BEAR LAKE, PA – Aug. 8, 2013 – The busiest stretch of Chub Frank’s summer racing schedule is complete – and after grinding out some solid, if not spectacular, runs, the veteran driver from Bear Lake, Pa., ended the month-long stretch in better shape in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series points standings than when he began it.
From July 5 through Aug. 5, Frank entered nine WoO LMS events at eight tracks in five states and one Canadian province. He steered his second Corry Rubber/Lake Shore Paving/Sorbera Family Chiropractic/Hino Toyota Rocket No. 1* to a pair of top-five and four top-10 finishes and dropped out of just a single race, helping him move from 10th to the eighth in the national tour’s points standings.
“We had some flashes but we need to be better,” Frank said of his performance over the past month, which also included two top-five finishes in local dirt Late Model events between his WoO LMS excursions. “One car has been pretty good, but the other one we’re still working on. Qualifying is still our problem – we put ourselves in a hole too much.”
Frank’s best WoO LMS outings of the past month came during July’s Wild West Tour. He opened the swing on July 5 with a fourth-place finish in the 50-lap A-Main at Amsoil Speedway in Superior, Wis., and capped it with a fifth-place run on July 11 in another 50-lapper at Red River Co-op Speedway in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In between he scored finishes of 11th in the NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 on July 6 at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., and 12th in the Cowboy 50 on July 9 at Gillette (Wyo.) Thunder Speedway. (Scheduled Wild West Tour events on July 8 at Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City, S.D., and July 12 at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., were rained out.)
After a two-week break from WoO LMS action – during which he registered back-to-back fourth-place finishes on July 13-14 at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y., and Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., and enjoyed some needed R&R by taking a camping trip with family members – Frank closed July and opened the month of August with a five-race World of Outlaws swing through the Midwest.
Frank began the stretch of racing on July 27 with a 10th-place finish in the 24th annual 100-lap Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) American Legion Speedway, where he was one of just two WoO LMS regulars to transfer through a heat race during the weekend’s qualifying program on July 26. He followed that with a solid seventh-place finish – after starting 16th – on July 30 in a 50-lap A-Main at Shawano (Wis.) Speedway.
The driver known as ‘Chubzilla’ experienced a less-than-satisfying stop at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., for the USA Nationals weekend. He had to use a WoO LMS points provisional to start both the 40-lap preliminary A-Main on Aug. 1 (he advanced from the 26th starting spot to finish 15th) and the 100-lap, $50,000-to-win finale on Aug. 3 (he finished 22nd after overheating forced him to retire on lap 58).
Frank concluded the Midwest swing on Aug. 5 with a 12th-place finish in the 50-lapper at Independence (Iowa) Motor Speedway, toughing out a respectable run despite being forced to pit a couple times to tend to an overheating powerplant.
With 14 events remaining on the 2013 WoO LMS schedule, Frank sits within striking distance of sixth place in the standings. He will attempt to continue his upward trend in the points battle when the tour returns to action with a doubleheader in the Wolverine State on Aug. 16 at Winston Speedway in Montague, Mich., and Aug. 17 at Merritt Speedway in Lake City, Mich.
Frank’s plans for this weekend are to race locally in preparation for an end-of-summer push that he hopes will send him into the fall events will some momentum.
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, Sorbera Family Chiropractic, Horton Equipment, Hino Toyota, Nystrom’s Auto Sales, Rocket Chassis, Roush-Yates Racing Engines, Slavic Corporation, All-Star Performance, GW Performance and Integra Shocks.