BEAR LAKE, PA – June 4, 2012 – Chub Frank closed out the month of May with a flourish, solidifying his hold on third place in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series points standings with two top-five runs and no finish worse than 11th over a four-race span.
The 50-year-old veteran from Bear Lake, Pa., enjoyed two especially strong outings during the national tour’s month-ending swing, finishing third on May 25 at Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio, and fourth on May 27 at I-77 Raceway Park in Ripley, W.Va. His two ‘off’ nights, meanwhile, weren’t all that bad at all: seventh on May 31 at Delaware International Speedway in Delmar and 11th in the ‘Jackpot 100’ on May 26 at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va.
Frank, of course, wasn’t completely satisfied with up-and-down performance, but his four finishes were among the best any driver put together during the stretch.
“Right now it seems like we’re good every other night and I’m not liking that,” said Frank, who sits third in the WoO LMS points standings through 15 events, 170 points behind leader Darrell Lanigan and 46 points ahead of fourth-place Shane Clanton. “I want to be more consistent, have good runs every night. We’ll take four races with no finish worse than 11th, but we can be better and more consistent.”
Frank’s best drive came in the 50-lap ‘Buckeye Classic’ at Wayne County, a three-eighths-mile oval that treated him very well in the past. He timed fourth-fastest and moved up from the fifth starting spot to finish third in the A-Main, trailing winner Lanigan and runner-up Tim McCreadie under the checkered flag in his Roush-Yates-powered Corry Rubber/Hino Toyota/Horton Equipment Rocket No. 1*.
“We just didn’t have anything for either one of them,” Frank said of his Wayne County chase of Lanigan and McCreadie. “We just couldn’t get off the corner good. But they were racing pretty hard so anything could, so I was just trying to stay in contact with ‘em in case they got together. If they opened up a hole, I would go for it.”
The driver known as ‘Chubzilla’ struggled in the Jackpot 100 at Tyler County, timing 35th-fastest and using a provisional to start 25th in the feature. But he stayed out of trouble to salvage an 11th-place finish (one lap down), and then came back the following evening to register a head-turning fourth-place finish in the first-ever WoO LMS event at I-77 Raceway Park.
Frank put on a show at I-77, tossing his machine around the extreme outside of the three-eighths-mile oval in search of traction. He managed to advance from the 11th starting spot to the verge of a top-three spot in the 50-lap ‘Ripley RaceFest.’
“You gotta go somewhere to find a groove,” Frank said of his hard-charging drive. “We were all on the wrong tires, so you had to go where you could get ahold of something.
“I hit the wall a few times off of four,” added Frank, whose fifth top-five finish of the season matched his total from the entire 2011 WoO LMS campaign. “They got weeds growing out of the fence up there because I got a few of them in the quarter-panel.”
After a stop back at his shop to regroup for a few days, Frank visited the half-mile Delaware International Speedway for the month’s final WoO LMS program. He timed third-fastest and drew the fifth starting spot for the Fulton Bank 50 headliner, but he settled for a seventh-place finish.
“When the track got rough, we got worse,” said Frank. “We can throw that setup out when it’s rough. It was good for qualifying and O.K. for the heat race, which was good. We need to be better for qualifying. But it was a handful in the feature.”
Frank had hoped to compete in last Friday night’s weekly DIRTcar UMP Late Model show at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., but rain washed out the proceedings. He didn’t enter any other races over the weekend.
Next on Frank’s agenda is a trip to Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, where he’ll spend four days at the famed half-mile oval. In addition to chasing the $100,000 top prize in the DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned Dirt Late Model Dream scheduled for Friday and Saturday nights (June 8-9), he is fielding one of his Rocket dirt Late Models for NASCAR veteran Kenny Wallace to drive in the Feed The Children Prelude to the Dream charity event on Wednesday evening (June 6). Frank’s machine will carry Wallace’s No. 36 and be outfitted with a Toyota engine for the Prelude.
Fans can watch the Prelude to the Dream live on HBO Pay-PerView starting at 8 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. The event has a suggested retail price of $24.95, with ordering information available either at www.PreludeToTheDream.org, www.HBO.com or through your local cable company.
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.