BEAVER DAM, Wis. (Aug. 31) — Wisconsin is becoming a second home for Scott James.
Driving for car owners who live in Milwaukee, Wis., the veteran from Lawrenceburg, Ind., earned another major victory in the Badger State on Friday night, capturing the 40-lap George and Russ Scheffler Memorial at Beaver Dam Raceway for the second consecutive year.
One year after topping the race honoring a pair of Wisconsin Dirt Late Model standouts when it was held at Oshkosh (Wis.) Speedzone Raceway, James, 47, repeated the feat at the event’s new home. He dominated the action, powering off the outside pole to lead the entire distance without facing a single serious challenge and pocket a hefty career-high first-place payoff of $15,074.
“We love Wisconsin,” said James, who emerged triumphant in a race that had its winner’s purse increased by $5,000 on Saturday after a fan stepped up to sweeten the pot. “What an awesome state. To win this race two years in a row is unbelievable.
“We’ve won at Cedar Lake (Speedway in New Richmond, Wis.) twice, we’ve won at Oshkosh, we’ve won here. There’s something about the state of Wisconsin … the racetracks fit my style. We’ve got a couple at home that remind me a lot of the tracks that are up here. I can bring that driving style here and it works — and man, did it work tonight.”
Indeed, James was without a peer in the unsanctioned event, the first special Dirt Late Model show at Beaver Dam since a 2009 stop by the World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series. He outgunned polesitter Cade Dillard of Robeline, La., at the initial green flag and never looked back, easily controlling the race’s three restarts — including the final one with two laps remaining — to cross the finish line alone.
Dillard’s long drive north to make his first-ever start at the third-mile oval resulted in a runner-up finish. He slipped back to fourth early in the race but fought back to second just after the halfway point and stayed there the rest of the way.
“I wasn’t too good at the beginning,” Dillard said. “I was kind of bouncing all over the place. I caught a rut one time on a restart and lost a couple and then I got back to second.”
Dillard added that while he felt he “had a really good car” and was “starting to reel (James) back in” during the race’s late stages, his efforts were hampered by his troubles overtaking the lapped car driven by Brent Larson of Lake Elmo, Minn. — and he wasn’t able to pressure James on the green-white-checkered restart that closed the A-main.
“I knew he’d have to mess up pretty good for me to get around him,” Dillard said of James when asked about the final restart. “He did what he had to do to win the race.”
Jimmy Mars of Menomonie, Wis., advanced from the 13th starting spot to finish third, 21st-starter Brent Larson of Lake Elmo, Minn., placed fourth after switching to a backup following qualifying due to a broken rocker arm and 16th-starter Nick Anvelink of Navarino, Wis., completed the top five.
Mitch McGrath of Waukesha, Wis. — a grandson of George Scheffler and nephew of Russ Scheffler — crossed the finish line in third place after starting 14th but was disqualified and credited with a 23rd-place finish after failing to scale his car upon the feature’s completion. Frank Heckenast Jr. of Frankfort, Ill., experienced a similar fate, forfeiting his apparent fifth-place finish for not reporting to the scales; he had pitted to change a flat tire on lap 38 and rallied to apparently salvage a top-five.
James, who earned $9,000 for his 2017 Scheffler Memorial victory, registered his first five-figure score since April 4, 2008, at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga. It came in just his 10th Dirt Late Model start of the 2018 season.
A former Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series traveler, James got a late start on racing in ’18 due to a partial knee replacement surgery he underwent on the same knee on which he had two procedures last year. His first competitive appearance this year came in late June.
James struggled in his first nine Dirt Late Model outings of the season with his XR1 Rocket fielded by Jake and T.J. Dolhun, finishing no better than 12th. That stretch of futility included three DNQs on his home turf, Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., during the recent North-South 100 weekend — a disappointing performance that prompted James and the Dolhun Racing team to seek answers.
“We had to take this car to Rocket (Chassis in Shinnston, W.Va.) two weeks ago,” James said. “We ran really bad at the North-South. That’s my home track and we stunk it up … we had a bent race car, bent tube. We had a lot of bent stuff that we didn’t know about that was from a wreck last year. They fixed it, they put a new front end on it, and this week we put a new rearend under it because last week we broke a rearend.
“These guys, they just want to race,” he continued. “Jake and T.J. Dohlun, I can’t say enough about them. They’re the best owners you could ever drive for. They gave me their team. They stay in Milwaukee. I haven’t seen ‘em in eight months. We live in Cincinnati. They pay the bills. They just say, ‘Keep it down there. We know you guys can do it.’”
Hot off his rich win in Wisconsin, James plans to enter the Sept. 6-8 World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
Among the high-profile entrants who experienced trouble was 2018 DIRTcar Summer Nationals champion Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill. He arrived late to the track, blew a power-steering hose in qualifying and had his night end due to terminal engine trouble with two laps remaining in the first heat.
Correction: Fixes spelling of Dolhun.
