BEAR LAKE, PA – May 9, 2012 – Chub Frank experienced a fairly enjoyable four-race swing through the Southeast with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
Two podium finishes, three top-10 runs and a two-spot jump to third in the national tour’s points standings – yes, the 50-year-old veteran headed home to Bear Lake, Pa., quite satisfied with his performance.
“Other than going to Tennessee, it was a pretty good trip for us,” said Frank, whose only subpar outing was a 17th-place finish in the ‘Outlaw Sizzler 50’ on April 28 at the Volunteer State’s high-banked Tazewell Speedway. “We would’ve liked to get a win, sure, but we’ll take the kinds of runs we had.”
Those runs were highlighted by a season-high finish of second in the ‘Pine Tree 50’ on May 5 at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway and a rock-solid third-place performance in the 50-lap A-Main on April 27 at North Alabama Speedway in Tuscumbia. He also registered an eighth-place finish in the 50-lap headliner on May 4 at 311 Motor Speedway in Pine Hall, N.C., after using a points provisional to start 23rd.
Frank came closest to ending his frustrating two-year-plus winless streak on the WoO LMS in the swing’s finale at Swainsboro, a three-eighths-mile, red-clay oval where he recorded a runner-up finish for the second career year. He steadily marched forward from the 12th starting spot in his Corry Rubber/Hino Toyota/Horton Equipment Rocket No. 1*, finally reaching the second position behind winner Chris Madden with a lap-46 restart pass of Darrell Lanigan.
“We pretty much just ran the same setup we ran last year even though we ran a different type of car,” said Frank, who is closing in on his first WoO LMS win since August 2009. “It was still good, but we just needed a little bit more. Once we got to second we didn’t have anything for Madden – he was definitely harder on tire than we were – but we’re happy. We’re gonna win one of these things pretty soon.”
Frank made a serious run at Victory Lane in the North Alabama event. After timing third-fastest in qualifying and finishing second in a heat race, he quickly hustled his machine up to second behind eventual winner Brad Neat and appeared primed to challenge for the lead when Neat reached lapped traffic midway through the A-Main. But a series of caution flags dulled Frank’s momentum and got him involved in several restart scrapes that bent up his car’s front end and forced him to be satisfied with a third-place finish.
“We had a pretty good car,” said Frank, who lost second to Rick Eckert on lap 44. “Our problem was the restarts. We kept getting double-file restarts and kept getting run over. One time we got run into the wall and got the front end bent, so we were pretty much holding on at the end.”
After a disappointing night at Tazewell – he timed 20th fastest and never recovered on a track surface that produced little passing – he failed to qualify through a heat or B-Main at 311 Motor Speedway but salvaged a decent eighth-place finish in the WoO LMS’s inaugural event at the half-mile oval.
“We had some good luck,” Frank said of his 311 performance. “A bunch of them guys all wrecked in front of us and we missed most of that, so ended up with a good finish. After the way we started the night (timing 22nd-fastest), I’ll take a top 10.”
Frank entered the stretch of racing ranked fifth in the WoO LMS points standings but ended it sitting third, 132 points behind leader Lanigan. It’s the first time he’s been third in the points race since July 21, 2008, after the 26th race of that season.
With the WoO LMS idle until a Memorial Day weekend tripleheader, Frank plans to enter a weekly DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned show this Friday night (May 11) at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. He also might race somewhere in the area on Saturday evening (May 12).
For more information on Chub Frank, visit his Web site at www.chubfrank.com.
Chub Frank Racing receives support from many valued sponsors, including Corry Rubber, Lake Shore Paving, Hino Toyota, Sorbera Family Chiropractic, Horton Equipment, All-Star Performance, Slavic Corporation, GW Performance, Integra Shocks, Hoosier Tire and Roush-Yates Racing Engines.