Wayne County Speedway
Notes: Arthur takes wild ride at Wayne County
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Walker Arthur wasn't injured in this scary rollover accident. (rdwphotos.smugmug.com)
ORRVILLE, Ohio (May 24) — Last season, Walker Arthur of Forest, Va., enjoyed a breakout performance during the World of Outlaws Late Model Series visit to NAPA Wayne County Speedway, leading laps 1-21 of the feature en route to a fifth-place finish. | Slideshow | Hess wins
On Friday night? The 28-year-old didn't even make it through time trials of the event won by Dave Hess Jr. of Waterford, Pa.
Arthur's evening went south abruptly when he rolled his No. 87 between turns one and two during qualifying. He escaped uninjured, but the only car in his stable sustained significant body damage and forced him to scratch for the night. He’ll have to make significant repairs to be able to compete in series action Saturday and Sunday at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va.
"I just dug in on the cushion and started flipping,” Arthur said. "When my car went in the air I just said, 'Uh-oh.' It got quiet real quick.”
The good-natured Arthur said it was the first time he had ever rode out a flip in his racing career, which began in 2000.
"It was like a wild roller-coaster ride,” he added.
The return of Davies
Ron Davies of Warren, Pa., who followed the full WoO schedule in 2011, made his first appearance on the tour since February's action in Georgia and Florida.
The event provided Davies an opportunity to visit with his daughter Michelle, who is married to series regular Shane Clanton. It also gave him a chance to continue his hot streak since returning home from his southern swing in February.
"We've got 11 top-three finishes in a row,” Davies said before the race. His stretch of success includes two Dirt Late Model wins (at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y., and McKean County Raceway in East Smethport, Pa.) and two open-wheel Modified triumphs (both at McKean County).
His series of strong runs came to an end at Wayne County when he was the first retiree in the 24-car field.
Travel troubles
First year WoO competitor Scott James of Lawrenceburg, Ind., missed his first event of the season because of mechanical problems with his hauler. He called series officials Friday afternoon to report that his rig was broken down near Cincinnati and, as a result, he wouldn’t be able to get his Warrior Chassis house cars to the track.
James was granted 60 hardship points for his misfortune, but he still took a tumble in the series standings. He entered the race tied for seventh with Eric Wells and stood 11th when the night was over.
James, who experienced mechanical woes with his hauler earlier this month that led his team to borrow a truck and trailer from Hall of Famer Freddy Smith for the washed-out Georgia weekend May 3-4, said he hopes to have his truck fixed in time to compete the rest of the weekend at Tyler County Speedway.
Beitler tags along
Former WoO team owner Dale Beitler is spending the holiday weekend on the road with the tour. He hitched a ride in Rick Eckert's hauler to take in this weekend's tripleheader at Wayne County and Tyler County Speedway.
Beitler, whose familiar Reliable Painting No. 19 was driven on the series by Steve Francis in 2008-09 and Austin Hubbard in 2010-11, is retired — at least for the moment — from the team-ownership game. But he still often attends races near his Maryland home and keeps close tabs on the World of Outlaws action.
This year, in fact, Beitler has even become a WoO sponsor. In an effort to help the owner-operators on the tour, at each WoO LMS event he provides a free tire to the second-highest finishing series regular who fields his own race team.
Odds and ends
Feature winner Dave Hess Jr. was among the last arrivals to the track, reaching Orrville just after the drivers’ meeting. "We made a wrong turn somewhere," he said. "And we had GPS.” ... Doug Drown, who entered Wayne County’s event with six victories in his previous seven feature starts, earned his first career WoO fast-time honor with a lap of 16.807 seconds, then he won the first heat race. Drowned ended up 11th in the main event.
