Dirt Track World Championship on Tap this Weekend
St. Marys, Ohio (10/16/18) – Josh Richards was finally able to shake the monkey from his back on Saturday afternoon at Eldora Speedway. The driver of the Bulk Material Lift #1 Colt/ XR1 Rocket Chassis/ Durham Racing Engine Super Late Model picked up a $10,000 win in a preliminary feature for the 48th annual World 100. He backed it up with a Top-10 finish in the coveted finale later that night.
“It feels fantastic,” Richards said after climbing out of his Best Performance Motorsports XR1 Rocket car on Eldora’s winner’s stage on a cool Saturday afternoon. “I almost forgot what it feels like to be up here.
“It’s been a little bit of a tough year,” he continued. “We’ve had some speed, we just haven’t had things go our way. It feels good to finally get one.”
After seeing Friday night's preliminary program postponed to Saturday afternoon by rain, Josh hit the ground running by qualifying third fastest in his group. With the Top-4 starters inverted in each heat race, Richards surged to the lead in the closing laps to score the win.
The feature redraw found Josh pulling the second-starting position for his 25-lap prelim. In the main event, Richards jumped to the lead as the race went green and never looked back on his way to the $10,000 victory, which marked his third triumph of the 2018 season. He was followed across the line by Chris Madden, Mike Marlar, Don O'Neal, and Earl Pearson Jr.
Saturday night would find Josh starting third in his heat race. He ran in the Top-5 early in the event before retiring with handling issues. Via being the high point driver in preliminary action, he received the 19th-starting spot for the 100-lap, $51,000-to-win finale. Josh raced around mid-pack throughout the mega finale before surging late to a seventh-place finish.
“It wasn’t a bad night, we just put ourselves behind by having to take the provisional, which pinned us deep in the starting grid for the 100 lapper,” Richards said. “There were patches through the feature, where the car felt really good. Once we got heat in the tires, the car would go away a little bit. We felt like we probably had a fifth-place car or so. We’ll take this though and move onto the next one.”
For full results from the weekend, please visit www.EldoraSpeedway.com .
The Best Performance Motorsports team will put a wrap on the 2018 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) campaign this weekend – October 19-20 – with the 38th annual Rhino Ag Dirt Track World Championship (DTWC). The touring nomads will all be pursuing the $100,000 top prize.
In 2017, Richards scored a thrilling win in the DTWC finale.
Josh is second in the latest LOLMDS standings heading into the finale. For more information on the event, please visit www.LucasDirt.com .
Best Performance Motorsports would like to thank all of their marketing partners, which include Bulk Material Lift, Boxo USA, Bazell Race Fuels, Sunoco, Keyser Manufacturing, Colt, Integra Shocks, Hoosier Tire, Valvoline, Corey Frazer State Farm, Industrial Hydro Excavating, Beyea Headers, Doyle Edwards Trucking, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Wiles Drive Shafts, Simpson Race Products, Weld Racing, Performance Rod & Custom, Peterson Fluid Systems, Barnes Systems Inc., Powers Performance, Butlerbuilt, Impact Race Gear, Heath Lawson Photography, Outerwears, Strange Engineering, Five Star Race Car Bodies Rocket Chassis, R&R Design and MSR Mafia Marketing & PR Services.
For the latest information on Best Performance Motorsports please visit the team website at www.BestPerformanceMotorsports.com as well as their social media channels at www.facebook.com/bestperformancemotorsports/, www.twitter.com/BPMotorsports1 and www.instagram.com/bestperformancemotorsports .
Ben Shelton, Owner
MSR Mafia Marketing Services – www.MSRmafia.com
Midsouth Racing Scene – www.MidSouthRacing.com
