Before the season, Brian Franz said he didn’t plan to run the full schedule in the O’Reilly NCRA Modified Series, presented by ICM/Ethanol. After the first three shows, you may wonder if he has changed his mind.
“I made the mistake of going to Humboldt, ” said the four-time defending series champion. “If I had gotten that first miss out of the way, it would have been easier to not run the full season. ”
At this point Franz has his 22nd career win May 25 at Humboldt Speedway to go with a pair of runner-up finishes. His 865 points is good enough for the top spot in the standings and a 100-point lead over the second-place driver, Jeremy Massey.
Massey, from Park City, Kan., is running his first full season with the NCRA modifieds. He has three top 10 finishes and outran Franz late in the May 26 Enid show for his first-ever series win.
The NCRA mods have their traditional Fourth of July shows this weekend. Saturday they will race at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan., while Sunday they’ll travel up U. S. Highway 81 to the famed Belleville (Kan. ) High Banks.
Franz runs well at 81, having won six of the last 11 NCRA shows held on the 3/8ths-mile oval since 2005. In this year’s season opener at 81, he was second behind three-time champion John Allen, who won his ninth career feature in his only appearance with the series thus far.
However, Belleville has been a different story. Last year Franz put together two of his best-ever efforts on the big track. He won in July, saying, “I’ve never had a car at Belleville that was this good. ” Brian followed that up with an eighth-place finish in September.
As for his original plans to not run the full season, all the Halstead, Kan., driver will say is that he’s “undecided. ” As for this weekend, Franz said he “might go” to Belleville on Sunday.
“If I do well at 81 (Saturday) and don’t tear up the car, then I’ll probably be at Belleville, ” he said, “but I won’t decide until after Saturday’s show. ”
Veterans Greg Stephens and Brian Powers, both from Wichita, Kan., are third and fourth, respectively, in the standings. Stephens has 740 points with three top 10s and two top fives. Powers also has three top 10s, but only one in the top five, and 720 points.
Former series regular Brian McGowen Frontenac, Kan., is fifth with 670 points. Sixth through 15th places are separated by only 90 points.
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