Sharon Speedway
Struggling sophomore heads for home track
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Russ King is buckled in and ready for action. (thesportswire.net)
In a perfect world, Russ King would enter the seventh annual World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Sharon Speedway on Wednesday brimming with the confidence of a young driver enjoying a breakout season.
But as King, 21, of Bristolville, Ohio, knows all too well, the learning curve in professional Dirt Late Model racing is a steep one. So it is that the 2009 WoO Rookie of the Year will head out on his home track’s 3/8-mile surface for July 28’s 50-lap Ohio-Pennsylvania Speedweek show hoping that some familiar surroundings will help him shake his sophomore struggles on the national tour. | Slideshow
“After you do the whole World of Outlaws schedule for a season you naturally think it’s going to get easier,” said King, the scion of a family with a rich dirt-track racing history in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. “But the reality is that it just gets harder. Just because you have a year of experience doesn’t mean a thing.”
King’s second year as a regular on the grueling WoO LMS, which in 2010 is scheduled to contest 47 races at 40 tracks in 19 states and two Canadian provinces, has been a humbling test of his personal mettle. After making a giant leap in ’09 to follow the series with his family-owned team – a big-block Modified competitor since the age of 15, he had less than two-dozen dirt Late Model starts under his belt when he became an Outlaw traveler — he registered eight top-10 finishes en route to the rookie title and a 10th-place finish in the points standings. King was expecting improved results this season; instead, he’s experienced nothing but frustration, managing just two top-10 finishes while using 14 provisional spots through 28 events.
A burly, hard-nosed competitor who wears his emotions on his sleeve, King got off to an extremely disappointing start this season — he relied on a provisional to gain entry in 11 of the first 16 events — that sunk his morale.
“It’s been real tough to keep my mood and confidence up with the way we’ve been running,” said King, whose top finish is a 10th on May 13 at Delaware International Speedway and June 15 at Can-Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, N.Y. “Every day this is what I do. I don’t drive trucks or pour concrete (for his family’s business). I work on race cars — my cars, and the modifieds that my father (Rex Sr.) and brother (Rex Jr.) run — so when we’re running bad it’s all I think about. I don’t even get that mental break of doing something else during the day to take my mind off it all.
“I’m lucky enough to be able to do this full time, but you can get yourself in a bad circle when you’re young and you’re struggling like we’ve been. You run bad and all week you’re in a bad mood and hate yourself, and then you think, ‘I’ve got to get in the shop to get better,’ so you work even harder and when you still don’t get the results it makes you feel even worse.
“It takes a lot to get out of the rut,” he added. “You can really beat yourself up, so I’ve tried to listen to what veteran guys like Chub (Frank) tell me. He’s been in it long enough and says, ‘Don’t let yourself get down too much or over-think the situation. Just keep working and one day it’ll just turn around. Something will go your way.’”
King has seen an uptick in his performance recently, qualifying five times through a heat and once through a consolation race victory in the six WoO LMS events run so far in July. He recorded consecutive 11th-place finishes at Wartburg (Tenn.) Speedway, Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway and Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., and during the four-race Wild West Tour he turned heads with season-best time-trial effort of second at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D., where he also nearly won the first heat race of his WoO career.
“It’s better lately — at least I don’t want to hang myself,” cracked King, who recently obtained the services of former Chub Frank and Clint Smith mechanic Brad Baum to enhance his existing crew that includes full-timer Craig "Snowman" McCrimmon and loyal volunteer Bobby Bachman. “We decided to just stick with our blue front-end (Rocket) car and get on the same page with more guys and we’ve had some better results.
“But even though we’ve qualified better, we’re not running good for 50 laps. We’ve run in the top 10 for most of the race a few times, but we’re falling apart at the end and finishing 11th or worse. We have to figure out how to maintain until the end.”
King would certainly like to put together his best outing of the season on Wednesday at Sharon, the top-notch facility co-owned by NASCAR Sprint Cup veteran and former WoO Sprint Car Series champion Dave Blaney. He brings in a little momentum after authoring several solid runs during his mid-summer break from the WoO tour, including 10th-place DIRTcar Summer Nationals finishes on July 16 at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park and July 17 at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio, and a fifth-place performance in a weekly show on July 18 at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa.
With his shop less than a 20-minute drive from Sharon, King will have the support of a large group of family and friends. He’s hoping to give them a good show at the track where he won his first big-block modified feature in 2005.
“I’m excited about it,” said King, whose previous WoO LMS finishes at Sharon are 14th (2009) and 21st (2008). “We were sixth-quick at an All Star (Late Model Series) show there last month (he didn’t start the feature due to mechanical trouble) and tested there after that, so I feel like we have a general idea about what we need to do. I don’t have to worry about figuring out how to get around the track.
“I’m not saying we’re gonna be an upset winner, but I would like to finish top-five at my home track.”
