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Chub Frank Racing
BEAR LAKE, Penn. (May 27) - A weekend off from the World of Outlaws Late Model Series meant a weekend racing close to home for Chub Frank.
It also nearly brought him a couple visits to Victory Lane.
The 46-year-old superstar from Bear Lake, Pa., came oh-so-close to a pair of checkered flags on Saturday night at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y., finishing second in both ends of the American Tire 'Double Nickel' Super Late Model program.
Racing at the one-third-mile oval where he launched his prolific motorsports career 30 years ago, Chub appeared to be in position to score a $5,000 triumph in the evening's first 30-lap feature after drawing the pole position and grabbing the lead from Randy Lobb on a lap-one restart. With less than 10 laps remaining, however, Chub was overtaken for the top spot by David Scott, who went on to take the win over an unhappy 'Chubzilla.'
"I kinda got run run over by David Scott," Chub said of the move that decided the race in Scott's favor. "I don't know if he thought he had cleared me, but he didn't and got into me. The contact bent my spindle and tore the nose up, so I was just hanging on the rest of the way."
In the 30-lap nightcap, Chub started several rows back but reached second place by lap 14, passing invader Jeremy Miller to assume control of the spot. He then spent the remainder of the distance unsuccessfully attempting to pass Matt Lux, who held on for the $5,000 victory.
"Matt did a great job," said Chub. "I could get alongside him, but just couldn't get off the corner good enough to pull ahead of him. He stayed down in the traction and didn't make any mistakes."
Both features at Stateline - a track just minutes from Chub's shop - were memorial events. The first was run in memory of Leonard Briggs, who built Stateline in the '50s with Chub's father Jerry, Chub's uncle Don and Lloyd Williams, and the second event was dubbed the Bill Freiwald Memorial.
Chub started his weekend on Friday night with a fifth-place finish in the 50-lap Independent Racing Series A-Main at Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio. Calling his setup choice "not very good," Chub got as high as third but fell back to finish in the same position he started.
Chub ran both nights with a Lester Buildings/Corry Rubber/All Star Performance/Corry Laser/Slavic Corporation/Farr MotorSports/Lake Shore Paving/Custom Race Engines Chevrolet Impala SS Rocket Chassis No. 1* that he hasn't used much since early-season events in Georgia. He "did some testing" with the car in hopes of pressing it into service on the WoO LMS sometime in the future.
"I wish we would've got a win, but at least we made some money," said Chub. "We only used 40 gallons of diesel fuel all weekend to tow to the races, so we did O.K."
A holiday picnic with family and friends at his shop filled Sunday for Chub, who returns to WoO LMS action this Thursday (May 29) at Delaware International Speedway in Delmar, Del., and Saturday (May 31) at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway. He enters the East Coast doubleheader coming off a victory on May 18 at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway and tied for second in the tour points standings, just six points behind leader Steve Francis.
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