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Kevin Kovac
HIGHLANDS, Tex. (March 19) - This weekend's inaugural 'Lone Star 100' at Battleground Speedway, which kicked off with a practice session on Thursday night that included just over 30 cars, is a truly special event in so many ways.
Consider:
* The two-day spectacular (time trials and heats on Fri., March 20, and last-chance races and the $20,000-to-win A-Main on Sat., March 21) brings the renowned World of Outlaws Late Model Series back to Texas for the first time since 2004, when the tour made its only previous appearance in the state early in its first season under the World Racing Group banner. Lone Star Speedway in Kilgore hosted two complete programs that were won by then WoO LMS regulars Dale McDowell (April 16) and Bart Hartman (April 17).
* This will serve as the first major event of a new era at Battleground Speedway, a high-banked, three-eighths-mile oval that reopened three weeks ago after sitting dormant since early 2006. Texan Mike Walling, 34, purchased the silent facility last September and has big aspirations for the track, which previously operated from 1984-2001 and 2004-2006.
* The track last hosted a national-level dirt Late Model touring series event on March 5, 1993, when the defunct Hav-A-Tampa/UDTRA Series sanctioned a non-points show won by Bill Frye of Greenbrier, Ark. What's more, there hasn't been a regional touring series program at Battleground since June 20, 1998, when the Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) series made its last of 15 visits from 1992-1998.
* With a first-place prize of $20,000 and total purse in the neighborhood of $100,000 for Saturday night's Lone Star 100 headliner, this is arguably the biggest weekend of dirt Late Model racing ever staged in the great state of Texas. Only one other dirt Late Model event held in Texas has offered a $20,000 winner's check - a Hav-A-Tampa/UDTRA Series show on Sept. 28-29, 2000, at the Texas Motor Speedway dirt track (won by Dan Schlieper of Sullivan, Wis.) - and during the 2000s the state has hosted just five races paying $10,000 or more to win, with none since the WoO LMS's last visit in 2004.
* Saturday night's post-race celebration will be perhaps the most unique in WoO LMS history. Hondo, a 1,300-pound Texas Longhorn with a six-and-a-half-foot horn spread, is being brought in from the LaBuff Bucking Bulls ranch in nearby Ames, Texas, to lend a Lone Star State accent to the Victory Lane proceedings. The race winner will pose for photos with Hondo - maybe even while sitting on the steer's back.
LOOKING FOR TEXAS GLORY: Not a single WoO LMS regular has ever competed at Battleground Speedway, but several have made starts in the state.
In fact, three Outlaws scored top-five finishes in the tour's 2004 A-Mains at Lone Star Speedway. Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., finished second in the April 17 event, while the April 16 preliminary feature saw 2007 series champion and current points leader Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., finish third and defending tour champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., place fifth.
Other current WoO LMS regulars who competed in the 2004 doubleheader in Texas included Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., Rick Eckert of York, Pa., and Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga. Hartman's victory in the weekend's second event, meanwhile, came behind the wheel of the Mark Richards Racing Enterprises Rocket Chassis house car - the machine that is now driven by young WoO LMS sensation Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., who will make his first career A-Main start in the state of Texas on Saturday and celebrate his 21st birthday on Sunday.
TEXAS CONNECTION: WoO LMS Rookie of the Year candidate Dustin Hapka travels the tour from his home base in Grand Forks, N.D. - just 60 miles from the Canadian border - but he has a tie to Texas.
Hapka, who turned 26 on March 9, was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. He moved to North Dakota by the time he was one, but his father, Steve, still lives in Galveston, Texas. As a result, with Hapka on the road along the Gulf Coast all week after competing in last Friday night's WoO LMS event at Deep South Speedway in Loxley, Ala. (where he earned Rookie of the Race honors), the upstart racer had a chance to spend Wednesday fishing with his father in the Galveston area.
Believe it or not, though Hapka has been racing in various divisions since 2001, his father has only seen him race on television or on the internet. And even with this weekend's show so close to Galveston, Hapka's father won't be able to watch his son slide around the Battleground oval in person because his job doing designing and engineering work for oil refineries is taking him on a trip to Saudi Arabia.
HEAT CHECK: A glance at the WoO LMS racers who enter the weekend riding high or low waves:
Who's Hot - Steve Francis will attempt to pull off just the fifth three-race win streak on the WoO LMS since 2004 (and become the first driver to win three in-a-row twice); Richards captured the tour's season opener last month in Florida and sits second in the points standings; Brady Smith failed to qualify for the WoO LMS lidlifter but finished second and fourth in the next two A-Mains.
Who's Not - Clint Smith scored a ninth-place finish last Friday at Deep South Speedway but ranks 14th in the points standings thanks to a pair of dismal outings in Florida last month; Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y., is one spot ahead of Smith in the points standings but is the only driver from the top 10 in last year's points who doesn't have a top-10 finish yet this season.
OUTLAW TIES: Two drivers from the Houston area with plans to enter the Lone Star 100 have a connection to WoO LMS stalwart Chub Frank.
Chris Brown of Cleveland, Texas, and Kevin Sitton of Baytown, Texas, both will campaign Rocket Chassis cars this weekend that came from Frank's Pennsylvania shop. Last year Brown sold a car that he had purchased from Frank to Sitton, who is in his second year of dirt Late Model racing. This year Brown called on Frank again, buying a car that Frank had prepared in his garage for Canadian Peter Mantha; he commissioned Frank to set it up - complete with a new Custom engine that Brown had delivered to Frank's shop - and send it out to Brown on a car carrier.
MID-WEEK VISIT: Chris Wall of Holden, La. - the Gulf Coast star known as the 'Intimagator' - pulled into Battleground Speedway for Thursday night's practice after hosting several WoO LMS travelers at his shop earlier this week.
Francis, Clanton, Eckert, Brady Smith and Jordan Bland of Campbellsville, Ky., pulled their haulers into Wall's compound, not only to work but also for a little fun during their off days. Wall gave the drivers a tour of his C&M Gator Farm - a complex where he is currently raising over 20,000 gators - that included an exciting ride on the air boats that he uses to collect gator eggs in the Louisiana bayous.
The boys also spotted the dirt track for radio-controlled cars that sits on Wall's property and started an impromptu R.C. race. After packing down some grass that had grown on the track surface during a year of inactivity, Wall got out some R.C. cars (Clanton had his own truck along) and went racing with his visitors.
Who won the C&M Gator Farm 500? Wall smiled when asked that question.
"Well, these guys might have me on this track here," Wall said, pointing to the Battleground high banks. "But I had their number at my track. I had the hometrack advantage."
LOOKING TO REPEAT PAST GLORY: No driver in the pit area for Thursday night's practice session could claim more success in dirt Late Model series events at Battleground than Howard Willis of Dayton, Texas, who won five SUPR tour features at the track between 1992 and 1997.
HOT-LAPPING: Drivers on hand for Thursday night's practice session included...A1-Duke Whiseant/Texarkana, AR; 1-Josh Richards/Shinnston, WV; 1*-Chub Frank/Bear Lake, PA; 2b-Brady Smith/Solon Springs, WI; w3-James Ward/Lettsworth, LA; 3-Brent Robinson/Smithfield, VA; 5-Jon Mitchell/Greenbrier, AR; 6R-Robbie Stuart/DeRidder, LA; 11-Tyler Reddick/Corning, CA; 12-Jordan Bland/Campbellsville, KY; 15b-Brian Birkhofer/Muscatine, IA; 18-Shannon Babb/Moweaqua, IL; 18-Dustin Hapka/Grand Forks, ND; 19-Steve Francis/Ashland, KY; 19-Tim Fuller/Watertown, NY; 20-Kevin Sitton/Baytown, TX; 21-Chris Brown/Cleveland, TX; 23-Howard Willis/Dayton, TX; 24-Rick Eckert/York, PA; 25-Shane Clanton/Locust Grove, GA; 25-Chuck Hummer/Ottawa Lake, MI; 28-Jimmy Mars/Menominie, WI; 29-Bill Koons/Omaha, NE; 29-Darrell Lanigan/Union, KY; 32c-Vic Coffey/Caledonia, NY; 33-Al Purkey/Coffeyville, KS; 44-Clint Smith/Senoia, GA; 56-Russell King/Bristolville, OH; 56-Chas Shellenberger/Winfield, PA; 68-Rob Litton/Alexandria, LA; 71-Chris Wall/Holden, LA; 93-Ray Moore/Shreveport, LA.
RACE INFORMATION: Gates will open at 3 p.m. on both Fri., March 20, and Sat., March 21, with practice scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. each day.
Saturday's schedule will include a driver autograph session in the grandstand area from 4-5 p.m., giving fans a chance to meet all the competitors in the field.
Battleground Speedway is located 12 miles east of Houston, just four miles north of Interstate 10 Exit 787 on FM 2100.
For ticket information and other info on the Lone Star 100, visit www.battlegroundspeedway.net or call 832-421-RACE.
Additional info on the WoO LMS is available by logging on to www.worldofoutlaws.com.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Crane Cams (Official Valvetrain), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Fusion Energy Boost (Official Energy Boost), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser) and VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors Champ Pans, Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tires, Integra Shocks, Jake's Custom Golf Carts, Ohlins Shocks, Racing Electronics, Quarter Master and Wrisco Aluminum; Crane Cams Engine Builder's Challenge participants Cornett Racing Engines, Custom Race Engines and Pro Power Racing Engines; and Chassis Builder Challenge participants Rocket Chassis and Team Zero by Bloomquist.
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