Bristol Motor Speedway
NOTEBOOK: PPMS win special to Richards family
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Driver Brian Birkhofer donned his Elvis mask at PPMS. (Kevin Kovac)
Saturday was a good day for the Richards family. Teenage dirt Late Model sensation Josh Richards won the Sept. 22 World of Outlaws Late Model Series Pittsburgher 50 at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, giving him a victory in a race he’s been attending for most of his life.
And Richards’ triumph came behind the wheel of the Rocket Chassis house car fielded by his father Mark, who claimed an unprecedented sixth Pittsburgher title as a car owner.
What’s more, the top 10 finishers in the main event were all behind the wheel of Rocket Chassis cars — and the victory lane celebration was a true family affair, with Josh’s mother and sister and Mark’s Rocket Chassis partner, dirt Late Model veteran Steve Baker (who failed to qualify at his hometrack), among those on hand for the post-race fun.
“This place has always been pretty special to us,” said Josh, who lives in Shinnston, W.Va., just over a 90-minute drive from the PPMS half-mile. “I can remember coming here as a kid and watching all these guys I’m racing with now run this race. When Davey (Johnson) won it for us, I had a crew uniform on and was in the victory lane picture. It’s always been cool to come to the Pittsburgher, and now to get my name up on that (winner’s) list is a thrill.”
Richards, 19, joined Tim Hitt (1996 and 1998), Davey Johnson (2000), Rick Aukland (2002) and Bart Hartman (2004) as drivers who have piloted a Rocket house car to victory in the 19-year history of the event.
“Two tracks I’ve always wanted to win at were Hagerstown (Md.) and here,” said Richards, who in 2004 ran the first dirt Late Model feature of his career at Hagerstown and the third at PPMS. “To win at both of them this year is just awesome.”
Richards has four WoO victories this season, tied for second-most with Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., and Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga. He’s proud of the stat.
“My goal coming into this year was to get four Outlaw wins,” said Richards, who has led more laps on this year’s tour (301) than any other driver. “I knew that would be a high standard, but I knew we were capable of doing it. I feel like we should’ve won six or seven, but to get four Outlaw wins in our third year, it’s real fun.”
Getting tips on running PPMS
WoO Rookie of the Year contender Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill., headed east early and stopped at the Rocket Chassis shop to finish up a new car. Before heading to PPMS with Josh Richards and Darrell Lanigan for an open practice session on Thursday night, Shirley got a quick tutorial on running the track. Mark Richards pulled out a tape of Josh’s first-ever race at the oval, an early 2004 event in which Josh went from ninth to the lead before blowing a tire.
“I showed Shirley the tape so he’d know how to run around here,” said Mark Richards. “It’s a different place. You just run it like a big circle.”
Shirley, 26, proved he’s a quick learner in the 50-lap main, driving forward from the eighth starting spot to finish second in his first-ever start at PPMS. It was a finish that gave the event a true young-guns flavor — Richards and Shirley, after all, are the only drivers under 30 ranked among the top 15 in the WoO points standings.
The weekend had the potential to be a great one for Shirley, who started his trip to Pennsylvania on Friday night at Bedford Speedway by being the first driver to break the one-lap track record in time trials. (Only Steve Francis went on to better Shirley’s mark.) But later, as Shirley was racing down the backstretch with a commanding lead on the final lap of his heat, a busted distributor triggered a brief-but-spectacular fire under the hood of his Ed Petroff-owned No. 3s. Shirley escaped the flame-up without injury, which he attributed to wearing fireproof gloves.
“I’m glad I started wearing gloves a couple years ago,” said Shirley, who also noted that the fire fortunately didn’t cause any major damage to his car or engine.
Bedford's improvements impress Frank
After winning Friday night’s inaugural WoO event at Bedford Speedway, Chub Frank was impressed with the improvements that have been made to the half-mile fairgrounds oval in recent years.
“This place used to be kind of dangerous,” said Frank. “You couldn’t see very well because it was dark, and the (retaining) walls were low. The last time I was here, (Todd) Andrews was out in the trees in the parking lot after hopping over the wall. Now this place has great lights, and it was racy. It got a little rubber at the end, but it was good. I hope we come back here next year.”
That’s a definite possibility. Bedford co-promoter J.R. Keifer reported that the event — the biggest dirt Late Model show in Bedford’s long history — drew the track’s largest crowd of the season. With the race going up against western Pennsylvania’s vaunted Friday-night high-school football schedule, Keifer couldn’t have been more pleased with the turnout.
Points chase on hold at PPMS
The battle for the 2007 WoO championship remained status-quo after Saturday night’s Pittsburgher 50 because the event offered only show-up points (75 points to all entered drivers). WoO officials made the announcement because an open practice session was held at PPMS on Thursday night, violating the tour’s rule that prohibits open or private practices at a track within one week of a one-day show.
“The rule was put into our sanctioning agreements in an effort to help keep costs down for our traveling teams,” said WoO director Tim Christman. “In the past, teams had voiced concerns about the added costs of traveling to tracks early — and in some cases renting them — for practice sessions.”
Doing a little experimenting
Since there was no points-chasing pressure at PPMS, Clint Smith, who sits third in the WoO standings, decided to try some experimental setups on his GRT No. 44. But after finishing a dismal 11th, Smith noted that he “just went in the wrong direction” with his attempts to uncover some speed.
“We tried stuff that was supposed to work, and it didn’t,” said Smith, who scored a much more satisfying fourth-place finish on Friday night at Bedford. “We were just terrible. We had no side-bite or traction the whole night. It was just hang on, hang on. I came in and changed a left-rear tire and it helped a little bit, but it still wasn’t right.”
Here's mud in your eye
Rick Eckert experienced a scare during Saturday-night heat-race action at PPMS. Running fifth on a lap-two restart, Eckert clearly had trouble getting his car up to speed. He lost several positions by the time he reached turn one. What happened?
“I got so covered with mud when we restarted, I couldn’t see,” said Eckert, who had a thick spray of mud thrown into his face by the car ahead of him. “They had that mud around the inside of the racetrack, and I think it was Davey (Johnson) who got his left side in it on the restart and it just flew back at me and covered me up.
“My tearoffs were so slippery from the mud I couldn’t get ‘em off, so I eased into the corner slow because I couldn’t see where I was going. I was back about eighth until I finally got a tearoff off and could see again.
“I never had that happen before,” asserted Eckert, who missed transferring his mud-caked car by one spot and went on to win a B-Main and finish 12th in the feature.
Miller posts another strong performance
Friday night’s Bedford 50 was another strong WoO performance for Jeremy Miller of Gettysburg, Pa., who recorded a tour career-best finish of second. The run came on the heels of Miller’s fourth-place finish in the July 28 WoO event at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, where he led until being overtaken by Chub Frank with only six laps remaining.
“Just to be up there battling with those (WoO) guys, that’s all I ask for,” said the 36-year-old Miller, who drives outgoing car owner Charles Buckler’s Rocket No. 24. “It’s very tough racing these guys. People who just come in to run against them for a few shows and leave, like myself — it’s like, I’m running better than I honestly can expect.
“We’re slowly getting better,” he continued. “We just gotta keep working on it. We got on some new Genesis shocks (one week ago), and they turned our program around. You still gotta make the right decisions, but I’m happy. Maybe we got something to work with.”
Notes and quotes
Three weeks after his upset victory in the Sept. 2 WoO event at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa., Dan Stone of Thompson, Pa., was back racing with the tour at Bedford and PPMS. He failed to qualify at Bedford, but he got in the Pittsburgher thanks to a WoO provisional and finished 21st. ... Iowa's Brian Birkhofer shifted from racing mode to tailgating Pittsburgh Steelers fan as soon as he loaded up his No. 15B after finishing seventh in the Pittsburgher. As Birkhofer drove his hauler out of the PPMS pit area — wearing the Elvis mask that he had donned earlier to draw some laughter during the pre-race drivers’ meeting — Sunday’s Steelers game against the San Francisco 49ers was on his mind. Birky, who shares Steelers season tickets with the family of Integra Shocks rep Brian Daugherty, was headed for his first Steelers game of the season. ... WoO competitors are off until Oct. 10, when it stops for a Wednesday night special at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway dirt track for the Jani-King Southern Showdown.
