World of Outlaws Notebook
Notes: Miller, Rine ready for WoO invasion at Bedford
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Jeff Rine already has seven 2010 victories. (Brian McLeod)
Bedford (Pa.) Speedway co-promoter J.R. Kiefer knows that a major aspect of all World of Outlaws Late Model Series events is the showdown between the traveling stars and regional standouts — and when the national tour visits his 5/8-mile fairgrounds oval Friday, he expects those battle lines will be in full effect.
"I always like to see the local guys get a shot at the Outlaws," said Kiefer, who is overseeing a 50-lap, $10,000-to-win WoO show at Bedford for the fourth consecutive year. "The Outlaws are some of the best there is and it's tough to beat them, but there's gonna be some guys who just might give them a run for the money."
That group of home-state talents is headed by Jeremy Miller of Gettysburg, Pa., and Jeff Rine of Danville, Pa., two streaking drivers who have already tasted victory this season at Bedford and seem well-equipped to challenge the Outlaws.
Miller, 39, has proven his ability to go toe-to-toe with the sport's biggest names, having won a WoO event on April 11, 2008, at Virginia Motor Speedway and come close to reaching victory lane on several occasions, most recently last June when he finished second at Big Diamond Raceway in Minersville, Pa. Now in his second season campaigning self-owned equipment after breaking out during his stint driving for Charles Buckler, the reserved Miller enters Friday's action coming off a big weekend that included feature wins on May 21 at Bedford and May 23 at Susquehanna Speedway in Newberrytown, Pa.
The pair of triumphs snapped Miller out of a frustrating early-season slump just in time for the arrival of the WoO at Bedford. Prior to the weekend breakthrough he had just one top-10 finish in his first eight starts of the season, including WoO appearances at Virginia Motor (DNQ for Commonwealth 100), Delaware International Speedway (20th) and Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway (23rd).
The 32-year-old Rine, meanwhile, is arguably the hottest Dirt Late Model racer in the Keystone State this season. He has won a Northeast-leading seven features in 12 starts, including four straight times at his home track, Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway; twice at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway; and once at Bedford (April 30). He also finished fourth in last Friday night's weekly show at Bedford.
Rine's WoO record is more modest that Miller's, however. The proprietor of Wing Dynamics (as he ironically points out on his website, "Yes, I make Sprint Car wings!") has made 15 tour starts over the past three years, qualifying for six features and scoring a single top-10 finish. His career-best Outlaw outing came on June 24, 2009, at Big Diamond, where he set fast time, won a heat race and finished 10th.
Richards right at home
Josh Richards is ready for the lone World of Outlaws visit to his home state in 2010.
The defending tour champion leads the charge this weekend to West Virginia Motor Speedway, the massive 5/8-mile oval in Mineral Wells that hosts the two-day RaceFest World Championships on Saturday and Sunday. Highlighting the track's return to the national spotlight after two full seasons of inactivity will be a 30-lapper paying $8,000 to win on Saturday and a 40-lapper offering a $10,000 top prize Sunday.
Richards, 22, brings plenty of momentum to WVMS, which sits just over 80 miles west of his Shinnston, W.Va., home. He's off to one of the best starts in WoO history, with four victories already to his credit (he's the only driver who's won more than once in '10) and a hefty points lead of 56 markers over Darrell Lanigan.
In 14 races this season, Richards has recorded 10 top-five and 12 top-10 finishes and earned $74,575. That's markedly better than his 14-race totals en route to the 2009 WoO championship; he had one win, seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes and ranked third in the points standings (trailing leader Steve Francis by 44 points) with $53,820 in earnings at this same juncture last season.
One of the keys to Richards's success, of course, is his virtually unmatched ability to qualify well (he missed transferring through a heat just once in 40 events last season and hasn't had to run a consolation yet this year) and avoid disaster, whether it be terminal mechanical problems or race-ending crashes. So far this year he has completed all 800 feature laps — and dating back to 2009, he's finished on the lead lap in 41 consecutive events.
What's more, Richards always seems to be on the track at the end of each race. With the exception of one instance in each of the past two years in which a last-lap incident prevented him from crossing under the checkered flag, the last time Richards retired early because of a mechanical malfunction was July 27, 2007, at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, after he broke a jackshaft on lap 26 and did not return.
Odds and ends
This weekend's RaceFest marks the first WoO action at WVMS since Oct. 1-2, 2004, when the tour contested a doubleheader (50 laps on Oct. 1, 100 laps on Oct. 2) that was swept by Jackie Boggs of Grayson, Ky. ... Coleby Frye of Dover, Pa., has put his own dirt Late Model driving career on hold this season to travel the WoO LMS as a full-time crewman on the Beitler Motorsports team, but he's not totally stepping out of the cockpit. With his family-owned equipment still at his disposal, the 25-year-old Frye used last weekend's WoO break to make his first start of the season at Susquehanna Speedway, finishing second.
