Steve Francis Wins @ Red River

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Contact: Boundless Motor Sports Racing,Inc. d/b/a DIRT Motorsports
2500 S. McGee Drive - Suite # 147, Norman, OK, 73072
Phone: 877-572-2464, Email: [email protected], Website: www.dirtmotorsports.com or www.woolms.com
Bret Emrick, World Of Outlaws Stacker 2® Late Model Series Public Relations
Phone: 419-827-2252 (Office), 330-201-0954 (Cell), Email: [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Francis Makes It Two In A Row With World Of Outlaws Stacker 2® Late Model Series!!!

7-29-05 West Fargo,ND

Steve Francis of Ashland,KY captured his second straight World Of Outlaws Stacker 2® Late Model Series sanctioned main event win of the season Friday night pocketing the $5,000 to win “North Dakota Governor’s Cup 30” at the Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo,ND. Starting from the outside front row, “The Kentucky Colonel” grabbed the lead from pole sitter Dale McDowell at the drop of the green flag and was never headed racing his MOPAR Performance Parts/Valvoline/MDI Environmental Services/Freeport Recycling No. 15 Larry Moring Motorsports Rocket Chassis/Stanton Racing Engines Dodge Intrepid R/T to a 1.754 second margin of victory over McDowell. John Blankenship rode home third with Rick Eckert fourth and Billy Moyer fifth. Completing the top ten finishers were Darrell Lanigan in sixth trailed by 13th starting Dan Schlieper, Tim McCreadie, Clint Smith and Shane Clanton.

Francis who captured last years WoO Stacker 2® Late Model Series event was asked what the secret is to his success at the big ½ mile speedplant. “I don’t know what it is,” chuckled Francis. “It was the total opposite of last year. It was icy, slick from top to bottom and three to four seconds slower than it was last year. Stanton built us a new Mopar motor and it’s been phenomenal. Three wins and a second with it. It’s been just phenomenal”.

Entering lapped traffic just before the mid-point of the race, Francis stated that he had really no problems getting through the backmarkers. “I think that’s the advantage I had on Dale. I think Dale could actually run a faster lap time than me but my car was real, real maneuverable where he said his was kinda locked into one spot on the race track. We could go in above or go in below ‘em. It didn’t really matter. The car was just really good. It’s nice to win one in my car and then win one in Larry’s car. It just kinda’ shows that we have all the same equipment and the same motors. I gotta’ give a big thanks to both crews. The guy’s that work on my car and the guy’s that work on Larry’s cars. Hopefully we can just keep this up.”

McDowell was pleased with his second place effort aboard his Larry Shaw Race Cars/J&J Steel No. 17M DMR Rocket-Shaw/RaceTek Engines Pontiac Grand Prix and feels that things are now starting to turn around to the positive for the Chickamauga,GA driver. “Yeah, we’re getting there. We just need to get a little luck going our way. We qualified bad again tonight. This car has been a little tough for me to get along with or maybe I should say work with. It might be me or it may be the car. It’s been a little bit of a challenge to figure it out but it’s getting closer. We got a second place but we just didn’t have anything for Steve. I could run better than him two laps but then he would run better than me three laps. But, the car was real manueverable and it was a good finish for us. I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.”

Third place finisher Blankenship was extremely happy with his third place finish aboard the Busch Beer/Walker CAT No. 23 Team 23,Inc. Rocket Chassis/Custom Racing Engines Ford Taurus. The Williamson,WV chauffeur stated the engine woes he had been suffering lately seem to be corrected. “I’m really happy with the finish,” said Blankenship. “The past few weeks we’ve had trouble with the engines overheating and now we’ve got that worked out. We’ve lost a lot of points because of that ut now our goal is to nail some top five finishes and hopefully keep it going.”

Francis immediately got the lead at the drop of the green flag jumping in front of McDowell leading the pole sitter, Blankenship, Lanigan and Clanton at the end of the first lap. Eckert diced things up with Clanton grabbing the fifth spot at the end of the second lap. Francis meanwhile pulled out to a huge margin over McDowell but that all came to a stop on lap 6 when Paul Mueller spun to a stop in turn three.

The slowdown and bunching of the field didn’t faze Francis a bit as he easily outdistanced McDowell on the Delaware double-file restart. The real battle was for position with Eckert taking fourth from Lanigan on lap 8 as Clanton, Moyer, McCreadie, Frank, Schlieper and Smith diced it up. Frank began to show some smoke from his car and on lap 10 he pulled to the inside of the frontchute heading for the infield with what was thought to be a burnt piston.

Francis entered lapped traffic at lap 13 but that never slowed him down. The top ten rundown at the halfway mark saw McDowell trailing Francis with Blankenship, Eckert and Lanigan sitting third through fifth trailed by Moyer, McCreadie, Schlieper, Smith and Clanton. Moyer ran down Lanigan for the fifth spot on lap 23 but up front Francis was long gone taking the win giving him three trips to the YJ Stinger® Victory Lane in the last four races.


The $32,000 purse event attracted 28 drivers for the first of two nights of racing at Red River Valley Speedway. Eckert was the only driver to break into the 19 second bracket with a fast lap of 19.854 seconds at an average speed of 90.662mph. Heat race wins fell to Eckert, McDowell and Francis while Dave Zimmerman copped the “B” Main and McDowell grabbed the dash win.

NOTES: Bright sunshine and strong winds made for a hard slick racing surface. An enthusiastic crowd was on hand for the opening night of the two day “North Dakota Governor’s Cup” weekend.

Time Trials: An electrical problem in the tower three-quarters of the way through time trials caused the AMB i.t. timing and scoring system to malfunction on the cars of Dave Zimmerman and Chub Frank. The problem was quickly rectified and time trials continued after a few minutes delay. Jeff Wildung missed his qualifying spot and qualified last getting only one lap at the end of time trials. Michael Johnson was light at the scales after time trials losing his qualifying time and Paul Mueller had mechanical woes forcing him to scratch from time trials.

Heat # 1: Rick Eckert showed his early night dominance taking win by more than 2 seconds over Shane Clanton. Jeff Wildung who only received only one lap in time trials and started eighth raced his way into the sixth and final transfer spot just past the halfway point.

Heat # 2: Dale McDowell used the Delaware double-file restart on a lap two restart to power past both Eric Jacobsen and early race leader John Blankenship running away to a more than 4 second win.

Heat # 3: Steve Francis grabbed the win by a little over 1 second but the battle for second and third between Darrell Lanigan and Tim McCreadie was a great battle until Lanigan was able to pull away late in the race.

“B” Main: Dave Zimmerman and Mitch Johnson put on a show for the fans trading the lead four times in the last two laps of the event. Zimmerman just squeaked out the win by a scant .902 seconds. Michael Johnson had a transfer spot sewed up early in the event until spinning with 6 laps remaining. Earning provisional spots were Michael Johnson and Matt Aukland.

Dash: Front row starters John Blankenship and Dale McDowell raced side by side for the opening lap until McDowell pulled away earning the pole start by nearly 2.5 seconds over Steve Francis. Darrell Lanigan got by Blankenship with only two laps remaining to nail the third finishing position.

World Of Outlaws Stacker 2® Late Model Series Race Report For 7-29-05
Round No. 24-2005 Season-“North Dakota Governor’s Cup 30"
Red River Valley Speedway-West Fargo,ND-1/2 Mile Oval
$32,000 Purse-$5,000 To Win-30 Lap Feature Event

Showing Finish Pos.,Start Pos.,Car#,Driver,Residence,Laps Completed,Reason Out(if any) and Purse Money Won
1. (2) #15 Steve Francis – Ashland,KY 30 Running $5,000
2. (1) #17M Dale McDowell – Chickamauga,GA 30 Running $3,000
3. (4) #23 John Blankenship – Williamson,WV 30 Running $2,500
4. (5) #24 Rick Eckert – York,PA 30 Running $2,200
5. (10) #21 Billy Moyer – Batesville,AR 30 Running $1,800
6. (3) #29 Darrell Lanigan – Union,KY 30 Running $1,600
7. (13) # 9 Dan Schlieper – Sullivan,WI 30 Running $1,400
8. (9) #39 Tim McCreadie – Watertown,NY 30 Running $1,200
9. (8) #44 Clint Smith – Senoia,GA 30 Running $1,000
10. (6) #25 Shane Clanton – Locust Grove,GA 30 Running $900
11. (7) # 1 Josh Richards® - Shinnston,WV 30 Running $800
12. (11) #5WP Eric Jacobsen – Santa Cruz,CA 29 Running $700
13. (12) #25H Kerry Hansen – Spencer,WI 29 Running $600
14. (16) #3W Jeff Wildung – Nassau,MN 29 Running $500
15. (17) #12S Brad Seng – Grand Forks,ND 29 Running $500
16. (20) #00 Mitch Johnson – Hickson,ND 29 Running $500
17. (21) #3M Greg Meyer – Wahpeton,ND 29 Running $500
18. (19) #27 Dave Zimmerman – Elizabeth,MN 29 Running $500
19. (22) #11C John Correll – Jamestown,ND 28 Running $500
20. (18) #01 Myron Tschakert – Kent,MN 18 Mechanical $500
21. (23) #55 Joe Johnson – West Fargo,ND 15 Mechanical $500
22. (14) #1* Chub Frank – Bear Lake,PA 10 Engine $500
23. (15) # 8 Paul Mueller – Bismarck,ND 5 Mechanical $500
24. (24) #12 Matt Aukland – Fargo,ND 3 Mechanical $500

® = “Rookie of the Year” Driver

Time Of Race: 14 Mins. 29.519 Secs.
Yellow Flags: One – Lap 6
Red Flags: None
Lap Leaders: One – Francis 1-30
"Rookie of the Race": Richards®
Provisional Starters: Mike Johnson, Aukland
Car Count: 28
Time Trials Fast Qualifier: 19.854 secs.– 90.662mph
Heat Race Winners: Eckert, McDowell, Francis
"B" Main Winner: Zimmerman
Dash Winner: McDowell
 
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