MINERAL WELLS, WV - June 1, 2010 -
FAMILY AFFAIR: Steve Shaver had plenty of reasons to smile after sweeping the weekend's 'RaceFest World Championships' doubleheader at West Virginia Motor Speedway.
He won a lot of money ($18,200). He won at his favorite track (a sprawling five-eighths-mile oval that is returning to the national conversation after two years of inactivity). He won for the first time driving the well-known K&L Rumley No. 6 (giving team owners Lee Roy and Kevin Rumley their first-ever World of Outlaws Late Model Series victories).
And with WVMS sitting just 10 miles from his home in Vienna, W.Va., Shaver won in front of a large contingent of family and friends – including his mother, who made a rare racetrack appearance on Sunday night.
"I think this is my mom's first time in Victory Lane," the 46-year-old Shaver said following Sunday's post-race ceremonies. "She doesn't come to many races. The first race I ever ran – in a Semi-Late at Ohio Valley Speedway in 1983 – I ended up in a creek upside down, so she's been a little leery about coming to the races to watch me since then.
"I'd say she's been to maybe 20 of my races my whole career, so it was nice to have her here tonight. She just wanted to give her support and be part of it tonight."
But while Shaver's mother was on hand, his wife, Ami, missed the 'ShaverFest.' Ami Shaver was unable to attend because she's away at Louisiana State University taking a college banking course, an annual two-week program associated with her position at United Bank.
"It's too bad she had to miss this," Shaver said of his wife. "But she knew exactly what we were doing all night. My daughter (11-year-old Calli) was texting her."
A LITTLE CLOSER: An uncharacteristic subpar weekend for Josh Richards allowed the WoO LMS points race to tighten slightly heading into the busy summer schedule.
Richards, who entered the 'RaceFest' leading the points standings by 56 points over Darrell Lanigan and 70 over Tim McCreadie, could only manage a pair of quiet 11th-place finishes in the weekend's two A-Mains. The tour's winningest driver in 2010 was never a factor as he registered back-to-back finishes outside the top 10 for the first time this season and remained winless in his home state during his dirt Late Model career.
"We definitely struggled this weekend," said Richards, who ran a B-Main for the first time this season on Sunday night. "Everything that I do usually works at 99 percent of the places we go to, but this place is just different. I had to change my driving a lot.
"The guys who know how to get around this place showed it this weekend. I'm still trying to figure it out."
The 22-year-old Richards's struggles sent him out the pit gate with his points lead reduced to 46 points over McCreadie, who registered finishes of third (Saturday's 30-lapper) and seventh (Sunday's 40-lap A-Main). McCreadie was in contention to win on Saturday, and on Sunday he might have been a top-five threat again if he hadn't started 21st because a cut right-rear tire midway through his heat race knocked him from a potential redraw position.
Lanigan, meanwhile, fell to third in the points standings and gained only two markers on Richards (he trails by 52 points), but he can thank tough luck for his failure to draw closer. He suffered a flat left-rear tire on lap 10 of Saturday's A-Main while holding the lead – the third time this season he's been forced pitside by a flat while in the lead – and could climb no higher than 14th in the final rundown, missing a golden opportunity to erase nearly half of his points deficit to Richards. Lanigan went on to finish sixth on Sunday evening.
EXTRA HORSES: Shane Clanton and Tim Fuller tried a different angle in search of more horsepower at WVMS, running aluminum big-block engines in both weekend events.
Clanton's big-block powerplant came by way of Tim Logan, who serves as Steve Francis's crew chief and fields a dirt Late Model that Francis runs in selected non-Outlaw events. With Clanton coming off a motor issue in the recent WoO LMS event at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway, Logan offered up his experimental Russell Baker-built big-block engine, which Francis tried for the first time in the rain-shortened O'Reilly All-Star Late Model Series event on May 16 at WVMS, to Clanton for the weekend.
"(Logan and Francis) wanted to try the big-block but not in a points race," said Clanton, noting that the engine is at least 30 pounds heavier than the usual aluminum motors used by dirt Late Model teams. "We're already so far back in the points and have nothing to lose, and this weekend was a perfect opportunity to try it on a big track. So we went to their shop and put it in our car."
With the 540 cubic inch big-block producing over 900 horsepower, Clanton had plenty of power at his disposal. He scored a pair of top fives – fifth on Saturday and third on Sunday – and said the engine has plenty of potential.
Fuller, meanwhile, pulled an aluminum big-block motor constructed by noted DIRTcar Modified engine builder Kevin Enders of Phoenix, N.Y., off the Gypsum Racing shop floor and used it in both WVMS events. Fuller decided to test the 502 cubic inch, 900-plus horsepower engine, which had never been used since Enders built it for Gypsum Racing owner John Wight in 2007, after learning that a new, more powerful engine from Gypsum Racing's in-house motor program wouldn't be ready in time for the weekend.
With qualifying admittedly being Fuller's Achilles heel this year, the engine helped propel him to the ninth-fastest time on Saturday – just his fourth top-10 effort in time trials this season. He registered a pair of top-10 finishes, placing sixth on Saturday and eighth on Sunday.
BUSY WEEKEND: Francis and his team members were ready for some rest after working hard all weekend at WVMS, where they made a pair of engine changes in the summer-like temperatures.
The first powerplant swap came after time trials on Saturday night when Francis determined that the engine in his car wasn't quite right for the big WVMS layout. He drove to a ninth-place finish in the evening's 30-lapper while battling some overheating problems, so he decided to use a third engine – a Russell Baker piece from Logan's stable. Francis's wife, Amanda, who skipped Saturday's action to help her parents run their weekly program at Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky., picked up Logan's motor at the team's shop en route to WVMS on Sunday morning (Tim's son Lee loaded it up for her) and it was installed for the evening's action.
Francis raced to a solid fourth-place finish in Sunday's 40-lapper despite once again experiencing some overheating issues that he attributed to nosepiece air-flow problems he needs to correct. He ended the weekend ranked fourth in the points standings, 102 points behind Richards.
"We want see if we can work our way back into this points thing a little bit," said Francis, who entered the weekend 120 points out of first place. "We only gained a little this weekend, but there's a long way to go. Maybe we can get ourselves into a fairly safe fourth and go from there."
HARD HITS: Sunday night's Ohlins Shock Time Trials were disastrous for Brady Smith and Austin Hubbard, both of whom slammed the track's concrete wall between turns three and four.
Smith took the first trip into the barrier, crashing into the concrete with the right side of his car on his second qualifying lap. His machine sustained heavy damage, but he was uninjured aside from some soreness in his back.
The accident was the biggest problem of a frustrating weekend for Smith, who finished 22nd on Saturday after pulling out early with an ill-handling car and drove his backup car to a 17th-place finish on Sunday after pitting to replace a right-rear tire that was cut in a lap-16 tangle with Jill George.
Hubbard, meanwhile, rode out a rough smash into the wall on his first time-trial lap. His Beitler Motorsports car – a new Rocket mount that Hubbard debuted on Saturday night – hit the concrete extremely hard with its right-front corner. The 18-year-old wasn't injured, but the force of the wreck was hard enough to twist the front clip and nearly rip the headers from the right side of the motor.
"I don't know what happened," said Hubbard. "The car just slid right across the track and into the wall."
Hubbard went on to finish 13th in Sunday's 40-lapper driving a backup car, capping his forgettable first-ever trip to WVMS. His weekend started badly when he learned that his crew chief, Robby Allen, had to undergo an emergency appendectomy and would be unable to travel to the track, and it only got worse when he was disqualified from his transfer position in Saturday's heat race for failing to report to the scales.
HIS BIGGEST SUPPORTER: Chub Frank's season-best fourth-place finish in Saturday night's 30-lap A-Main came after he spent most of the day at a local hospital with his wife Mary, who fell ill in the team hauler and sought medical treatment.
Mary was admitted to the hospital for tests and missed both nights of competition. After Chub dropped a cylinder and finished 22nd in Sunday night's A-Main, he returned to the hospital. Mary was discharged the following morning.
TOUGH END: Brent Robinson dejectedly stared at his Rocket No. 3 car following Sunday night's A-Main – and with good reason. He was unable to cap the best outing of his WoO LMS career with a strong feature finish.
After timing a career-best fourth in time trials and coming within inches of finishing second in his heat to earn what would have been his first-ever shot at an A-Main redraw, Robinson, 22, spent the early stages of Sunday's 40-lapper riding solidly in the top 10. But a right-front suspension caused him to slap the turn-two wall on lap 13, ending his night and leaving him with frame damage that would likely necessitate a stop at Rocket Chassis in Shinnston, W.Va., on his way home to Smithfield, Va.
THE FAMILY KING: Russell King was joined at WVMS on Sunday by his father, Rex Sr., and younger brother, Rex Jr. ('Cooter'), who towed down to the Mountain State with their big-block Modifieds after competing in a BRP Modified Tour event the previous night at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway.
Rex Sr. and Jr. pulled out their Modifieds and took some exhibition laps around the track to promote WVMS's first-ever big-block Modified event, a two-day BRP Modified Tour program scheduled for Sept. 3-4.
GRAND OPENING: West Virginia Motor Speedway is alive and well.
The 'RaceFest World Championships' were a success for Mountain State Motorsports Promotions, a group of four partners (BDS Racing Promotions's Brian Ferrell, Daniel Patterson and Scott Strode and Charleston, W.Va.'s Lynn Chapman) who banded together to reopen a top-notch facility that was inactive for the past two years. The WVMS grounds were well-manicured, the track surface was smooth and racy and the expansive terraced hillside seating area was covered both nights with fans anxious to see cars speeding around the oval once again.
"It's a great place to race," said Bart Hartman, a former winner at the track who finished second in both 'RaceFest' A-Mains. "A lot of people like racing down here so I'm glad it's open and going."
THE OPENER: Sunday night's A-Main served as the first WoO LMS event of the new LaCrosse Extreme Tough Challenge, a unique mini-series that awards points to the top-five fulltime WoO LMS and Sprint Car Series drivers in 16 selected events – eight Late Model and eight Sprint Car – and will earn the champion of the combined standings a $5,000 bonus from a $15,000 points fund.
Clanton's third-place finish made him the top Outlaw in the final rundown, giving him five LaCrosse Extreme Tough points. Francis earned four points, followed by Lanigan (three), McCreadie (two) and Fuller (one).
Sunday's event also included the inaugural LaCrosse Extreme Tough Challenge for fans. Three were selected to hold cement-filled LaCrosse boots with their arms extended; Mylan Markovich, a 28-year-old fan from Greensburg, Pa., who stands 6-5 and weighs 290 pounds, outlasted his two competitors to win a $100 LaCrosse boots gift certificate.
NEXT UP: The stars of the WoO LMS will have a two-week break before hitting the road for the first extended swing of the 2010 season – the eight-race 'Great Northern Tour' that visits six tracks in New York, Pennsylvania and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec from June 15-June 26.
The Great Northern Tour kicks off on June 15 at Can-Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, N.Y. It continues on to Merrittville Speedway in Thorold, Ont., on June 17, Autodrome Drummond in Drummondville, Que., on June 19, Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway on June 20 and Brewerton (N.Y.) Speedway on June 22 before concluding with the fourth annual 'Firecracker 100 presented by GottaRace.com' on June 24-26 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.
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), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), STP (Official Fuel Treatment), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel), DirtonDirt.com (Hard Charger Award) and Chizmark Larson Insurance; in addition to contingency sponsors Eibach Springs, MSD Ignition, Ohlins Shocks, Pink Carburetors, Pro Power Engines, Quartermaster, Rocket Chassis, R2C Performance and Wrisco Aluminum.
FAMILY AFFAIR: Steve Shaver had plenty of reasons to smile after sweeping the weekend's 'RaceFest World Championships' doubleheader at West Virginia Motor Speedway.
He won a lot of money ($18,200). He won at his favorite track (a sprawling five-eighths-mile oval that is returning to the national conversation after two years of inactivity). He won for the first time driving the well-known K&L Rumley No. 6 (giving team owners Lee Roy and Kevin Rumley their first-ever World of Outlaws Late Model Series victories).
And with WVMS sitting just 10 miles from his home in Vienna, W.Va., Shaver won in front of a large contingent of family and friends – including his mother, who made a rare racetrack appearance on Sunday night.
"I think this is my mom's first time in Victory Lane," the 46-year-old Shaver said following Sunday's post-race ceremonies. "She doesn't come to many races. The first race I ever ran – in a Semi-Late at Ohio Valley Speedway in 1983 – I ended up in a creek upside down, so she's been a little leery about coming to the races to watch me since then.
"I'd say she's been to maybe 20 of my races my whole career, so it was nice to have her here tonight. She just wanted to give her support and be part of it tonight."
But while Shaver's mother was on hand, his wife, Ami, missed the 'ShaverFest.' Ami Shaver was unable to attend because she's away at Louisiana State University taking a college banking course, an annual two-week program associated with her position at United Bank.
"It's too bad she had to miss this," Shaver said of his wife. "But she knew exactly what we were doing all night. My daughter (11-year-old Calli) was texting her."
A LITTLE CLOSER: An uncharacteristic subpar weekend for Josh Richards allowed the WoO LMS points race to tighten slightly heading into the busy summer schedule.
Richards, who entered the 'RaceFest' leading the points standings by 56 points over Darrell Lanigan and 70 over Tim McCreadie, could only manage a pair of quiet 11th-place finishes in the weekend's two A-Mains. The tour's winningest driver in 2010 was never a factor as he registered back-to-back finishes outside the top 10 for the first time this season and remained winless in his home state during his dirt Late Model career.
"We definitely struggled this weekend," said Richards, who ran a B-Main for the first time this season on Sunday night. "Everything that I do usually works at 99 percent of the places we go to, but this place is just different. I had to change my driving a lot.
"The guys who know how to get around this place showed it this weekend. I'm still trying to figure it out."
The 22-year-old Richards's struggles sent him out the pit gate with his points lead reduced to 46 points over McCreadie, who registered finishes of third (Saturday's 30-lapper) and seventh (Sunday's 40-lap A-Main). McCreadie was in contention to win on Saturday, and on Sunday he might have been a top-five threat again if he hadn't started 21st because a cut right-rear tire midway through his heat race knocked him from a potential redraw position.
Lanigan, meanwhile, fell to third in the points standings and gained only two markers on Richards (he trails by 52 points), but he can thank tough luck for his failure to draw closer. He suffered a flat left-rear tire on lap 10 of Saturday's A-Main while holding the lead – the third time this season he's been forced pitside by a flat while in the lead – and could climb no higher than 14th in the final rundown, missing a golden opportunity to erase nearly half of his points deficit to Richards. Lanigan went on to finish sixth on Sunday evening.
EXTRA HORSES: Shane Clanton and Tim Fuller tried a different angle in search of more horsepower at WVMS, running aluminum big-block engines in both weekend events.
Clanton's big-block powerplant came by way of Tim Logan, who serves as Steve Francis's crew chief and fields a dirt Late Model that Francis runs in selected non-Outlaw events. With Clanton coming off a motor issue in the recent WoO LMS event at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway, Logan offered up his experimental Russell Baker-built big-block engine, which Francis tried for the first time in the rain-shortened O'Reilly All-Star Late Model Series event on May 16 at WVMS, to Clanton for the weekend.
"(Logan and Francis) wanted to try the big-block but not in a points race," said Clanton, noting that the engine is at least 30 pounds heavier than the usual aluminum motors used by dirt Late Model teams. "We're already so far back in the points and have nothing to lose, and this weekend was a perfect opportunity to try it on a big track. So we went to their shop and put it in our car."
With the 540 cubic inch big-block producing over 900 horsepower, Clanton had plenty of power at his disposal. He scored a pair of top fives – fifth on Saturday and third on Sunday – and said the engine has plenty of potential.
Fuller, meanwhile, pulled an aluminum big-block motor constructed by noted DIRTcar Modified engine builder Kevin Enders of Phoenix, N.Y., off the Gypsum Racing shop floor and used it in both WVMS events. Fuller decided to test the 502 cubic inch, 900-plus horsepower engine, which had never been used since Enders built it for Gypsum Racing owner John Wight in 2007, after learning that a new, more powerful engine from Gypsum Racing's in-house motor program wouldn't be ready in time for the weekend.
With qualifying admittedly being Fuller's Achilles heel this year, the engine helped propel him to the ninth-fastest time on Saturday – just his fourth top-10 effort in time trials this season. He registered a pair of top-10 finishes, placing sixth on Saturday and eighth on Sunday.
BUSY WEEKEND: Francis and his team members were ready for some rest after working hard all weekend at WVMS, where they made a pair of engine changes in the summer-like temperatures.
The first powerplant swap came after time trials on Saturday night when Francis determined that the engine in his car wasn't quite right for the big WVMS layout. He drove to a ninth-place finish in the evening's 30-lapper while battling some overheating problems, so he decided to use a third engine – a Russell Baker piece from Logan's stable. Francis's wife, Amanda, who skipped Saturday's action to help her parents run their weekly program at Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky., picked up Logan's motor at the team's shop en route to WVMS on Sunday morning (Tim's son Lee loaded it up for her) and it was installed for the evening's action.
Francis raced to a solid fourth-place finish in Sunday's 40-lapper despite once again experiencing some overheating issues that he attributed to nosepiece air-flow problems he needs to correct. He ended the weekend ranked fourth in the points standings, 102 points behind Richards.
"We want see if we can work our way back into this points thing a little bit," said Francis, who entered the weekend 120 points out of first place. "We only gained a little this weekend, but there's a long way to go. Maybe we can get ourselves into a fairly safe fourth and go from there."
HARD HITS: Sunday night's Ohlins Shock Time Trials were disastrous for Brady Smith and Austin Hubbard, both of whom slammed the track's concrete wall between turns three and four.
Smith took the first trip into the barrier, crashing into the concrete with the right side of his car on his second qualifying lap. His machine sustained heavy damage, but he was uninjured aside from some soreness in his back.
The accident was the biggest problem of a frustrating weekend for Smith, who finished 22nd on Saturday after pulling out early with an ill-handling car and drove his backup car to a 17th-place finish on Sunday after pitting to replace a right-rear tire that was cut in a lap-16 tangle with Jill George.
Hubbard, meanwhile, rode out a rough smash into the wall on his first time-trial lap. His Beitler Motorsports car – a new Rocket mount that Hubbard debuted on Saturday night – hit the concrete extremely hard with its right-front corner. The 18-year-old wasn't injured, but the force of the wreck was hard enough to twist the front clip and nearly rip the headers from the right side of the motor.
"I don't know what happened," said Hubbard. "The car just slid right across the track and into the wall."
Hubbard went on to finish 13th in Sunday's 40-lapper driving a backup car, capping his forgettable first-ever trip to WVMS. His weekend started badly when he learned that his crew chief, Robby Allen, had to undergo an emergency appendectomy and would be unable to travel to the track, and it only got worse when he was disqualified from his transfer position in Saturday's heat race for failing to report to the scales.
HIS BIGGEST SUPPORTER: Chub Frank's season-best fourth-place finish in Saturday night's 30-lap A-Main came after he spent most of the day at a local hospital with his wife Mary, who fell ill in the team hauler and sought medical treatment.
Mary was admitted to the hospital for tests and missed both nights of competition. After Chub dropped a cylinder and finished 22nd in Sunday night's A-Main, he returned to the hospital. Mary was discharged the following morning.
TOUGH END: Brent Robinson dejectedly stared at his Rocket No. 3 car following Sunday night's A-Main – and with good reason. He was unable to cap the best outing of his WoO LMS career with a strong feature finish.
After timing a career-best fourth in time trials and coming within inches of finishing second in his heat to earn what would have been his first-ever shot at an A-Main redraw, Robinson, 22, spent the early stages of Sunday's 40-lapper riding solidly in the top 10. But a right-front suspension caused him to slap the turn-two wall on lap 13, ending his night and leaving him with frame damage that would likely necessitate a stop at Rocket Chassis in Shinnston, W.Va., on his way home to Smithfield, Va.
THE FAMILY KING: Russell King was joined at WVMS on Sunday by his father, Rex Sr., and younger brother, Rex Jr. ('Cooter'), who towed down to the Mountain State with their big-block Modifieds after competing in a BRP Modified Tour event the previous night at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway.
Rex Sr. and Jr. pulled out their Modifieds and took some exhibition laps around the track to promote WVMS's first-ever big-block Modified event, a two-day BRP Modified Tour program scheduled for Sept. 3-4.
GRAND OPENING: West Virginia Motor Speedway is alive and well.
The 'RaceFest World Championships' were a success for Mountain State Motorsports Promotions, a group of four partners (BDS Racing Promotions's Brian Ferrell, Daniel Patterson and Scott Strode and Charleston, W.Va.'s Lynn Chapman) who banded together to reopen a top-notch facility that was inactive for the past two years. The WVMS grounds were well-manicured, the track surface was smooth and racy and the expansive terraced hillside seating area was covered both nights with fans anxious to see cars speeding around the oval once again.
"It's a great place to race," said Bart Hartman, a former winner at the track who finished second in both 'RaceFest' A-Mains. "A lot of people like racing down here so I'm glad it's open and going."
THE OPENER: Sunday night's A-Main served as the first WoO LMS event of the new LaCrosse Extreme Tough Challenge, a unique mini-series that awards points to the top-five fulltime WoO LMS and Sprint Car Series drivers in 16 selected events – eight Late Model and eight Sprint Car – and will earn the champion of the combined standings a $5,000 bonus from a $15,000 points fund.
Clanton's third-place finish made him the top Outlaw in the final rundown, giving him five LaCrosse Extreme Tough points. Francis earned four points, followed by Lanigan (three), McCreadie (two) and Fuller (one).
Sunday's event also included the inaugural LaCrosse Extreme Tough Challenge for fans. Three were selected to hold cement-filled LaCrosse boots with their arms extended; Mylan Markovich, a 28-year-old fan from Greensburg, Pa., who stands 6-5 and weighs 290 pounds, outlasted his two competitors to win a $100 LaCrosse boots gift certificate.
NEXT UP: The stars of the WoO LMS will have a two-week break before hitting the road for the first extended swing of the 2010 season – the eight-race 'Great Northern Tour' that visits six tracks in New York, Pennsylvania and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec from June 15-June 26.
The Great Northern Tour kicks off on June 15 at Can-Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, N.Y. It continues on to Merrittville Speedway in Thorold, Ont., on June 17, Autodrome Drummond in Drummondville, Que., on June 19, Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway on June 20 and Brewerton (N.Y.) Speedway on June 22 before concluding with the fourth annual 'Firecracker 100 presented by GottaRace.com' on June 24-26 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.
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), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), STP (Official Fuel Treatment), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel), DirtonDirt.com (Hard Charger Award) and Chizmark Larson Insurance; in addition to contingency sponsors Eibach Springs, MSD Ignition, Ohlins Shocks, Pink Carburetors, Pro Power Engines, Quartermaster, Rocket Chassis, R2C Performance and Wrisco Aluminum.
