World Of Outlaws PhotoBEAVER DAM, WI – May 21, 2009 – What a relief it is for Brady Smith to have the World of Outlaws Late Model Series stop at Charter Raceway Park in his homestate this Sunday night (May 24).
 
A resident of Solon Springs, Wis., Smith has been traipsing all over the country in his first season as a WoO LMS regular. Now he finally gets an event in his backyard.
 
Well, Charter Raceway Park is at least relatively close to Smith’s home.
 
“We still have about a four-and-a-half drive to get down there (to Beaver Dam),” said Smith, who hails from the far Northwest corner of Wisconsin. “But that’s nothing compared to how far we’ve had to drive to all these other tracks this year.”
 
Indeed, Smith, who turns 32 on May 31, has to relish a WoO LMS show that’s roughly 300 miles from his doorstep. Of the nine tracks he’s visited so far this season with the WoO LMS, six were more than 1,000 miles from his home (speedways in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia); one was nearly 900 miles away (in Pennsylvania); and two were just over 500 miles away (both in central Illinois).
 
“I’m looking forward to it,” Smith said of Charter’s 40-lap, $7,000-to-win program that closes a three-state holiday-weekend tripleheader for the WoO LMS. “Being on the road so much is tough because it takes you away from your family, so it’s gonna be nice to race pretty close to home. My wife (Jenni) and kids (daughters Mariah and Rowan, son Travis) are coming to the race (they haven’t seen Smith in action together since they traveled to Florida in February for a few events), and I’m sure I’ll have some family and friends there too.”
 
Smith just wishes he had a true hometrack advantage at Charter. He has one career start at the one-third-mile oval, a 14th-place finish on May 12, 2007, in the track’s only previous WoO LMS event.
 
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of experience (at Charter) even though it’s close to my house,” said Smith, who cut his dirt Late Model teeth competing at tracks in the northern part of the state. “I didn’t run very well there in ’07, but that was very early in our days with these Bloomquist (Team Zero Chassis) cars. I was inexperienced with them, and I made a mistake putting the wrong right-front shock on and left it on too long.”
 
Smith’s lone appearance at Charter Raceway Park certainly impressed him, though.
 
“It’s absolutely a beautiful track,” raved Smith, who operates his own race team with primary support from Big Red Motorsports and Mid-State Equipment Hydraulics. “It’s a real nice facility, and the racetrack seemed real racy. (Dennis) Erb started back (in the 11th spot) and came up through to win that night, so that tells you it’s a good racetrack.”
 
Smith is hopeful that this weekend’s Tri-State Late Model Challenge – a three-race WoO LMS swing that also includes events on Fri., May 22, at U.S. 36 Raceway in Osborn, Mo., and Sat., May 23, at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa – will get him back on track along the Outlaws trail. He’s struggled since finishing second on Feb. 14 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., and fourth on March 13 at Deep South Speedway in Loxley, Ala.
 
“We haven’t been running terrible,” said Smith, who ranks ninth in the WoO LMS points standings entering this weekend’s action. “We just need to start running better.
 
“Obviously doing this Outlaw deal is a big step up for us, a very big commitment. We’re still a fairly young team, so we knew coming in that we’d have some tough stretches. I’m just taking the advice I’ve heard and keeping my head up. When I get in a slump, I just have to dig deep within myself and find some encouragement from the people who are important to me.”
 
A winner of back-to-back WoO LMS A-Mains last year at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., and Estevan (Sask.) Motor Speedway, Smith knows he can get the job done against the tour’s big stars. He just needs to find his rhythm on the road over the long haul.
 
“If you want to make a living in racing, you have to make the commitment to do a national tour like this,” said Smith, who has built a new Bloomquist Chassis car with his crew this month and expects to debut it this weekend. “It seems like all the guys who won big races last year were touring drivers at one time or another. Experience-wise, this is the best thing for us.”
 
Defending WoO LMS champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., leads the tour’s points standings entering this weekend’s tripleheader, which features a $10,000 bonus posted by SLS Promotions for a driver who can win two of the three A-Mains. He charged to a sixth-place finish after starting 23rd in his 2007 appearance at Charter Raceway Park.
 
Josh Richards, 21, of Shinnston, W.Va., currently sits second in the points standings. The eighth-place finisher in the ’07 WoO LMS A-Main at Charter, his team carries primary sponsorship from Seubert Calf Ranches in Dorchester, Wis., about 180 miles northwest of Beaver Dam.
 
Other WoO LMS contenders headed for Charter include Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga.; Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., who finished fourth in the track’s ’07 event; Rick Eckert of York, Pa., who scored his first Outlaws victory of the season on May 17 at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway; Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa.; Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y.; Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., the runner-up at Charter in ’07; and Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y. Five 2009 Rookie of the Year candidates will also be in the field: Jordan Bland of Campbellsville, Ky., Russell King of Bristolville, Ohio, Dustin Hapka of Grand Forks, N.D., Brent Robinson of Smithfield, Va., and 14-year-old Tyler Reddick of Corning, Calif.
 
The list of drivers planning to challenge the Outlaws on Sunday includes NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader of Concord, N.C.; two-time defending UMP DIRTcar Super Late Model national champion Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., whose first career WoO LMS victory came in the ’07 event at Charter; rising UMP DIRTcar star Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill.; and Denny Woodworth of Mendon, Ill.
 
Gates are scheduled to open at 2 p.m. (pits) and 4 p.m. (grandstands) on Sunday, with hot laps set for 6 p.m., time trials at 6:30 p.m. and racing at 7:30 p.m.
 
Reserved-seat tickets for the May 24 event at Charter Raceway Park are priced at $32 for the chairback seating in the top two rows of sections B-C and $30 for the top 10 rows without chairbacks in sections A-B-C-D. An advance-sale offer of $35 for a reserved seat and a pit pass is also available, while general admission will be $25 for adults, $15 for children 6-12 and free for kids 5-and-under (children in reserved seats pay the full ticket price).
 
For ticket information, call SLS Promotions at 815-344-2023 (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT) or Charter Raceway Park at 920-887-1600.
 
All three Tri-State Late Model Challenge programs this weekend will be run as co-sanctioned UMP DIRTcar events with the UMP DIRTcar Hoosier tire rule (10-20-30-40 compounds) in effect.
 
For more information visit www.slspromotions.com or www.wismotorsports.net .
 
Additional info on the WoO LMS is available by logging on to www.worldofoutlaws.com.