Chub Frank Shoots For Victory At Muskingum County Speedway

[rebelracewriter]

Chub Frank Shoots For Another Turnaround Victory At Muskingum County Speedway This Saturday Night (July 31)

 

ZANESVILLE, OH - July 28, 2010 - Can lightning strike twice for Chub Frank at Muskingum County Speedway?

 

That’s what the veteran driver from Bear Lake, Pa., will be hoping for this Saturday night (July 31) when the World of Outlaws Late Model Series returns to Ronnie Moran’s three-eighths-mile oval in central Ohio.

 

Frank, 48, was the winner – a very happy and relieved winner – of last year’s WoO LMS stop at the semi-banked track. He snapped a frustrating 15-month, 62-race winless streak with the victory, which also marked his first-ever triumph in more than a decade of special-event appearances at Muskingum County.

 

“We needed that win (at MCR) last year more than anybody can believe,” said Frank, fondly recalling the track’s 2009 WoO LMS event that was run on Aug. 20 after being postponed one month by rain. “We were really struggling, and when you struggle your confidence gets down and you just keep falling behind. You need wins to make everybody feel better and put some money in the bank account, which we definitely needed last year – and still need right now.”

 

Indeed, Frank rolls back to Muskingum County in search of another slump-busting score in the $10,000-to-win ‘Pepsi 50.’ He won the WoO LMS ‘Buckeye 100’ at Ohio’s K-C Raceway that immediately followed last year’s event at MCR but hasn’t reached Victory Lane since, saddling him with a losing streak that reached 37 races after he finished seventh in the opening night of Ohio-Pennsylvania Speedweek on Tuesday (July 27) at Central PA Speedway in Clearfield, Pa.

 

Frank hit paydirt in last year’s WoO LMS show at Muskingum after going back to basics by ‘borrowing’ a 2005-vintage Rocket chassis from western Pennsylvania racer Chad Valone and assembling it with his own parts. He’s not exactly duplicating that plan of attack this year, but he has brought out a new car – well, a car new to him – for Ohio-Pennsylvania Speedweek in hopes of shaking him out of his doldrums. Frank recently purchased a 2009 Rocket chassis from Pennsylvanian Bob Close that was driven successfully last season by young talent Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, Pa., and plans to enter it in all of this week’s Outlaw events.

 

“When I found out Close didn’t want (the car) I said, ‘I’ll take it,’” said Frank, who assumed ownership of Valone’s ’05 machine after his win outburst last year and just sold it this month to an upstate New York crate Late Model racer. “I knew it was a good car – Satterlee won a lot of races and ran good in some Outlaw shows with it – so I figured we’d put it together and try it.”

 

Frank won a weekly dirt Late Model feature on July 23 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., in his first start with the former Satterlee mount, and on Tuesday night at Central PA he started from the pole position and led the first five laps of the 40-lap A-Main before fading. He thinks he has a potential winner under him, but the hard-nosed owner-operator knows he also needs some breaks to go his way like in his big Muskingum County moment 11 months ago.

 

“The car was good last year (at MCR) and we did everything right to get in position to win – we drew the right time-trial number, qualified good and redrew the outside pole for the feature,” said Frank. “But my tires were probably a factor in how we ran – and really, we picked them by mistake. We didn’t have the tires we wanted to run ready, so we put a different tire on than everybody else. We were softer (on compound choice) and it made a big difference.

 

“It just goes to show you that everything’s got to go your way to win these things.”

 

Frank controlled last year’s 40-lap A-Main at MCR, a track that had always proved problematic for him. He concedes that he didn’t sign in that evening with an especially good feeling that his fortunes were about to turn around.

 

“I’ve never really run all that good at Muskingum, so when we won it was kind of a surprise,” said Frank, who through 29 WoO LMS events this season was ranked ninth in the points standings with four top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. “I don’t dislike Muskingum; I ran there quite a bit with the STARS (Renegade) Series for a bunch of years, and it’s always been a pretty racy place. But it’s just been one of those tracks that we couldn’t get a handle on – until last year.

 

“I’m just hoping we can run the same way there (this Saturday night) and get on the same kind of roll again.”

 

Frank is part of the powerful traveling WoO LMS band that will invade Muskingum for the third consecutive season. He’ll be joined by former champions Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., who won the tour’s 2008 event at MCR, Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., and Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., as well as Shane Clanton of Fayetteville, Ga., Rick Eckert of York, Pa., Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., Russell King of Bristolville, Ohio, rookie sensation Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., Brent Robinson of Smithfield, Va., and rookie Jill George of Cedar Falls, Iowa.

 

Muskingum’s talented field is also expected to include the track owner’s son and grandson – dirt Late Model superstar Donnie Moran of Dresden, Ohio, and his 15-year-old son Devin, who was victorious recently at the oval. Others with plans to compete include Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs of Bear Lake, Pa., Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, Pa., Bart Hartman of Zanesville, Ohio, Robbie Blair of Titusville, Pa., Doug Drown of Wooster, Ohio, and Doug Dodd of Cambridge, Ohio.

 

Saturday’s program will see pit gates open at 2 p.m. and the spectator gates unlocked at 4 p.m. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

 

General admission is $25, with kids 6-11 admitted for $5 and children 5-and-under free of charge. Reserved seats are available in the top two rows of the grandstand for an additional $5, and pit passes will be $40.

 

Further information is available by logging on to www.themuskingumcountyspeedway.com or calling 740-403-6298.

 

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.