WESTERN PA RACING REVIEW
by Walt Wimer

October 19, 2006 

     LATE MODELS - Challenger Fall Fest:  It was pretty darn cold, especially the Friday and Saturday night races, but at least it wasn’t raining. And that is saying something the way the weather gods have treated the racers the past six weeks or so.  All three nights of the extravaganza went in the record books with no real threat of rain. Dick Barton took the $4,000-to-win 40 lapper on Friday while Jeremy Miller took his first-ever Fall Fest victory in Sunday’s big $20,000-to-win MACS race.  The central PA driver from Gettysburg has been coming on strong the later half of the year with several top finishes in big races, including a Labor Day 55-lap win at Bedford.  I don’t think Miller has run but once or twice in the Fall Fest, but was seventh in 2004.  Barton won the biggie for $15,000 in 2002, but this was his second win in the $4,000 Friday night go, having also won it in 2000. Barton led the first six laps Sunday and was still second to Miller when he blew an engine on lap 58 and ended the day in 20th position.   Miller and Barton may have gotten the headlines, but Matt Lux is the driver many are talking about. The Franklin driver, who came up through the ranks from the Stock Car classes, has come on strong the latter part of the season including a fine fifth against the WoO at Lernerville in August. Lux had a super weekend at Challenger with a third Friday and then second to Miller in the big one Sunday, which was worth $10,000, his biggest purse ever.  Lux, who has done double duty racing both his Late Model and the Scott Bidwell E Mod since mid season 2004, will concentrate full time on the Late Model next year.  That will not be good news for many of his rivals!!  Lux and Bidwell parted on very good terms after 2-1/2 years and 21 victories. Bidwell is currently looking for a driver to put behind the wheel of his E Mod in 2007. John Flinner was injured in a crash during the “D” Main for the 78-car field. I am not sure the extent of the injuries as of this writing Monday morning, but I do not believe they are real serious, even though he was life-flighted from the track after being cut out of the car.

          Pittsburgher Flashback:  When Chub Frank and Mike Balzano failed to attend the 2005 Pittsburgher due to schedule conflicts, it left the historic race with no drivers who had made every race.  Frank was back this year along with the WoO, but Balzano wasn’t as he was running a MACS race elsewhere.  Frank made his 17th start in the 18 races along with Steve Baker and Davey Johnson. Johnson missed in 1990 and Baker in 1994. Balzano and Lynn Geisler have 16 starts, while Tim Hitt and Gary Stuhler, both missing this year, have 14 each.

          Most fans know that Scott Bloomquist and Johnson are the only three-time winners with Donnie Moran, Hitt and Rick Aukland each having pair of wins.  Checking out the times a driver has finished in the top five, one will find Moran on top of Bloomquist 9-to-8, with Johnson and Frank each having  six.  Top ten finishes: Here it is a tie between Moran and Johnson at 10 each over Bloomquist, Frank and Balzano at eight each.

          I am sure that you read here or elsewhere that Shane Clanton won the race in his first start. Here is another impressive stat. Josh Richards, with 2nd & 4th place finishes, has the best record of any driver who has only run the race twice in its 18 years. Next best??  Rodney Combs with 3rd and 4th place finishes in 1991-92.  And only nine drivers have run the race one or two times and recorded a top five finish. Dan Schleiper only ran in 2004 and was runner-up that year.  The Pittsburgher 100 has 11 winners and 17 drivers have run 10 or more times in the event.  Seven drivers made their first start this year, down one from the number of newcomers the past two years. None of the eight drivers who ran for the first time in 2004 raced again in 2005, but five of them were back in the field for 2006. The return of the WoO sanction being the reason for that.

           The cancellation of the Pittsburgher on its original weekend caused a lot of drivers to change plans.  Dale McDowell, now involved with the Richard Childress development program, had obligations in Alabama over the weekend. So, he left his car home and drove a Mark Richards backup “house car”.  With his new deal with Childress and his own driving school, it appears that the popular McDowell will not race full-time next season.  Look for him run mostly the real big paying shows much like Scott Bloomquist is doing.  Tim McCreadie was forced to give up is plans to race at Syracuse in the big Modified race last weekend. The Watertown, NY driver grew up with the Modifieds and would very much like to win the Syracuse race his father won in 1986. The younger McCreadie has run every Syracuse race since 1997, but never been around at the finish despite being a contender several times. McCreadie did hold on to win the WoO  title by just 16 points.  To save costs, Georgia drivers Shane Clanton and Clint Smith brought both cars in Clanton’s hauler. Bet it was a fun ride home to the Peach State!!! With the rescheduling seven drivers failed to make the return trip, including already qualified Brian Birkhofer from Iowa. The rest who didn’t come back were all scheduled to start one of the “B” Mains in 11th or worse, leaving little chance to make the show on the slick afternoon track.

           SPRINTS:  Sprint Car racing locally has been over for three weeks, but there has been a lot of news nationally.  Although I have seen nothing “official” yet, a fellow RPM writer reports the National Sprint Tour will fold and not operate in 2007.  And also that the WoO will go to 20 “contract” drivers.  Some NST drivers are expected to become full-time WoO drivers again. No word yet who, but I am betting on Danny Lasoski, Jason Solwold and the Tony Stewart-owned car, as all three supported the WoO when the NST didn’t have a scheduled race.  The big question in my mind is Steve Kinser?  What will “The King” do?  He has been quoted several times as saying he would never return to the WoO.  Will he eat humble pie, retire, or turn to something else in the motorsports world? This could be one of the big questions of the offseason. And how about the All Stars? Just when we had about given them up for dead there comes word of a big new sponsor for 2007.  Silly season is on in central PA from what I hear with several major driver-car changes. You may need a program in 2007!!  More on this in December.   

         MODIFIEDS:  Like the Sprint Cars, Modified racing has been over locally for three weeks. But a handful of our drivers have headed east and north with mixed results. Kevin Bolland took a roller coaster ride. The night before the Syracuse race he finished second in the first of two races at Weedsport, and then flipped early on in the other one during a multi-car crash. Had he had the best overall point total for the two races he would have qualified for Syracuse. Then Bolland headed to Williams Grove this weekend and in a Saturday night preliminary feature was second again, this time to former DIRT champ and Syracuse winner Tim Fuller. However, Bolland, Del Rougeux, Jr. and Rex King all were involved in tangles Sunday in the 100-lap SDS race and none finished. At the pay window it was Rougeux (21st), Bolland (22nd)  and King (26th) in Russell’s car after a practice crash in the #65. The King team and Rougeux all went to the new big race at Afton, NY during “Syracuse weekend”, but none of them made the feature in a race where many cars ran sideboards.  That’s if for now….See you in December!!