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Tim Shaffer
Middletown, NY—Tim Shaffer always looks forward to the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series East Coast swing for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, being a native of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, he is able to spend a couple of days at home at with his family and sleep in his own bed. It also provides his team a number of chances to race in a short period of time without having to travel very far, which is a very welcome sight this season, after Mother Nature has wreaked havoc on the early part of the season.
After three events in his home state this week, Shaffer will travel to the historic Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, New York for the series annual stop at the always daunting 5/8-mile on Sunday, May 18. At Orange County, the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series drivers reach some of their highest speeds of the year on the long straight-a-ways on the semi-banked track, which originally was built for horse racing back in 1857.
“It’s a fast place and it’s a momentum place, ” noted Shaffer, who drives the Casey’s General Store Maxim. “It usually gets hard and slick, and it’s a good racy place. It changes up throughout the night and you have to keep up with it. It will be a lot of fun. ”
Prior to the 2008 season, the racing surface at Orange County has been reworked, with hundred of truckloads of new clay brought in to soften up the track, which has been referred to for years as, “The Hard Clay. ” Until he rolls his car onto the track for hot laps on Sunday night, Shaffer and his team will be going off past set-up information when preparing the car for the event. The new surface has been receiving race reviews from the drivers and teams that compete there on a weekly basis.
“It will definitely change things, depending on how much they have added and what they have done, ” explained the 1999 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year. “If that is the case, it will throw some guys off and everyone will be trying some different stuff. ”
With the event at Orange County being one of just two on a 5/8-mile tracks this season along with the traditional Memorial Day visit to Rolling Wheels Raceway Park also in New York, Shaffer enters the race with the same mindset that he has for an event on a ¼-mile, a 1/3-mile or any size track, with complete focus on getting the car dialed in during hot laps to put himself in a good position for time trials and the rest of the racing program.
“You just have to treat it like any other race, ” he said. “The main thing is to get your car right for the night. You work with the team and you look for the best set-up that you can. ”
The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series began their East Coast swing on Tuesday night at Shaffer’s home track of Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pennsylvania and competed at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania on Thursday night.
