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Kevin Kovac
SARVER, Penn. (April 16) - Billy Moyer did not make a pre-season commitment to follow the entire World of Outlaws Late Model Series this year, but his red-hot start (four wins in six events and the points lead) has fueled growing speculation about whether he just might decide to chase a fourth career tour title.
After winning Tuesday night's 'Showdown in Sarvertown' at Lernerville Speedway, Moyer didn't summarily rule out pursuing the $100,000 championship prize during a post-race gathering with the media.
"It's still early in the year to think championship if I was running for it," said Moyer, who has led 227 of a possible 400 WoO LMS A-Main laps this season. "I didn't have intentions of running for it from the beginning (of the campaign), but I'm gonna leave it up to my guys who work for me. They're a big part of my program, and if them guys don't want to do it (go for the points title), I'm probably not. If they do, I'll have to think about it."
Of course, Moyer noted that his BMR team members are feeling energized and ready to race every night of the week thanks to his sizzling start.
"The attitude's better with the whole crew when we're winning like this," smiled Moyer, who is currently receiving WoO LMS touring-driver benefits that are available to two drivers outside the 10 who made pre-season commitments to follow the series. "I can even tell that at home with my wife and son, when we're running better, everything goes better for some reason. I don't know why it affects them, but it hurts them worse than it does me sometimes.
"We've had two or three years where we've been off and only won five or six races all year long, and everybody kinda drags down because of it. When we do what we're doing now, everybody's happy and everything goes so much better."
HANGING ON: Rick Eckert didn't say that he might have been able to prevent his frustrating WoO LMS winless streak from reaching 63 races at Lernerville, but he does know that a late-race mechanical problem in his Raye Vest-owned GRT car cost him some positions in the final finishing order.
The York, Pa., star salvaged a fifth-place finish despite racing the final 16 laps without the fifth-coil in his No. 24. He said the coil spring fell onto the track and was removed by the safety crew during the final caution period, on lap 34.
"With the fifth-coil gone, it takes all the traction out of the car," said Eckert. "I know that even without it we were challenging them guys (in the top five), so I would have liked to see what we could've done if we didn't have that problem."
GOOD NIGHT GONE BAD: A solid top-10 run transformed into another agonizing DNF for Tim Fuller in a matter of minutes on Tuesday night.
As Fuller was rolling along in eighth place on lap 33 of the 50-lap A-Main, he suddenly spun in turn four. He said he "caught the inside lip of the track and just went right around."
Fuller restarted at the rear of the field after no one collected him, but when the green flag returned his race came crashing to an end. He ran into the rearend of Dave Hess Jr.'s slowing car on the backstretch, thoroughly crunching the nosepiece of his Gypsum Express No. 19 and necessitating a trip back to the pits behind a wrecker.
"I was a full-song when I saw (Hess) turn right like he was going into the pits," said Fuller. "I hit him good."
Fuller and his Gypsum Express teammate Billy Decker ran on Tuesday night in front of car owner John Wight, who flew in to catch the event. Wight was accompanied by his 15-year-old son Larry, a rising racer coming off a $5,000 DIRTcar Sportsman-Modified win in upstate New York on April 5. 'Lightning' Larry plans to run DIRTcar big-block Modifieds in 2008 but is expected to make his dirt Late Model debut later this season.
ABOUT TIME: Brian Shirley probably never felt as good about an eighth-place finish as he did at Lernerville.
"Man, we really needed this," said Shirley, the 27-year-old WoO LMS regular from Chatham, Ill. "We had three last-place finishes in a row."
Actually, Shirley wrapped last-place (24th) finishes at Mississippi's Pike County Speedway and Virginia Motor Speedway around a 19th-place DNF at Farmer City, Ill., but what's the difference? 'Squirrel' wasn't around at the end of three straight races, and that doesn't cut it.
"I was telling (car owner Ed) Petroff today, 'We gotta finish races,'" said Shirley, whose recent starts had been hampered by a buster radiator (Pike County), a broken shock (Farmer City) and a broken power-steering pump/brake issues (Virginia Motor). "That's the key. We're not getting better if we're always in the pits."
ODDS & ENDS…
Darrell Lanigan's hauler was the last to arrive for Tuesday's action, but after scrambling to get unloaded and ready for action he ended up with his fifth top-10 finish in six events this season.
Lanigan climbed as high as third before settling for a sixth-place run - and his mechanic, Chris Burton, received the Integra Shocks 'Wrench of the Race' Award.
* Shannon Babb never threatened to duplicate his April 2007 WoO LMS victory at Lernerville. His Clint Bowyer-owned Rayburn mount was simply not up to its usual standards as he languished to a 16th-place finish.
* Rookie of the Year contender Vic Coffey looked strong in winning a heat race, but he faded from the outside-pole starting spot in the A-Main to finish a quiet 11th in one of his teammate Tim McCreadie's Sweeteners Plus No. 39 cars.
* It was another rough night for Rookie of the Yea aspirant Jeff Isabell of Pennellville, N.Y., who got upside down for the second time in the last four WoO LMS programs.
The 17-year-old's Lernerville crash wasn't nearly as wild as his barrel-rolls last month at Pike County, but the rollover on the inside of turn three during the second heat still exacted a heavy price on his JIR Motorsports Rayburn. The car, which his team purchased from an Illinois driver two weeks ago to replace the mount that was destroyed in Mississippi, was left with a bent rollcage.
Isabell, however, escaped the wreck uninjured.
* Jeremy Miller of Gettysburg, Pa., went from the bright lights of Victory Lane after capturing his first-ever WoO LMS win at Virginia Motor to a dejected non-qualifier at Lernerville. He dropped out of the second B-Main.
* Up-and-coming Mike Knight, a 21-year-old from Ripley, N.Y., who won the 2007 Super Late Model title at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., in his second full year racing in the division, got some help from WoO LMS regular Chub Frank on Tuesday night.
After qualifying through a B-Main despite being hampered by carburetor woes, Frank, who was parked alongside Knight, gave the youngster a carb to bolt on his Rocket car for the feature. Knight installed Frank's carburetor and went on to finish 14th in the A-Main - even after bringing out a caution flag on lap three and then pitting to tighten a loose throttle linkage.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
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