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Kevin Kovac
MINERAL WELLS, W.V. (May 30) - Steve Shaver turned West Virginia Motor Speedway's 'RaceFest World Championships' into the 'ShaverFest.'
The veteran driver from Vienna, W.Va., put together an unforgettable weekend at his reopened home track, completing a sweep of the 'RaceFest' doubleheader with a convincing victory in Sunday night's 40-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main.
Shaver, 46, dominated on the eve of Memorial Day, charging off the outside-pole starting spot to lead the entire distance in the K&L Rumley Motorsports Rocket No. 6. He raced virtually unchallenged to the $10,125 victory, which gave him a two-night earnings total of $18,200.
"Coming here this weekend I was kind of hoping for a couple of top fives, maybe a win if everything went right," said Shaver, who had one career WoO LMS triumph before going two-for-two at the sprawling five-eighths-mile oval that sits just 10 miles from his home. "To get a win in both of them, set fast time (on Sunday night) and win two heats - I can't quit smiling."
Shaver built a lead that ballooned to as much as three-quarters of a straightaway before crossing the finish line about a dozen car lengths ahead of Zanesville, Ohio's Bart Hartman, who steered his Rocket car forward from the 12th starting spot to record a runner-up finish for the second consecutive night. Hartman lost Saturday evening's 30-lap A-Main when he was overtaken by Shaver in lapped traffic with only five laps remaining.
Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., relinquished second place to Hartman on lap 36 but held on to finish third in the RSD Enterprises Rocket, making him the highest-finishing WoO LMS regular in the opening event of the LaCrosse Extreme Tough Challenge. The unique mini-series awards points to the top-five fulltime WoO LMS and Sprint Car Series drivers in 16 selected events - eight Late Model and eight Sprint Car - and will earn the champion of the combined standings a $5,000 bonus from a $15,000 points fund.
Filling out the remainder of the top five was third-starter Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., who was in the battle for second place until backing off late in the distance due to an overheating engine in his Valvoline Rocket car, and polesitter Donnie Moran of Dresden, Ohio, in his MasterSbilt mount.
Shaver was simply the class of the field in the 'RaceFest' finale. He survived caution flags on laps 13 (after Brent Robinson of Smithfield, Va., suffered suspension woes and slapped the turn two wall while running 10th) and 16 (for a turn-four tangle involving Brady Smith of Solon Springs, Wis., and Jill George of Cedar Falls, Iowa) en route to joining Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., as the only repeat winners in 16 WoO LMS A-Mains this season.
"Kevin (Rumley) made some changes to the car today and it actually got better," acknowledged Shaver, who joined the venerable Greenville, N.C.-based K&L Rumley team at the start of the 2010 campaign. "I didn't think it could be much better than last night, but it was. It just felt so easy out there.
"The only problem I had was that I really didn't know where I needed to be on the track, so every now and then I tried to search around and see where the car felt best. I finally felt like I had the right line so I just stayed right there. I thought, If I'm gonna get beat, somebody's gonna have to pass me fair and square."
Hartman, 41, never got close enough to even attempt to turn the tables on Shaver. He had to make up too much ground after falling from a battle for second to a fourth-place finish on the final lap of his heat race.
"We had an MSD problem at the end of the heat that caused the motor to drop a cylinder," said Hartman. "That knocked us from possibly redrawing for the (first three rows in the) feature to starting 12th - and you can't start 12th and expect to win against the caliber of cars that were here.
"We had a real good car again and moved up, so we're happy. Steve's been real good down here all weekend and deserved to win."
The 34-year-old Clanton, meanwhile, drove to his third-place finish using an experimental aluminum big-block engine built by Russell Baker that he borrowed from Tim Logan, who serves as Francis's crew chief and fields a car that Francis runs in selected non-Outlaw events. The 502 cubic inch behemoth worked well for Clanton.
"It was pretty good," Clanton said of the powerplant. "It just needs a little work to race with these guys. Once we got racing, those 'little' motors could accelerate in the cushion a little bit better than I could.
"That (big-block) motor is just so hard to drive. It's got so much power and the throttle response is there, but when you gotta go easy out there - like (Shaver) was - then it can be a little lazy. That's something we can work on and get better, though."
Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., and Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., finished sixth and seventh, respectively, while Richards placed a quiet 11th, tightening the WoO LMS points standings slightly. Richards left WVMS leading the battle by 46 points over McCreadie, who started 21 st after being forced to the B-Main by a blown right-rear tire during his heat, and 52 over Lanigan.
Finishing in positions 8-10 was Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., who also used an aluminum big-block engine in both weekend events; Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y., who ran in the top five early but still held on to earn the $500 WoO LMS 'Bonus Bucks' cash for being the highest-finishing driver who hasn't won a tour A-Main and isn't ranked among the top 12 in the points standings; and Davey Johnson of Latrobe, Pa.
A field of 33 cars assembled for the event, which was run on another summer-like evening. Temperatures soared into the 90s during the afternoon.
Shaver was fastest in Ohlins Shocks Time Trials with a lap of 19.541 seconds.
Heat winners were Shaver, Francis and Eckert, and Richards captured the B-Main after failing to qualify through a heat for the first time in 2010.
Brady Smith and Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., were forced to run backup cars after each crashed hard into the wall between turns three and four during their time-trial runs. Smith said he had some back soreness but was otherwise uninjured, while Hubbard reported no ill effects after absorbing what he called the hardest hit of his young career.
The stars of the WoO LMS will have a two-week break before hitting the road for the first extended swing of the 2010 season - the eight-race 'Great Northern Tour' that visits six tracks in New York, Pennsylvania and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec from June 15-June 26.
The Great Northern Tour kicks off on June 15 at Can-Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, N.Y. It continues on to Merrittville Speedway in Thorold, Ont., on June 17, Autodrome Drummond in Drummondville, Que., on June 19, Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway on June 20 and Brewerton (N.Y.) Speedway on June 22 before concluding with the fourth annual 'Firecracker 100 presented by GottaRace.com' on June 24-26 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
Results of WoO Late Model Series 'RaceFest World Championships' Night 2 (Finishing Position/Start/Driver/Laps Completed/Money Won):
1. (2) Steve Shaver/40 $10,125
2. (12) Bart Hartman/40 $5,000
3. (4) Shane Clanton/40 $3,100
4. (3) Steve Francis/40 $2,600
5. (1) Donnie Moran/40 $2,000
6. (9) Darrell Lanigan/40 $1,800
7. (21) Tim McCreadie/40 $1,500
8. (10) Tim Fuller/40 $1,300
9. (6) Vic Coffey/40 $1,700
10. (8) Davey Johnson/40 $1,100
11. (19) Josh Richards/40 $1,200
12. (5) Rick Eckert/40 $1,000
13. (18) Austin Hubbard/40 $1,200
14. (22) Eddie Carrier Jr./40 $900
15. (17) Zack Dohm/40 $850
16. (23) Russell King/40 $800
17. (13) Brady Smith/39 $770
18. (15) Clint Smith/39 $750
19. (16) Chuck Harper/39 $730
20. (20) Jonathan Davenport/35 $700
21. (24) Jill George/30 $700
22. (14) Chub Frank/15 $700
23. (11) Doug Drown/14 $700
24. (7) Brent Robinson/13 $725
* Earnings include cash contingency award bonuses
Yellow Flags: 2 (Laps 13, 16)
Lap Leaders: Shaver (1-40)
Provisional Starters: King, George
Rookie of the Race: Hubbard ($250)
WoO LMS 'Bonus Bucks' Winner: Coffey ($500)
Heat No. 1 (8 laps - Top 6 Transfer): Shaver, Clanton, Robinson, Fuller, B. Smith, Harper, Davenport, McCreadie, King, C. Carpenter, Hilton
Heat No. 2 (8 laps - Top 6 Transfer): Francis, Coffey, D. Johnson, Drown, Frank, Dohm, Richards, Horton, Carrier, George, Mitchell
Heat No. 3 (8 laps - Top 6 Transfer): Eckert, Moran, Lanigan, Hartman, C. Smith, Hubbard, R. Conley, Wells, F. Carpenter, Banal (DNS) C. Conley
B-Main No. 1 (10 laps - Top 4 Transfer): Richards, Davenport, McCreadie, Carrier, R. Conley, King, Wells, Banal, Horton, C. Carpenter, George, F. Carpenter, Mitchell, Hilton
Ohlins Shocks Time Trial Results (Position/No./Driver/Hometown/Best Lap):
1. 6-Steve Shaver/Vienna, WV 19.541
2. 1J-Davey Johnson/Latrobe, PA 19.547
3. 24-Rick Eckert/York, PA 19.553
4. 3-Brent Robinson/Smithfield, VA 19.677
5. 15-Steve Francis/Ashland, KY 19.712
6. 99-Donnie Moran/Dresden, OH 19.750
7. 49-Jonathan Davenport/Blairsville, GA 19.760
8. 32c-Vic Coffey/Caledonia, NY 19.763
9. 44-Clint Smith/Senoia, GA 19.766
10. 25-Shane Clanton/Locust Grove, GA 19.823
11. 1-Josh Richards/Shinnston, WV 19.867
12. 75-Bart Hartman/Zanesville, OH 19.880
13. 39-Tim McCreadie/Watertown, NY 19.880
14. 46-Doug Horton/Bruceton Mills, WV 19.908
15. 29-Darrell Lanigan/Union, KY 19.923
16. 2-Brady Smith/Solon Springs, WI 19.963
17. 12-Doug Drown/Wooster, OH 20.008
18. 14-Corey Conley/Wellsburg, WV 20.023
19. 00H-Chuck Harper/Beverly, WV 20.025
20. 1*-Chub Frank/Bear Lake, PA 20.033
21. 11-D.J. Wells/Wooton, KY 20.083
22. 19-Tim Fuller/Watertown, NY 20.138
23. 17T-Zack Dohm/Cross Lanes, WV 20.161
24. 71R-Rod Conley/Wheelersburg, OH 20.187
25. 56-Russell King/Bristolville, OH 20.200
26. 18D-Danny Mitchell/Clarksburg, WV 20.727
27. T8-Mark Banal/St. Clairsville, OH 20.750
28. Y4-Chris Carpenter/Parkersburg, OH 20.887
29. 22-Jill George/Cedar Falls, IA 20.927
30. c4-Freddie Carpenter/Parkersburg, WV 20.940
31. 121-Dave Hilton/Belpre, OH 25.020
32. 28-Eddie Carrier Jr./Salt Rock, WV N/T
33. 19H-Austin Hubbard/Seaford, DE N/T
2010 World of Outlaws Late Model Series Point Standings as of May 30 - 16 A-Mains completed (rank/driver/points/deficit to leader):
1. Josh Richards 2234 (-0)
2. Tim McCreadie 2188 (-46)
3. Darrell Lanigan 2182 (-52)
4. Steve Francis 2132 (-102)
5. Tim Fuller 2100 (-134)
6. Austin Hubbard 2084 (-150)
7. Rick Eckert 2032 (-202)
8. Brady Smith 2020 (-214)
9. Shane Clanton 2018 (-216)
10. Chub Frank 2010 (-224)
11. Clint Smith 1958 (-276)
12. Russell King 1812 (-422)
13. Brent Robinson 1716 (-518)
14. Jill George 1210 (-1024)
15. Brian Birkhofer 830 (-1404)
16. Vic Coffey 788 (-1446)
17. Dale McDowell 748 (-1486)
18. Billy Moyer 696 (-1538)
19. Shannon Babb 682 (-1552)
20. Dan Schlieper 660 (-1574)
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