BEAR LAKE, PA – What’s the best thing Chub Frank could do after experiencing a pair of frustrating outings to end the month of May?
Look ahead to this weekend’s huge 14th annual Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio – and the $100,000 top prize that is on the line.
So that’s what the 46-year-old star from Bear Lake, Pa., is doing to wipe away the memories of two unspectacular runs. He finished a quiet 10th in last Thursday night’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series ‘First State 50’ at Delaware International Speedway and managed a ninth-place finish in Saturday night’s 50-lap Independent Racing Series (IRS) event at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio.
“I was horrible all weekend, ” said Chub, who made an unscheduled appearance at Sharon’s IRS show after Saturday night’s WoO LMS ‘Conococheague 50’ was canceled in the morning by thunderstorms. “Something just wasn’t right with the car (the 2006 Rocket machine he calls ‘Old Faithful’) both nights and we haven’t figured out what it was yet. ”
Coming off his first WoO LMS victory of the season on May 18 at Lincoln (Ill. ) Speedway, Chub had high hopes for Thursday’s event at Delaware International. After all, he won last year’s tour stop there.
But after timing 12th-fastest in the 39-car field and finishing second in a heat race, Chub couldn’t make any headway in the A-Main. He fell from the seventh starting spot and finished 10th – the position in which he spent most of the distance.
“The track wasn’t like it was last year, ” Chub said of DIS. “There wasn’t a lot of passing, but we couldn’t get going anyway. ”
Chub decided to enter Sharon’s IRS program following Hagerstown’s early-Saturday cancellation, but he struggled for a second consecutive start. He qualified through a B-Main and had to advance forward in the rough-and-tumble A-Main to secure a ninth-place payoff with his Lester Buildings/Corry Rubber/All Star Performance/Corry Laser/Slavic Corporation/Farr MotorSports/Lake Shore Paving/Custom Race Engines Chevrolet Impala SS Rocket Chassis No. 1*.
“The track was way too rough and hard on equipment, ” Chub said of the three-eighths-mile Sharon oval. “It wasn’t rough with big holes, just choppy all over. It’s a really nice facility, so hopefully they’ll get the track figured out and it’ll be smoother the next time we run there (a WoO LMS event on July 26). ”
Chub, who sits fourth in the WoO LMS points standings (20 points behind co-leaders Steve Francis and Darrell Lanigan), plans to keep his ‘Old Faithful’ car parked this weekend and run one of his newer Rocket models in the Dirt Late Model Dream event.
“We have some things to figure out (on ‘Old Faithful’) so I don’t want to run it in the Dream, ” said Chub, who scored a career-best finish of third in last year’s 100-lap Dream. “I want to go there with a car we have a little better handle on. ”
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