CONCORD, NC – Aug. 30, 2007 – 
CLOSE CALL: Steve Francis will roll into this weekend’s ‘Oil Region Labor Day Classic’ doubleheader at Pennsylvania’s Tri-City Speedway leading the World of Outlaws Late Model Series points standings by 38 markers – a pretty substantial margin, considering that the points race has been razor-close to the final event for three consecutive seasons.
 
But Francis knows he’s fortunate that his edge didn’t virtually disappear in last Thursday night’s ‘Scorcher 100’ at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn.
 
Francis was involved in a mid-pack scramble on an early restart that significantly damaged the right-front corner of his Valvoline Rocket No. 15. He was able to complete the entire 100-lap distance, but he could only manage a ninth-place finish.
 
“We actually had a good car, but I got in that wreck on a restart and knocked the nose to the ground,” said Francis. “It bent the (right-front) wheel, the spindle. After that all I could do was just survive. If I got aggressive at all, it would just slide the nose and drag the ground where the bumper was all torn up.”
 
Francis’s perseverance in the ‘Scorcher 100’ was a clear demonstration of why he’s in the driver’s seat for his first WoO LMS title. He’s experienced bad luck – at Volunteer; at Knoxville, Iowa; at Lakeside, Kans. – but he’s had an uncanny ability to mitigate disaster and salvage a respectable finish rather than take an early drop-out.
 
NO LONG-DISTANCE LUCK: If Clint Smith falls short of capturing his first-ever WoO LMS championship, he’ll look back with horror at his miserable luck in the tour’s handful of 100-lap events.
 
There’s been three 100s so far on this year’s WoO LMS schedule (one remains, on Oct. 12-13 at Volunteer Speedway), and the Senoia, Ga., veteran hasn’t finished any of them. His mid-race retirement from April’s Circle K Colossal 100 at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., didn’t hurt him – the event offered only show-up points – but he absorbed major hits in the ‘Firecracker 100’ on June 30 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. (finished 28th and last, completing just 11 laps) and the ‘Scorcher 100’ (finished 19th, completing 34 laps).
 
In the wake of the “wiring problems” that dive-bombed his effort in the ‘Scorcher 100,’ Smith finds himself third in the points standings, 56 points behind Francis. It’s his largest deficit of the season, which has 11 events remaining.
 
Can Smith turn things around at Tri-City? He’ll need a better performance than he authored there last year, when he recorded finishes of 12th and 16th in the ‘Classic’ doubleheader.
 
SOME WORK AHEAD: This weekend at Tri-City Speedway fans will get a first look at the unique, special-edition ‘Chubzilla’ graphics package that Chub Frank will have on his No. 1* car for the prestigious UMP DIRTcar Racing-sanctioned ‘World 100’ on Sept. 7-8 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
 
But while t-shirts, hats and die-cast cars featuring Frank’s one-race-only paint scheme will be available from the Chub Frank/Slavic Custom Shirts merchandise trailer at Tri-City, that doesn’t mean the actual car is ready. Following the Tri-City doubleheader, Frank will take the Lester Buildings Rocket he runs there and re-skin it with his ‘World 100’ scheme – bright green colors, dinosaur-like ‘scales,’ and a nosepiece sporting headlights that look like a monster’s mean eyes.
 
Frank is looking forward to the ‘Oil Region Labor Day Classic,’ which he hopes will give him a big boost in the WoO LMS championship chase. The track is just 40 minutes from his shop in Bear Lake, Pa., and he’s enjoyed plenty of success there, including a victory in the first leg of last year’s WoO LMS classic.
 
After fretting that his title hopes might have been extinguished when he fell 62 points behind Francis following the July 21 event at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway, ‘Chubzilla’ has been chipping his way back in the race. He enters the weekend second in the standings, 38 points behind Francis – close enough to potentially vault into the lead.
 
BUSY WEEKEND: Josh Richards will have a very early wakeup call on Labor Day Monday morning after two nights of action at Tri-City Speedway.
 
The 19-year-old driver known as ‘Kid Rocket’ will head to a nearby airport before the sun rises on Monday to hop on NASCAR star Tony Stewart’s plane, which will whisk him to the Midwest for his first-ever ARCA RE/MAX Series start of his career. Richards is scheduled to drive a Tony Stewart Racing stock car in ARCA’s ‘Southern Illinois 100’ at the DuQuoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds, a historic one-mile dirt oval.
 
DuQuoin’s ARCA practice starts at 9 a.m. on Labor Day, so Richards, who currently sits fourth in the WoO LMS points standings, is one driver who’s hoping for an early end to Sunday night’s program at Tri-City.
 
FOND MEMORIES: Tri-City Speedway will always hold a special place in Shane Clanton’s heart.
 
After all, it’s the track where the Locust Grove, Ga., standout finally broke through for his first WoO LMS win of the 2006 season. He captured the second night of last year’s ‘Classic’ in dramatic fashion, surviving a late-race scrape with Frank that sent him into a 360-degree spin (he was allowed to keep his spot for the restart) and taking the lead after Darrell Lanigan’s apparent march to victory was short-circuited by a final-lap tangle with a lapped car.
 
Clanton also moved to second-place in the WoO LMS points standings after his Tri-City victory – a position he maintained for his career-best finish in the tour’s points.
 
This time Clanton will arrive at Tri-City ranked fifth in the standings, 126 points behind Francis. But he’ll have nine more events to make up points after this weekend; last year there were only two more WoO LMS shows after the ‘Oil Region Labor Day Classic.’
 
BAD MEMORIES: Darrell Lanigan won’t want to think about last year’s ‘Classic’ finale when he pulls into Tri-City’s pit area.
 
A lover of big, fast tracks, Lanigan took well to the half-mile Tri-City oval. He was cruising to victory in the second night’s 50-lap A-Main when he ran into the back of Dick Barton’s disabled car in turn one after taking the white flag. A controversial caution flag was displayed, and then Lanigan tumbled to an eighth-place finish over the final green-white-checkered sprint because his car sported significant body and suspension damage.
 
Lanigan won the WoO LMS’s last event at a big half-mile oval in Pennsylvania – on June 20 at Port Royal Speedway.
 
FINALLY SMILING: There might be no WoO LMS driver more enthused about the upcoming weekend than Rick Eckert.
 
The 2005 WoO LMS ‘Classic’ victor at Tri-City is still the only winless driver among the top-10 in the tour’s points, but his confidence level is riding as high as it’s been all season. He debuted a new Raye Vest-owned GRT car two weeks ago and has already driven it to top-five finishes in the ‘Topless 100’ at Batesville (Ark.) Speedway and the ‘Scorcher 100.’
 
ROOKIE BATTLE: Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., and Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill., are heading down the homestretch in their race for WoO LMS Rookie of the Year honors.
 
With the award determined using a driver’s best 30 finishes of the season, Fuller has started replacing his worst finishes (he’s up to 31 entered events) while Shirley has 28 event entries under his belt. Fuller currently leads Shirley in the Rookie standings by 312 points (3,616-2,294).
 
Fuller will only be able to enter Saturday night’s program at Tri-City. Since he’s leading the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series big-block Modified points standings, he has to head north to Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y., on Sunday night for a tour event.
 
TWO BIG RACES: The ‘Oil Region Labor Day Classic’ will feature complete WoO LMS programs – time trials, heats, B-Mains and a 50-lap A-Main – on both Saturday night (Sept. 1) and Sunday night (Sept. 2). Each event will offer a $10,000 top prize.
 
For more information, call the track office at 814-473-4038 or visit www.tricityspeedway.com.
 
Additional info on the WoO LMS is available by logging on to www.worldofoutlaws.com.