Rocket
Chassis Wins World of
Outlaws Late Model Series Chassis Builders Challenge Award For
Fifth Consecutive Season
CONCORD , NC – Dec.
29, 2008 – And the beat goes on for Rocket Chassis.
The Shinnston,
W.Va.-based manufacturer ruled the World of Outlaws Late Model Series once
again in 2008, winning the national tour’s Chassis Builders Challenge
Award for the fifth consecutive season.
Rocket remains the
only company to capture the top chassis builders’ honor since the World
Racing Group began operating the WoO LMS in 2004 – an achievement that
Rocket co-owner Mark
Richards acknowledged but modestly deflected.
“That’s what they
tell me,” a smiling Richards said when asked about his firm’s
five-year WoO LMS winning streak after accepting the award during the
tour’s 2008 awards banquet on Dec. 11 in Orlando, Fla. “It’s a
tribute to the good racers in our stuff who have confidence in what we
build, take it and do a good job with it.
“And I have to thank
all of our employees back at Rocket Chassis,” he added, hailing the 14
fulltimers (not including himself and partner Steve Baker) who comprise
the company’s workforce.
The 2008 WoO LMS
Rocket army was led by Darrell Lanigan, whose unprecedented run of
consistency brought him the tour’s $100,000 points title for the first
time in his career. Lanigan became the third consecutive driver to capture
the WoO LMS championship behind the wheel of a Rocket machine, following Steve
Francis (2007) and Tim
McCreadie (2006).
“He deserves it,”
the 48-year-old Richards said of Lanigan, a Rocket loyalist for more than
a decade who has developed a close relationship with Richards. “He’s
been with this whole Outlaw deal since it started (under the WRG banner)
and I know he’s wanted to get a championship knocked down at some point.
It’s an accomplishment to be proud of and I think it means a lot to him.
“We’re happy that
Darrell got a chance to win one. He’s been a great supporter of Rocket
Chassis and he’s a great guy to travel with (on the WoO LMS).”
Overall Rocket Chassis
registered victories in 27 of the ’08 season’s 43 A-Mains (a win
percentage of 62.7%), paced by the series-leading six triumphs scored by
both Francis and Josh Richards, the 20-year-old son of Rocket’s head
man. In addition, Rocket drivers swept the top-six positions and eight of
the top 10 spots in the final points standings. Lanigan was followed by
Josh Richards (second), Francis (third), Shane Clanton (fourth), Chub
Frank (fifth), Shannon
Babb (sixth), Tim Fuller (ninth) and Rookie
of the Year Vic Coffey (10th).
Rocket’s spectacular
’08 campaign – no other chassis manufacturer won more than five WoO
LMS events – returned the well-known shop to dominator status on the
tour after below-average results the previous year. While Rocket won the
2007 WoO LMS Chassis Builders Challenge and boasted seven of the top 10
drivers in the points standings, the company’s victory total (19) and
win percentage (43.2%) were its lowest ever on the series.
Mark Richards
attributed Rocket’s reduced 2007 numbers to a slow start that resulted
from some significant changes in the manufacturer’s core WoO LMS group.
With key Rocket racers McCreadie and Dale McDowell not returning as tour
regulars and Rick
Eckert switching chassis builders, it took a while to get everyone
running Rockets with the Outlaws “back together and on the same page,”
said Richards.
The new-look Rocket
group began to hit its stride late in 2007 and the success carried over to
’08.
“Oh yeah, it was a
big plus for us to get a ‘team’ of guys back together who are willing
to work together and share information,” said Richards, analyzing
Rocket’s success in ’08. “And I think we’re going to be even
stronger next year.”
Richards is determined
to maintain Rocket’s historic control of the headlines on the WoO LMS. Rocket
cars have won 118 of the 197 tour A-Mains contested since 2004 –
a sterling win percentage of 59.8% – and claimed no fewer than seven of
the top 10 drivers in the points standings in any season.
In that vein, Richards
has already overseen an extensive testing session with an eye on 2009. In
early December he traveled south with his son, Francis, Clanton and
McCreadie to spend several days experimenting at Golden
Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Ga., Volusia
Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., and East
Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla.
Richards hauled two dirt
Late Models to the test session – one of his familiar No. 1 house
cars and an Ernie Davis-owned No. 25 that his son drove in selected non-WoO
LMS events. The Davis machine sported new front and rear suspension
geometry and a new Integra Shock package that Josh and mechanic Robby
Allen experimented with in 2008 in hopes of applying the ideas to ’09
Rocket models.
“We wanted to get a
feel for where the new car stacks up with our cars that were running well
at the end of the season,” said Richards, noting that Rocket’s
‘new’ front-end chassis is adaptable to race as either a ‘blue’ or
‘black’ front-end machine. “We had Josh’s (No. 1) car (McCreadie
was an extra driver for Richards’s two cars), Shane’s car and
Steve’s car set up like they were at the end of (2008) so we could see
how the new car ran against them.
“We felt like we got
in a real good test and learned a lot. We think the new car will be a
definite improvement.”
The 2009 WoO LMS kicks
off on Feb. 12 and 14 with two dates during the 38th annual
Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia
Speedway Park in Barberville , Fla.
Home
For The Holidays: How The World of Outlaws Late Model Series Stars Are
Spending Their Rare Time Off
CONCORD , NC – Dec. 24,
2008 – The holiday season is a rare joy for the stars of the World of
Outlaws Late Model Series – a once-a-year stretch during which the busy
fulltime professional race car drivers absolutely, positively don’t have
any competitive events keeping them away from home.
So how are the top 10
drivers in the 2008 WoO LMS points standings taking advantage of their
time off? For the most part, they’ll be catching up with family and
friends.
No WoO LMS regular, of
course, has a larger family than veteran Chub
Frank – and thus no driver hosts a bigger holiday bash than
the 46-year-old owner/operator who
finished fifth in the national tour’s 2008 points standings.
Frank, whose grandmother
had 18 children, opened up his race shop in Bear Lake , Pa. , last
Saturday (Dec. 20) for his annual day-long holiday bash that was attended
by over 100 of his relatives and dozens of his friends. Santa Claus made
an appearance during the afternoon to visit with the kids, and then after
7 o’clock “the adult party started,” said a smiling Frank, whose
expansive shop features a bar area filled with memorabilia from his racing
career.
Christmas Day is actually
much more intimate for Frank. He spends it at his home with a smaller
gathering that includes his wife Mary, Mary’s two children and their two
grandchildren.
As for New Year’s Eve,
Frank doesn’t have any big plans. There will likely be some action in
his bar, but he’ll be more focused on the vacation he’ll begin three
days later. Frank and his wife will be one of many racers on the 15th
annual ‘Cruise With The Champions,’ which from Jan. 4-11 will visit
several western Caribbean ports-of-call, including Belize , Honduras ,
Grand Cayman and Cozumel …
Joining Frank on the
‘Cruise With The Champions’ will be 2007
WoO LMS champion Steve Francis, who also happens to come from a
family that rivals Frank’s in size. But while Francis’s father had
seven siblings and his mother had eight, there’s no Frank-like holiday
family reunion.
“We go to my parents’
house in Ashland ( Ky. ) for Christmas and I’ll see a lot of relatives I
get to see only once a year,” said Francis, who finished third in the
2008 WoO LMS points standings. “But our family has gotten kinda spread
out, so the gathering isn’t as big as it was when I was growing up.”
Francis, 41, relishes the
holidays because it’s his opportunity to spend more time with his
girlfriend Jennifer, who didn’t make as many road trips with him in
’08 as she had in the past due to work commitments at home, and his
10-year-old daughter Alexis (from a previous relationship).
“I get a little time to
just kick back and relax,” said Francis, “and actually kind of enjoy
my home.”
And coming off a season
in which he earned nearly $250,000 on the WoO LMS alone driving for Dale
Beitler’s team, Francis will no doubt have to spend some of his racing
cash to fulfill the Christmas wishes of his girls.
“Jennifer wants new
wheels for her car,” quipped Francis, “and my daughter wants that Guitar
Hero game.”
Does Francis have a
Christmas present in mind for himself?
“I’m fortunate – I
don’t want for a lot,” he said. “Well, maybe one thing – a World
of Outlaws championship in 2009. I’ll take that as a Christmas
present.”…
The biggest
money-winner on the 2008 WoO LMS was Darrell Lanigan, whose
$100,000 prize for capturing the tour points title pushed his total
earnings to $245,467.
But Lanigan’s daughters
– Tiffany, 7, and Brittney, 4 – apparently haven’t factored dear old
Dad’s 100-grand check into their Christmas wish lists.
“Nah, they didn’t ask
for anything bigger because I won the championship,” laughed Lanigan,
who became the fifth different WoO LMS champion in as many years. “The
older one wants an electric scooter, and the other one wants a baby
doll.”
The 38-year-old Lanigan,
who returned to his Union, Ky. , home earlier this week after flying to
Nebraska on Sunday to pick up a new S&S hauler and trailer for his
’09 WoO LMS travels, will spend Christmas Day at the nearby residence of
his girlfriend Erin Dailey’s parents. He has no getaway planned for New
Year’s Eve – he vacationed with Dailey in Miami last month – so
he’ll use the holiday week to get some preparatory work done at his
shop….
Clint
Smith is another
Outlaw who will trade fun for hard work in the shop during the holidays.
Coming off a grueling season in which ‘Cat Daddy’ slipped to eighth
in the WoO LMS points standings following a career-high
third-place finish in 2007, he’s focused on making a big rebound in
’09.
“I’ll spend some time
with my next-of-kin – go to my mom’s, my dad’s and my sister’s
places,” said Smith, 43, of Senoia , Ga. “But other than that, we’ll
be working on the race cars.
“We ran 112 shows this
year, so our equipment is worn out. We have a lot of work to do. We’re
building one brand-new car and we’ve got five others to re-do, and
we’ve got to get our motors back.”
Smith, whose workload
might even prompt him to skip the ‘Cruise With The Champions’ that he
annually enjoys, is looking forward to spending time with his 16-year-old
daughter, Jenna, between his sessions at the garage. He said she hasn’t
asked him for a major present this year.
“She got a (highway)
car last year,” smiled Smith, “so it’d be hard to out-do that.”…
Shane
Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga.,
will take it a bit easier this holiday season than his fellow Peach State
Outlaw.
After enjoying the best
campaign of his dirt Late Model career in 2008 (four wins and a
fourth-place finish in the WoO LMS points plus a World 100 victory), the
33-year-old Clanton will get away from the racing grind with his wife
Jennifer and son Ryan, who turns six in January. They’ll partake in a
Christmas Eve dinner at Clanton’s mother’s house, spend Christmas Day
at home (“We’ll just let Ryan play with his new toys as much as he
can,” said Clanton) and then head out on the 28th for a
week-long Caribbean cruise with more than 50 people, including Clanton’s
mother; his car owner Ronnie Dobbins; his RSD Enterprises teammate Tony
Knowles; WoO LMS regular Rick Eckert
and his wife Crystal; and ’08 Belleville (Kans.) High Banks WoO LMS
winner Kelly Boen of Henderson, Colo.
“We’re looking
forward to the cruise,” said Clanton, who is bringing his son along on
the trip that will visit Grand Cayman and Cozumel . “It’s going to be
fun to get away with the whole family and a lot of friends.”…
Before flying south to
hook up with Clanton and Co. for the holiday cruise, York,
Pa.’s Eckert, his wife and 19-year-old daughter Courtney will
be part of probably the biggest Christmas family gathering this side of
Chub Frank.
On Christmas Day, Eckert,
who turned 43 on Dec. 14 and is in the midst of building a new shop to
house his Raye Vest-owned racing equipment, will take his brood to his
parents’ home for a dinner that will include more than 60 of his
relatives.
“It takes several
tables to handle everybody,” said Eckert, who has five siblings. “We
have a big family.”…
Young
WoO LMS sensation Josh Richards
has a holiday trip planned, but he’ll go north to chase cold weather
rather than the warm sun of the Caribbean .
Richards, 20, of
Shinnston , W.Va. , will spend several days before and after New Year’s
Day at the Holiday Valley ski resort in Ellicottville , N.Y. , south of
Buffalo . His travel group will include his family (father and team owner
Mark Richards, mother Tina and sister Morgan); his girlfriend; his buddy
and fellow racer Jared Hawkins; well-known dirt Late Model mechanic Robby
Allen and his wife; Brian Daugherty of Integra Shocks; and possibly 2006
WoO LMS champion Tim McCreadie.
“I enjoy skiing, but I
don’t get a chance to go as much as I’d like to,” said Richards, who
tied Francis for the most wins on the 2008 WoO LMS and finished a
career-high second in the points standings. “It’s gonna be a great
time spending a few days up there at Holiday Valley .”
Richards’s holiday
season also includes an affair with his mother’s side of the family (it
happened last Saturday night) and a Christmas Eve get-together at his
aunt’s home with his father’s family…
Christmas 2008 will be
special for Shannon Babb
– it is, after all, his first holiday season as a married man. He tied
the knot with his longtime girlfriend, Emalie Meyer, in November.
And Babb, whose
first season as a WoO LMS regular ended with a sixth-place finish in the
points standings, has a busy schedule of family activities.
Babb celebrates his 35th
birthday on Christmas Eve, so Emalie will host a birthday/holiday party at
their home in Moweaqua , Ill. The gathering’s guest list includes, among
others, their parents, grandparents and siblings.
Then on Christmas Day
Babb and his bride will be on the move all day. They’ll begin by opening
presents together at their home, then head to Babb’s parents’ home
around 10 or 11 a.m. to exchange presents; Babb’s grandparents’ house
around 1 or 2 p.m. for more gift-giving; and finally Emalie’s
grandparents’ residence two-and-a-half hours away in Mount Vernon, Ill.,
to open presents with her family.
After such a busy holiday
on top of a grueling 2008 racing season, it’s not surprising that
Shannon and Emalie might not hit the road for a New Year’s Eve trip.
“We are seriously
contemplating staying home (on New Year’s Eve) with a bottle of wine and
the Hunting Channel,” laughed
Emalie. “Most likely we will be staying home and ringing in our first
New Year married together.”
The new Mr. and Mrs. Babb
did just return on Sunday from a late ‘honeymoon’ in Texas and Mexico
. They made several hunting excursions, during which Shannon – an expert
hunter – shot a 16-point Mule Deer Buck and Emalie shot her first
6-point Whitetail Buck…
The last two WoO LMS
Rookies of the Year – Tim Fuller
(2007) and Vic Coffey (2008) – will try to dodge snowflakes
while spending the holidays in their native upstate New York .
Fuller,
41, of Watertown, N.Y.,
is preparing for a wild Christmas morning. He expects his daughter Ainsley,
who turns four in January, to be more in tune with the holiday than
she’s ever been.
“I’m sure she’s
going to wake us up at the crack of dawn,” said Fuller, noting that a
life-like ‘Biscuit the Dog’ toy tops Ainsley’s Christmas wish list.
“It’s game-on. She’ll be zipping off the walls.”
Fuller, his wife Lori,
Ainsley and Lori’s 14-year-old daughter MacKenzie will make the short
drive to Lori’s grandparents’ home for a large Christmas Day family
gathering.
“Lori’s grandfather
makes homemade wine,” Fuller said when asked for one of the holiday
affair’s highlights. “You have a couple glasses of that and man,
you’re flying. It’s some powerful stuff.”
Fuller, who won twice en
route to a ninth-place finish in the 2008 WoO LMS points standings,
isn’t making a New Year’s Eve trip with his wife this year. But
they’ll probably make a stop at a party hosted by Lori’s uncle, where
“all kinds of shenanigans will be going on,” he quipped.
Meanwhile, Coffey,
37, who finished 10th in the ’08 points standings,
will enjoy his first Christmas with eight-month-old son Kasey. His wife,
Jillian, gave birth to the couple’s first child in April just before
Coffey dived head-first into his rookie season as a WoO LMS traveler.
“On Christmas Eve
we’ll go to Jill’s cousins’ for a dinner,” said Coffey, who will
also have his two children from a previous marriage, Shelby , 13, and
Kyle, 12, on Christmas Day. “Then on Christmas we’ll go to Jill’s
parents’ house, and the day after Christmas we’ll have a get-together
with my brother and sister.”
There will certainly be
plenty of racing talk on Christmas Day at Coffey’s in-laws’.
Jillian’s parents own Phelps Cement Products, a longtime backer of
DIRTcar Modified racing in central New York , and her brother, Justin, is
a big-block Modified regular who follows the Advance Auto Parts Super
DIRTcar Series.
As for New Year’s Eve,
Coffey, who moved into a new home in Caledonia , N.Y. , earlier this year,
said he might take his older kids skiing…
Happy
Holidays from the staff of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, which
kicks off the 2009 season on Feb. 12 and 14 during the 38th annual Alltel
DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville,
Fla.
For
more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
