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 CHILLICOTHE,
OH (September 22) -- Chub Frank captured his sixth Renegade STARS
DirtCar Racing Series victory of the season Saturday and moved ever
closer to repeating as the series points champion. Frank won the
$10,000 to-win "4th Annual K-C 100" at K-C Raceway. The win
increased Frank's lead to 610 points over Mike Balzano in the season
long points battle with just six races remaining.
Thirty-five
cars were on hand for pre-race qualifying, as Davey Johnson set a new
one lap record after turning a circuit around the 3/8-mile oval in
13.579 seconds. Steve Shaver was just 1/1,000th of a second off
Johnson's time, posting the second fastest time at 13.580 seconds. All
told, the top six times bettered the old record of 13.709 seconds set
by Steve Francis in 1998. Four preliminary 10-lap heat races were
contested in which the top four finishers advanced to the feature
event. Donnie Moran, Greg Lucas, Bart Hartman and Billy Drake each
captured a heat win. The Dash race had the top six qualifiers
battling it out for their respective starting positions in the night's
feature race. Chub Frank was first to the stripe followed by Mike
Balzano, Jackie Boggs, Rick Aukland, Davey Johnson and Steve
Shaver. In the night's feature race, Mike Balzano jumped out
to an early lead from his outside pole starting position over pole
sitter, Chub Frank. Balzano would lead 53 of the first 54 laps, his
race lead only interrupted by Frank on lap 15. Balzano looked
to be headed for victory when disaster struck. Balzano was attempting
to lap Jeep VanWormer on lap 55 when they made contact causing both
drivers to spin out. Chub Frank was the lucky recipient of
Balzano's misfortune and took over as the race leader. Balzano,
obviously upset with the contact made his feelings known by ramming
VanWormer's car with his racer before being disqualified for
unsportsmanlike conduct, resulting in a 23rd place finish, one
position in front of Keith Berner, who was light at the post race
scales and was awarded a last place finish for the infraction. The
race resumed with Chub Frank in the lead. Frank would hold off all
challengers to capture his sixth win of the season and the $10,000
winner's paycheck. Bart Hartman finished runner-up after starting
ninth. Billy Drake, Steve Casebolt and Doug Dodd rounded out the top
five, all finishing on the lead lap. Mike Balzano, solidly in second
place in the point standings with 6020 points, lost more ground to
Frank as a result of his on-track incident. Chub Frank, with 6630
points, now leads Balzano by 610 points with six events to go. Hoosier
Racing Tire Corp. is proud to be the exclusive tire supplier to the
Renegade STARS DirtCar Racing Series. |
