Tazewell Speedway
WoO gears up for 101 laps at speedy Tazewell
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
The high banks of Tazewell Speedway. (dt52photos.com)
The track promoter touts it as the biggest race in the history of Tazewell Speedway. The stars of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series see it as the most formidable challenge on the national tour's 2011 schedule. Which makes one thing quite clear: the inaugural Outlaw Sizzler 101 on July 2-3 promises to be anything but ordinary.
An Independence Day weekend extravaganza that features time trials and heat races on Saturday night and consolation races and a 101-lap main event Sunday evening, the Outlaw Sizzler will be contested on a steeply-banked, third-mile ribbon of southern clay that produces mind-numbing speeds. The driver who reaches the checkered flag first will have earned every cent of the track-record payoff of $20,000.
"There hasn't been a 100-lapper at Tazewell in quite a few years and there has never been a $20,000-to-win show," said track owner Gary Hall, a former racer who has operated the facility for the past six seasons. "This is gonna be exciting for the fans. And let me tell ya, the drivers better be in shape. There's no coasting around at Tazewell."
After visiting Tazewell for the first time one year ago and running a modest 50-lap event, the high-profile WoO travelers know that doubling the distance presents a supreme test of man and machine.
"It's gonna be a tough one," said Shane Clanton of Fayetteville, Ga., who won last year's event but enters this weekend's action still searching for his victory of 2011 on the tour. "Tazewell is so fast and demanding because it's so small. You don't run the corners there any faster than some other tracks, but you got a bunch of banking to catch you and it's a little place with walls all the way around so you feel like you're going even faster than you are.
"One hundred laps there is gonna be a real mental game. Things happen so fast there and there's no escape route, so you have to always be looking ahead so you don't get in a crash. You always gotta be on your toes, which is what's so tough about a 100-lap race there. Staying out of wrecks for that long is gonna be hard because somebody is gonna make a mistake, hit the fence and cause a pileup that could take you out real quick."
Tazewell is a dirt track that fits no mold, a bullring that not only sports turns banked at a Daytona-like 32 degrees but also straightaways tilted at roughly 15 degrees. Dirt Late Models zip around the speedway at a pace that belies its size. The division's one-lap track record is a blistering 10.947 seconds established in 2009 by Jeff Wolfenbarger of Clinton, Tenn.
When fans eyeball it and drivers navigate it for the first time, they usually have the same awed reaction.
"That's probably the craziest track I've ever been on," said two-time defending WoO champion Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., whose third-place finish in last year's tour event marked his first-ever start at Tazewell. "As far as just the raw speed and the banking, it's a pretty wicked place. I remember that after the heat race last year, I was just completely out of breath. The track can just drain every bit out of you."
Richards, a 23-year-old sensation who on July 7 at Kentucky Speedway is set to make the first of his scheduled 11 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts this season in a Toyota Tundra owned by NASCAR star Kyle Busch, will take a certain mindset into the Outlaw Sizzler 101 weekend.
"I feel you gotta go in there and just have respect for the track," said Richards, who has two WoO victories in '11 and sits second in points. "Everybody's going so fast, it doesn't take much to tear a bunch of stuff up. It'll slow down for the (feature) which will make it a little easier to focus, but for (101) laps it's still gonna be physically and mentally tough to keep going."
The prospect of running a frenetic 101 laps at Tazewell elicited interesting reactions from WoO regulars. For instance, there was Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa. ("One-hundred laps? Whoa..." said the veteran who finished fifth in last year's tour stop at Tazewell) and 2010 Rookie of the Year Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del. ("I'm just hoping that I don't end up throwing up. You get dizzy at that place," joked the 19-year-old who placed seventh last year).
And then there's WoO LMS points leader Rick Eckert of York, Pa., who will arrive at Tazewell riding a hot streak that includes two victories, two seconds and a third-place finish in his last seven tour events.
"Nobody else has a racetrack like Tazewell," said Eckert, who finished sixth in last year's WoO LMS A-Main. "It's banked so high and it's so aggressive, you don't go to another place like it. You can't take it easy there. You better charge the corner every lap because the guy behind you will be charging the corner. If you don't, he'll mount you."
Eckert, 46, doesn't believe the speedway is as hard on a driver's body as popular legend makes it out to be, but racing there does come with unique mental challenges.
"Racing there isn't as physical as it would appear because it doesn't try to rip your head off (rounding the turns) like a lot of racetracks," said Eckert, who is chasing his first career WoO championship. "The banking just plants you in the seat when you hit the corner, just keeps squishing you in. Really, the most physical part of it is holding your breath for those two laps of qualifying."
The start could be quite a stress test as well, said Eckert.
"The beginning is the treacherous part at that place," Eckert said. "When there's a crash it usually takes out a lot cars, so everybody will be on pins and needles the first part of the race when the pack is bunched up.
"A hundred laps might be real interesting, though. Last year the racetrack was just getting really racy at 50 laps. With (101) laps, there might be some serious, real good racing there at the end."
