World of Outlaws Notebook
Notes: Shaver's wife gets news of sweep via texts
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Steve Shaver
MINERAL WELLS, W.Va. — Steve Shaver had plenty of reasons to smile after sweeping Memorial Day 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 5/8-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 postrace 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 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."
Still figuring it out
An uncharacteristic subpar weekend for Josh Richards allowed the WoO points race to tighten slightly heading into the busy summer schedule.
Richards, who entered the weekend leading by 56 points over Darrell Lanigan and 70 over Tim McCreadie, could only manage a pair of quiet 11th-place finishes. 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," Richards said. "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 reduced his lead to to 46 points over McCreadie, who registered finishes of third and seventh. Lanigan, meanwhile, fell to third in the points standings and gained only two markers on Richards (he trails by 52 points).
Bringing out the big guns
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 c.i. big-block producing more than 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 Saturday and eighth Sunday.
Tough time trials
Sunday night's 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," Hubbard said. "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.
Odds and ends
Chub Frank's season-best fourth-place finish in Saturday's WVMS event 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, but she was discharged Monday morning. ... Many drivers were glad that Mountain State Motorsports Promotions reopened WVMS, including frequent track winner Bart Hartman. "It's a great place to race," said Hartman, who finished second in both RaceFest features. "A lot of people like racing down here so I'm glad it's open and going." ... Sunday's feature served as the first WoO event of the new LaCrosse Extreme Tough Challenge, a miniseries that awards points to the top-five full time WoO Late Model and sprint car 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. Shane Clanton's third-place finish made him the top Outlaw in the final rundown, giving him five LaCrosse Extreme Tough points. ... WoO competitors take 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.
