BEAR LAKE, PA – May 8, 2013 – Chub Frank never traveled so far to race at his home track.
The veteran driver known as ‘Chubzilla’ scored a second-place finish in last Saturday night’s 25-lap dirt Late Model season opener at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y. – a track located just 10 minutes from his shop in Bear Lake, Pa. – after racing back from a World of Outlaws Late Model Series weekend rainout in Georgia.
“We drove about 1,500 miles,” quipped the 51-year-old Frank, “to go racing in our backyard.”
Frank was scheduled to compete last weekend in WoO LMS events on Friday night (May 3) at Lavonia (Ga.) Speedway and Saturday night (May 4) at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway – the third of four consecutive weekends of Southeastern action for the national tour. But after making the 12-hour haul to Lavonia from the Keystone State, persistent showers forced officials to postpone the show to Tues., Nov. 5, less than an hour after Frank’s arrival in the pit area. The announcement of Lavonia’s postponement was released simultaneously with the news that Saturday night’s program at Swainsboro was canceled due to ground-saturating rain on Friday and a rain-filled forecast for Saturday.
After some quick consideration, Frank decided to point his hauler back north and drive through the night to enter Stateline’s Saturday show.
“I had to come back home and try to pick up some of the fuel money that I spent driving to Georgia,” Frank said with a smile. “At a little less than a buck a mile (in fuel cost) to run the hauler, we spent quite a bit to go all the way down there and not race.”
After pulling into his shop at about 6 a.m. on Saturday, Frank got some sleep while chief mechanic Brad Baum fixed up a damaged Corry Rubber/Lake Shore Paving/Hino Toyota Rocket No. 1* that the team had left home. Frank drove the machine that evening at Stateline, where he picked up some needed cash by moving up from the fourth starting spot to chase winner Ron Davies across the finish line.
“We got to second a few laps in (to the feature),” said Frank, “but there was a big cushion, and it’s pretty hard to beat Ron when he’s up on that cushion. If I wanted to run as hard as him up there I could probably have stayed with him, but the problem was I couldn’t pass him if I did that. I tried to run the bottom once, but you scrubbed off so much speed down there you couldn’t pass anyone.”
Frank also entered Sunday night’s season opener at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., but failed to finish, recording a quiet 10th-place finish in a small 11-car field.
Frank’s Stateline outing was a bright point in a frustrating three-week stretch of rain-plagued WoO LMS competition. He made three WoO LMS starts during the span – finishing 12th on April 20 at 311 Motor Speedway in Pine Hall, N.C.; 13th on April 26 at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.; and sixth on April 28 at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. – but also absorbed four rainouts (the Georgia events plus April 19 at North Carolina’s Fayetteville Motor Speedway and April 27 at Tennessee’s Tazewell Speedway).
The rash of rainouts has caused problems for Frank, a fulltime racer who obviously isn’t making money when he’s not racing.
“For me, these rainouts that are so far away from home have just about got me broke,” said Frank. “I mean, if Duck River wouldn’t have raced (on April 28), we would’ve really been in trouble. We can’t travel so far and only race once. Missing races kills us.
“Without money coming in (from WoO L MS racing), things are pretty tight for us right now. After we get through this next weekend (WoO LMS shows on May 10 at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark., and May 11 at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss.) – which is probably a 2,500-mile roundtrip for us – then I know everything coming up (on the WoO LMS schedule) will be pretty much up north for the next month, at tracks at least within a few hours of the house. We’ll just keep digging through those shows, try to stay afloat and see where we’re at before the (WoO) western trip (in July).”
Frank currently sits ninth in the WoO LMS points standings, 200 points behind leader Josh Richards.
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.