Tyler County Speedway
At Tyler, Richards eyes first home-state victory
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Josh Richards is gunning for his first victory in his home state. (thesportswire.net)
While Josh Richards has turned plenty of laps in West Virginia — most of them before he got a driver's license at the now-closed I-79 Speedway near the Rocket Chassis plant in Shinnston, W.Va. — the two-time World of Outlaws Late Model Series has competed only a few times on the series in his home state.
He'll get a lucrative opportunity in West Virginia on Labor Day weekend with the Black Diamond 125 at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne at an event with a unique format and a whopping $157,000 in purse money up for grabs.
Richards, the hottest driver on the World of Outlaws circuit, would count a Black Diamond victory as one of the most cherished of his career, and not merely because of the Sept. 2-3 event’s huge payoff.
A checkered flag at Tyler County would have special sentimental value for the 23-year-old driver who has won three of the last four WoO events. He's never won a Dirt Late Model feature of any kind in his home state.
“It’s cool to run a big World of Outlaws show in West Virginia,” said Richards, whose seven triumphs on this year’s series places him in a tie with Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky. “I’ve never really had too many chances to run in West Virginia during my career, so I’m looking forward to Tyler County. It would mean a lot to win a race like that so close to home.”
While the Tyler County oval is just a little over an hour’s drive from his home, Richards has made only two career starts there. He finished 12th in the 2004 Hillbilly 100 during his first season of Dirt Late Model racing and placed sixth in the track’s lone previous WoO event, a 40-lapper on May 31, 2009.
“I’ve watched a lot of races there though,” said Richards, who often visited Tyler County as a teenager to serve as a crew member for his uncle, Robbie Scott. “It’s definitely a unique racetrack. It’s a racer’s racetrack. It’s not the prettiest place and it’s only a quarter-mile, but the racing there is hard.
“It’s a great place to go if you like racing – and it’s definitely a track that I like racing at.”
Richards sits second in the current WoO standings, trailing Rick Eckert of York, Pa., by just 28 points after cutting Eckert’s edge in half during the tour’s Michigan doubleheader on Aug. 19-20. But there will be no change in the points battle at Tyler County because the unusual format means the series will offer equal show-up points for every driver. And it's definitely an unusual format.
The weekend starts with UFO Race Championship-sanctioned racing on Friday, but things are shaken up on Saturday with a unique split-field, three-feature format that spreads the wealth to race teams and provides fans quite a bang for their buck
Saturday’s program alone gives one competitor a chance to ride off with $30,000 in first-place winnings and more than 135 drivers had entered as of Monday afternoon.
“The Black Diamond 125 is shaping up to be an unbelievable event,” said WoO series director Tim Christman, who last month signed a deal with Circle Track Management Group’s Frank Wilson to add World of Outlaws sanction to the big-money race. “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of a weekend that offers such a lucrative payoff for the teams and so much excitement for the fans. There’s a buzz around the Black Diamond that puts it in rarified air.”
A total of more than $157,000 will be on the line for Super Late Model competitors during Tyler County’s Black Diamond 125 weekend, which starts Thursday, Sept. 1, with support-division racing and Late Model practice.
Friday's action includes the 51-lap, $8,000-to-win West Virginia State Championship for UFO competitors while Saturday, of course, is the anchor of the weekend.
The Black Diamond 125 field will be split into two groups following Ohlins Shocks Time Trials (odd-numbered qualifiers in one group, even-numbered qualifiers in the other) and a full racing program: 15-lap heats, 15-lap consolation races and and 24-car, 40-lap semifeatures paying $10,000 to the winner.
The top-eight finishers in each semifeature will move on to the Sweet Sixteen finale, a 45-lap showdown that offers a $20,000 first-place prize.
Each 40-lap semifeature and the Sweet Sixteen finale boasts a full purse, including cool $1,000 payoffs for last place. Forty-eight drivers are guaranteed to earn at least $1,000.
