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LATEMODELRACER >> DIRT LATE MODELS >> Russell King Makes Home Track Stop At Sharon Speedway
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Message started by LMR on 07/27/10 at 3:24am

Title: Russell King Makes Home Track Stop At Sharon Speedway
Post by LMR on 07/27/10 at 3:24am

Contact: Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series PR Director
kkovac@dirtcar.com | 704-254-7929

Russell King Makes Home Track Stop At Sharon Speedway On Wednesday Night

2009 World of Outlaws Late Model Series Rookie of the Year Looks To Shake Sophomore Struggles In Tour’s Annual Visit To Ohio Oval

HARTFORD, OH – July 25, 2010 – In a perfect world, Russell King would enter the seventh annual World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Sharon Speedway this Wednesday night (July 28) brimming with the confidence of a young driver enjoying a breakout season.

But as King, 21, of Bristolville, Ohio, knows all too well, the learning curve in professional dirt Late Model racing is a steep one. So it is that the 2009 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year will head out on his home track’s three-eighths-mile surface for Wednesday night’s 50-lap, $10,000-to-win Ohio-Pennsylvania Speedweek show hoping that some familiar surroundings will help him shake his sophomore struggles on the national tour.

“After you do the whole World of Outlaws schedule for a season you naturally think it’s going to get easier,” said King, the scion of a family with a rich dirt-track racing history in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. “But the reality is that it just gets harder. Just because you have a year of experience doesn’t mean a thing.”

King’s second year as a regular on the grueling WoO LMS, which in 2010 is scheduled to contest 47 races at 40 tracks in 19 states and two Canadian provinces, has been a humbling test of his personal mettle. After making a giant leap in ’09 to follow the series with his family-owned team – a DIRTcar big-block Modified competitor since the age of 15, he had less than two-dozen dirt Late Model starts under his belt when he became an Outlaw traveler – he registered eight top-10 finishes en route to the rookie title and a 10th-place finish in the points standings. King was expecting improved results this season; instead, he’s experienced nothing but frustration, managing just two top-10 finishes while using 14 provisional spots to start A-Mains through 28 events.

A burly, hard-nosed competitor who wears his emotions on his sleeve, King got off to an extremely disappointing start this season – he relied on a provisional to gain entry in 11 of the first 16 A-Mains, including the first four – that sunk his morale.

“It’s been real tough to keep my mood and confidence up with the way we’ve been running,” said King, whose top finish of 2010 is a 10th on May 13 at Delaware International Speedway and June 15 at Can-Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, N.Y. “Every day this is what I do. I don’t drive trucks or pour concrete (for his family’s business). I work on race cars – my cars, and the (big-block) Modifieds that my father (Rex Sr.) and brother (Rex Jr., aka ‘Cooter’) run – so when we’re running bad it’s all I think about. I don’t even get that mental break of doing something else during the day to take my mind off it all.

“I’m lucky enough to be able to do this fulltime, but you can get yourself in a bad circle when you’re young and you’re struggling like we’ve been. You run bad and all week you’re in a bad mood and hate yourself, and then you think, ‘I’ve got to get in the shop to get better,’ so you work even harder and when you still don’t get the results it makes you feel even worse.

“It takes a lot to get out of the rut,” he added. “You can really beat yourself up, so I’ve tried to listen to what veteran guys like Chub (Frank) tell me. He’s been in it long enough and says, ‘Don’t let yourself get down too much or over-think the situation. Just keep working and one day it’ll just turn around. Something will go your way.’”

King has seen an uptick in his performance recently, qualifying five times through a heat and once through a B-Main (which he won) in the six WoO LMS events run so far in July. He recorded consecutive 11th-place finishes at Wartburg (Tenn.) Speedway, Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway and Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., and during the four-race ‘Wild West Tour’ he turned heads with season-best time-trial efforts of fourth at Deer Creek and second at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D., where he also nearly won the first heat race of his WoO LMS career.

“It’s better lately – at least I don’t want to hang myself,” cracked King, who recently obtained the services of former Chub Frank and Clint Smith mechanic Brad Baum to enhance his existing crew that includes fulltimer Craig (‘Snowman’) McCrimmon and loyal volunteer Bobby Bachman. “We decided to just stick with our blue front-end (Rocket) car and get on the same page with more guys and we’ve had some better results.

“But even though we’ve qualified better, we’re not running good for 50 laps. We’ve run in the top 10 for most of the race a few times, but we’re falling apart at the end and finishing 11th or worse. We have to figure out how to maintain until the end.”

King would certainly like to put together his best outing of the season on Wednesday at Sharon, the top-notch facility co-owned by NASCAR Sprint Cup veteran and former WoO Sprint Car Series champion Dave Blaney. He brings in a little momentum after authoring several solid runs during his mid-summer break from the WoO LMS, including 10th-place DIRTcar Summer Nationals finishes on July 16 at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park and July 17 at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio, and a fifth-place performance in a weekly show on July 18 at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa.

With his shop less than a 20-minute drive from Sharon, King will have the support of a large group of family and friends. He’s hoping to give them a good show at the track where he won his first big-block Modified feature in 2005.

“I’m excited about it,” said King, whose previous WoO LMS finishes at Sharon are 14th (2009) and 21st (2008). “We were sixth-quick at an All-Star (Late Model Series) show there last month (he didn’t start the feature due to mechanical trouble) and tested there after that, so I feel like we have a general idea about what we need to do. I don’t have to worry about figuring out how to get around the track.

“I’m not saying we’re gonna be an upset winner, but I would like to finish top-five at my home track.”

King will face an all-star cast of characters at Sharon, one of three tracks to host a WoO LMS event every year since the tour’s reincarnation in 2004 under the World Racing Group banner.

The roster of Outlaws regulars includes former champions Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y. (2005 tour winner at Sharon), Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., and Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., as well as Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y. (2009 tour winner at Sharon), Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa. (2007), Rick Eckert of York, Pa. (2006), Shane Clanton of Fayetteville, Ga., Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., rookie sensation Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., Brent Robinson of Smithfield, Va., and rookie Jill George of Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Regional talents expected to challenge the WoO LMS regulars include defending O’Reilly All-Star Late Model Series champion Robbie Blair of Titusville, Pa., Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs of Bear Lake, Pa., who won Sharon’s All-Star event on June 8, Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, Pa., Mike Knight of Ripley, N.Y., and Matt Lux of Franklin, Pa.

Sharon’s Wednesday-night WoO LMS program, which is scheduled for a midweek date after running on Saturday for the past four years, is set to begin with hot laps at 6:30 p.m. and time trials at 7 p.m. The FastTrack Touring crate Late Model division will also be part of the evening’s action.

General admission is $27, with kids ages 9-13 admitted for $12 and those 8-and-under free of charge. Pit passes will be $38.

Additional info on the event is available by logging on to www.sharonspeedway.com or calling 330-772-5481 (info) or 330-772-1186 (tickets).

In addition to Wednesday’s show at Sharon, the WoO LMS Ohio-Pennsylvania Speedweek also competes on Tues., July 27, at Central PA Speedway in Clearfield, Pa.; Fri., July 30, at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park; Sat., July 31, at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio; and Sun., Aug. 1, at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa.

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.