two points – over both Lanigan (third at Attica, second at Sharon) and Steve Francis (second at Attica, third at Sharon), who are tied for second.
HOME TURF: The place to be following Saturday night's show at Sharon was Russell King's hauler, where a big crowd of the WoO LMS Rookie of the Year contender's family and friends gathered to spend some rare time with their favorite long-distance traveler.
The 20-year-old King won his first career big-block Modified feature in 2005 at Sharon, which sits less than a 20-minute drive from his family-owned team's shop in Bristolville, Ohio. Thus he had been anxiously awaiting the tour's stop at his hometrack after traipsing all over the country since February.
King wasn't satisfied with his performance, but his 14th-place finish did earn him the $250 bonus for being the event's highest-finishing WoO LMS rookie contender. He also extended his lead in the Rookie of the Year standings to 20 points over Jordan Bland of Campbellsville, Ky.
Joining King at Sharon were his father, Rex Sr., and younger brother Rex Jr. (‘Cooter'), both of whom didn't expect to attend Saturday's show. King's father and sibling are big-block Modified regulars and were scheduled to compete in a BRP Modified Tour event on Saturday night at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va., but the card was canceled by rain early in the afternoon when they were just 20 minutes away from the track. Rex Sr. turned the King Bros. Racing Modified hauler around and drove it straight to Sharon, pulling into the pit area shortly before hot laps began.
WHERE'S THE EXIT?: Brent Robinson's excellent adventure as a WoO LMS rookie took another interesting ‘turn' after Friday night's program at Attica.
With the track lights turned off, Robinson's father, Dean, had a tough time driving the team's hauler out of the pit area. He ended up following the cinder horse track that rings the one-third-mile oval rather than going through the pit exit off turn three – a mistake he realized when he looked to his left while driving the opposite direction on the cinder track's backstretch and saw a wall and fence. The mistake was compounded when he reached the cinder track's homestretch and had to stop because a wire was hanging too low for him to pass through with his rig.
After a track worker got the wire out of the way, Mr. Robinson was able to complete his lap of the horse track and exit the pit area properly.
COMING CLOSE: Brady Smith knows that if he just keeps knocking on the door to Victory Lane, he'll eventually break it down.
But that doesn't make it any easier for the impressive first-year WoO LMS regular from Solon Springs, Wis., to accept the fact that he remains winless on the 2009 tour. He craves a win – and he's arguably been fast enough to capture two of the last three races, including Friday night's 50-lapper at Attica.
Coming off a crushing disappointment in the Wild West Tour finale on July 16 at Dakota State Fair Speedway (Smith was making a stirring outside charge to the front when contact with Fuller forced him to pit with a left-rear flat as he ran third with 11 laps remaining), the talented Outlaw newcomer made another exciting come-from-behind bid for victory at Attica. He advanced from the 17th starting spot to a fifth-place finish; he thought he could've pulled off a win “if the race was 10 more laps.”
Smith conceded that his car wasn't fast enough to win on Saturday at Sharon, but he was headed to a probable fourth-place finish when its rearend broke with eight laps remaining. He was in line for his 12th top-five of the season – a number exceeded by only the top-three drivers in the points standings.
ETCETERA:
* Former WoO LMS champ Tim McCreadie debuted a new Sweeteners Plus Rocket car at Attica, but he experienced a rough night. He had to make a charge to transfer through a B-Main after being hit by a flat right-rear tire in heat action, and he finished 20th in the A-Main after retiring on lap 27 when he decided that his lap-17 tire change wasn't helping his cause.
McCreadie came back to finish fourth at Sharon, where his teammate, Vic Coffey, entered his first WoO LMS event in a month. Coffey had a forgettable evening, pulling up powerless in a heat race while running second due to a battery malfunction and then exiting the A-Main early after noticing his car's oil-pressure light popping on way too much.
* Chub Frank entered Ohio Speedweek coming off his first win in over a year – an O'Reilly All-Star Late Model Series event on July 18 at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway – but the momentum didn't help him at Attica or Sharon. He had to use a provisional to start the A-Main at Attica after a B-Main scrape sent him into the turn-four wall (he salvaged a 13th-place finish), and he finished a quiet 11th at Sharon.
* Frank's cousin and former chief mechanic, All-Star Late Model Series points leader Rick ‘Boom' Briggs, enjoyed his best WoO LMS outing ever at Sharon. His finish of sixth earned the $500 ‘Bonus Bucks' cash that goes to the highest-finishing driver who has never won a tour A-Main and isn't ranked among the top 12 in the series points standings.
Briggs spent the final laps of the race in a battle for the ‘Bonus Bucks' with Matt Lux of Franklin, Pa., who settled for seventh place after being passing by Briggs on lap 45. Lux was very satisfied with his strong run, however; it was his first top 10 in 13 WoO LMS starts this season.
* Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, Pa. – a potential WoO LMS Rookie of the Year applicant in 2010 – made everyone take notice of his talent at Attica and Sharon. While he didn't lead any laps after starting both A-Mains from the pole position, he finished a respectable eighth at Attica and ran second at Sharon until his car's handling became hampered by a broken nosepiece brace that finally forced him to pit for repairs on lap 36.
“I was pretty excited to be second for half the race (at Sharon),” said the 24-year-old Satterlee, who rallied to finish 13th. “I think we're getting closer. Running these Outlaw races (he's made nine starts this season) is helping us.”
* Sunday night's rainout at Eriez Speedway came after some truly unusual weather. The track dodged waves of thunderstorms that continually rolled through the area, but with just two cars left to time-trial a cloudburst soaked the track and ultimately led to the event's postponement.
What was so unique about the downpour was that the sun shined through most of it, creating a brilliant rainbow that at one point appeared to arc from the pit area to the middle of the infield.
NEXT UP: The WoO LMS will be until making a three-race swing in the Northeast from Aug. 13-15. Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pa., leads off the tripleheader with its first-ever tour event on Thurs., Aug. 13, followed by stops on Fri., Aug. 14, at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway and Sat., Aug. 15, at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Crane Cams (Official Valvetrain), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Fusion Energy Boost (Official Energy Boost), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser) and VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors Champ Pans, Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tires, Integra Shocks, Jake's Custom Golf Carts, Ohlins Shocks, Racing Electronics, Quarter Master and Wrisco Aluminum; Crane Cams Engine Builder's Challenge participants Cornett Racing Engines, Custom Race Engines and Pro Power Racing Engines; and Chassis Builder Challenge participants Rocket Chassis and Team Zero by Bloomquist.
CONCORD, NC - July 27, 2009 -
FAMILY AFFAIR: Tim Fuller's convincing victory in Saturday night's ‘Buckeye Bash' at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, meant more to him than the end of his year-long, 46-race winless streak on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
It happened to mark the first time that his wife Lori and four-year-old daughter Ainsley had an opportunity to celebrate a dirt Late Model triumph with him.
The five previous wins in Fuller's three years as a steady dirt Late Model driver – including the three career WoO LMS A-Mains he captured over the two seasons in the far-off locales of North Dakota and Wyoming – came with his family not in attendance. But both of his girls were at Sharon and met him in Victory Lane.
“They've been there when I won (DIRTcar big-block) Modified races, but they never saw me win a Late Model show,” said Fuller. “It feels great to finally win one of these things with them here. Now I don't have to just tell them about it.”
Fuller, whose $10,600 victory came less than one week after he pocketed $6,000 for finishing second in the inaugural DIRTcar Racing All-Star 100 for big-block Modifieds on July 19 at Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y., started off Ohio Speedweek with an eventful outing the previous night at Attica Raceway Park. He used a provisional to start 24th in Attica's A-Main after relinquishing the lead on the final lap of the first B-Main because his car's starter broke bolt off and caused a vibration that busted the driveshaft. Quick work by his crew got him to the starting line with the same machine and he planted it in the outside groove to charge forward for a satisfying seventh-place finish.
WHAT A PRESENT: Steve Shaver also enjoyed a special family moment after winning his first-ever WoO LMS A-Main on Friday night at Attica.
“Today is my son's birthday,” Shaver told WoO LMS announcer Rick Eshelman after emerging from his car in Victory Lane. “So happy birthday!”
Shaver then hugged his eight-year-boy Dylan, who said to his dear old dad, “Nice present!”
“He asked me if I was gonna win for him tonight because it was his birthday,” Shaver said of his son. “I told him I was gonna do my best. I'm glad I was able to get it done for him.”
Buoyed by his strong run at Attica, Shaver was itching to continue on the Ohio Speedweek trail to Saturday night's stop at Sharon. But the 45-year-old had to bypass the event because he was committed to attending a high school reunion back in West Virginia.
WHAT A GUY: WoO LMS veteran Clint Smith proved he's a class act during Saturday night's show at Sharon.
Despite experiencing a frustrating evening that saw him plagued by a sour-running motor, Smith didn't flinch when Iowa's Jill George approached him just minutes before the start of the A-Main and asked if she could take the green flag in his backup car. Smith had his chief mechanic, Darrell (‘Don Vito') Cooper, hastily pull out the second machine for George, who was scheduled to start 24th in the 50-lapper (track officials decided to put all 26 entered cars in the A-Main) but was without a ride after her car was sidelined by terminal mechanical trouble during heat action.
“I can't thank Clint enough for letting me start the race in his car,” said George, who became the first female to qualify for a WoO LMS A-Main through a heat race on July 16 at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D. “When I walked over to him he put his arm around me and said, ‘What can I do for you?' I asked him if I could take his backup car out for a lap and he just said, ‘Sure.'”
“She needed some help,” Smith said of George. “I've needed help before, so I helped her out.”
George was credited with a 26th-place finish, while Smith struggled to a 16th-place run.
OUCH: Darrell Lanigan was so focused on trying to win Saturday night's A-Main at Sharon, it took him awhile to realize that he had a problem with his left hand.
“A rock came up off the track and hit my (middle) finger about lap 10,” said Lanigan, the defending WoO LMS champion. “I didn't realize my finger was bleeding until I started feeling some blood on the steering wheel.”
Lanigan, who was not wearing driving gloves, ran the remainder of the distance with his finger bleeding from a cut. He held his bloodied hand out the window of his car during a caution period to show his crew that he had been injured; later, after Lanigan climbed out of the machine following a second-place finish, blood was visible splattered throughout his thingypit (and a chunk of his car's rock-guard was missing where it was hit by the rock).
“It's O.K.,” Lanigan said of his finger, which he wrapped with a bandage in his hauler after the race. “It's no big deal.”
Lanigan had another interesting experience during the A-Main. When the race's first caution flag flew, on lap 29, he was running second but mistakenly thought he was in the lead. He had to be directed during the caution period to catch up to the pace car and leader Fuller, who had been ahead by nearly a half-lap.
“I saw a 19 (Fuller) up on the scoreboard as the leader, but I had just passed a 19 (Steve Francis) and I thought that maybe they hadn't changed the board yet,” said Lanigan. “Fuller was so far ahead I couldn't even see him.”
NECK-AND-NECK: Following an Ohio Speedweek that saw two races completed (Attica and Sharon) and two shows postponed by rain during qualifying (Thursday's show at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio, was rescheduled for Aug. 20 and Sunday's program at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., was reset for Aug. 23), the battle for the WoO LMS points lead is nearly a three-man dead-heat.
Josh Richards (fourth at Attica, fifth at Sharon) headed into the tour's two-and-a-half-week break leading the standings by a mere two points – over both Lanigan (third at Attica, second at Sharon) and Steve Francis (second at Attica, third at Sharon), who are tied for second.
HOME TURF: The place to be following Saturday night's show at Sharon was Russell King's hauler, where a big crowd of the WoO LMS Rookie of the Year contender's family and friends gathered to spend some rare time with their favorite long-distance traveler.
The 20-year-old King won his first career big-block Modified feature in 2005 at Sharon, which sits less than a 20-minute drive from his family-owned team's shop in Bristolville, Ohio. Thus he had been anxiously awaiting the tour's stop at his hometrack after traipsing all over the country since February.
King wasn't satisfied with his performance, but his 14th-place finish did earn him the $250 bonus for being the event's highest-finishing WoO LMS rookie contender. He also extended his lead in the Rookie of the Year standings to 20 points over Jordan Bland of Campbellsville, Ky.
Joining King at Sharon were his father, Rex Sr., and younger brother Rex Jr. (‘Cooter'), both of whom didn't expect to attend Saturday's show. King's father and sibling are big-block Modified regulars and were scheduled to compete in a BRP Modified Tour event on Saturday night at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va., but the card was canceled by rain early in the afternoon when they were just 20 minutes away from the track. Rex Sr. turned the King Bros. Racing Modified hauler around and drove it straight to Sharon, pulling into the pit area shortly before hot laps began.
WHERE'S THE EXIT?: Brent Robinson's excellent adventure as a WoO LMS rookie took another interesting ‘turn' after Friday night's program at Attica.
With the track lights turned off, Robinson's father, Dean, had a tough time driving the team's hauler out of the pit area. He ended up following the cinder horse track that rings the one-third-mile oval rather than going through the pit exit off turn three – a mistake he realized when he looked to his left while driving the opposite direction on the cinder track's backstretch and saw a wall and fence. The mistake was compounded when he reached the cinder track's homestretch and had to stop because a wire was hanging too low for him to pass through with his rig.
After a track worker got the wire out of the way, Mr. Robinson was able to complete his lap of the horse track and exit the pit area properly.
COMING CLOSE: Brady Smith knows that if he just keeps knocking on the door to Victory Lane, he'll eventually break it down.
But that doesn't make it any easier for the impressive first-year WoO LMS regular from Solon Springs, Wis., to accept the fact that he remains winless on the 2009 tour. He craves a win – and he's arguably been fast enough to capture two of the last three races, including Friday night's 50-lapper at Attica.
Coming off a crushing disappointment in the Wild West Tour finale on July 16 at Dakota State Fair Speedway (Smith was making a stirring outside charge to the front when contact with Fuller forced him to pit with a left-rear flat as he ran third with 11 laps remaining), the talented Outlaw newcomer made another exciting come-from-behind bid for victory at Attica. He advanced from the 17th starting spot to a fifth-place finish; he thought he could've pulled off a win “if the race was 10 more laps.”
Smith conceded that his car wasn't fast enough to win on Saturday at Sharon, but he was headed to a probable fourth-place finish when its rearend broke with eight laps remaining. He was in line for his 12th top-five of the season – a number exceeded by only the top-three drivers in the points standings.
ETCETERA:
* Former WoO LMS champ Tim McCreadie debuted a new Sweeteners Plus Rocket car at Attica, but he experienced a rough night. He had to make a charge to transfer through a B-Main after being hit by a flat right-rear tire in heat action, and he finished 20th in the A-Main after retiring on lap 27 when he decided that his lap-17 tire change wasn't helping his cause.
McCreadie came back to finish fourth at Sharon, where his teammate, Vic Coffey, entered his first WoO LMS event in a month. Coffey had a forgettable evening, pulling up powerless in a heat race while running second due to a battery malfunction and then exiting the A-Main early after noticing his car's oil-pressure light popping on way too much.
* Chub Frank entered Ohio Speedweek coming off his first win in over a year – an O'Reilly All-Star Late Model Series event on July 18 at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway – but the momentum didn't help him at Attica or Sharon. He had to use a provisional to start the A-Main at Attica after a B-Main scrape sent him into the turn-four wall (he salvaged a 13th-place finish), and he finished a quiet 11th at Sharon.
* Frank's cousin and former chief mechanic, All-Star Late Model Series points leader Rick ‘Boom' Briggs, enjoyed his best WoO LMS outing ever at Sharon. His finish of sixth earned the $500 ‘Bonus Bucks' cash that goes to the highest-finishing driver who has never won a tour A-Main and isn't ranked among the top 12 in the series points standings.
Briggs spent the final laps of the race in a battle for the ‘Bonus Bucks' with Matt Lux of Franklin, Pa., who settled for seventh place after being passing by Briggs on lap 45. Lux was very satisfied with his strong run, however; it was his first top 10 in 13 WoO LMS starts this season.
* Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, Pa. – a potential WoO LMS Rookie of the Year applicant in 2010 – made everyone take notice of his talent at Attica and Sharon. While he didn't lead any laps after starting both A-Mains from the pole position, he finished a respectable eighth at Attica and ran second at Sharon until his car's handling became hampered by a broken nosepiece brace that finally forced him to pit for repairs on lap 36.
“I was pretty excited to be second for half the race (at Sharon),” said the 24-year-old Satterlee, who rallied to finish 13th. “I think we're getting closer. Running these Outlaw races (he's made nine starts this season) is helping us.”
* Sunday night's rainout at Eriez Speedway came after some truly unusual weather. The track dodged waves of thunderstorms that continually rolled through the area, but with just two cars left to time-trial a cloudburst soaked the track and ultimately led to the event's postponement.
What was so unique about the downpour was that the sun shined through most of it, creating a brilliant rainbow that at one point appeared to arc from the pit area to the middle of the infield.
NEXT UP: The WoO LMS will be until making a three-race swing in the Northeast from Aug. 13-15. Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pa., leads off the tripleheader with its first-ever tour event on Thurs., Aug. 13, followed by stops on Fri., Aug. 14, at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway and Sat., Aug. 15, at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Crane Cams (Official Valvetrain), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Fusion Energy Boost (Official Energy Boost), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser) and VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors Champ Pans, Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tires, Integra Shocks, Jake's Custom Golf Carts, Ohlins Shocks, Racing Electronics, Quarter Master and Wrisco Aluminum; Crane Cams Engine Builder's Challenge participants Cornett Racing Engines, Custom Race Engines and Pro Power Racing Engines; and Chassis Builder Challenge participants Rocket Chassis and Team Zero by Bloomquist.
