SPRING VALLEY, MN – April 12, 2012: As BLS heads into the final week of the season we have a tie in the points. After Shock’s win last night at OCFS and Wheel’s disappointing 7th place finish, the two heated rivals will come to Deer Creek Speedway with a lot more than just pride on the line. Although the two drivers are former teammates, there has always been bad blood between them. All this seemed to come to a head this year at the Spring Fling as the two VLR drivers (at the time) battled for the lead as the laps wound down.
Wheel, who had led most of the race, was not happy with the way that Shock had passed him with two laps to go to move in the lead. Wheel made sure that Shock would not be the winner and drove him hard into the turn four wall and Shock ended up crossing the line in 6th.
Wheel was declared the unofficial winner but after Shock had protested he was officially listed as third after being penalized two positions. As they are two of the best in the world they have had many clashes for wins and championships throughout the years which include some of the best blowups by both drivers.
The two drivers are perhaps the most competitive in the game and when they are battling for a win on the final lap of a race, anything can, and usually does happen.
Wheel, who is widely considered one of the best drivers in the sim racing world, has won four times on the BLS Monster Energy Drink Tour this season with wins at Boone and Oskaloosa while a VLR member. VLR_Shock was absent at Boone but led much of the Oskaloosa race before smacking the wall hard with five laps to go and nursing his car home third.
The next week at BLS, VLR_18 made the jump over to team BLS after yet another blowup with Shock stemming from the Spring Fling 100. Wheel won the next two weeks at East Bay and again at Lucas Oil.
Shock, who contends that he is every bit deserving of the #1 driver spot and many consider him as Wheel’s top competition, has countered with wins in week 2 at the shortest track on the schedule, Kokomo and last week at OCFS, which is one of the largest tracks on the schedule.
Shock does however feel like he is the underdog next week. “I will be surprised if anyone is within 4 seconds of Wheel…he is superfast there!”
Rain, who has been a beast at BLS this year, had three wins in five races. His wins came at the season opener at Thunderbird, where he passed Shock in turn three on the final lap, Knoxville, and Cumberland.
His worst finish this season was 3rd at OCFS and he has an amazing average finish of 1.6 this season. “I’ve had a lot of great finishes here this season and I really wish that I could have run the entire season.”
The battle for 3rd is also extremely tight as Starnes and JFR_17 are a mere four points apart as Starnes leads the JFR member 287 and 283. Both have been very consistent this season and if they show up they will be guaranteed a top 4 finish in the BLS points.
The fight for a top 5 finish is also extremely tight with Ice (267), JSN (266), F1yer (262), Brad (261), and BW (259) looking to finish in the top 5.
Kevin looks to wrap up his 1st season since coming back with a top 10 finish as he sits with 250 points.
We hope to see you all next Wednesday for the BLS Season Finale at Deer Creek 2k12 (Slick)!