MORGANTON, NC (April 23, 2012)- VLR_JW put an end to his mid-season woes Sunday night in VLR's first visit to Antioch Speedway in North Carolina by dominating the race to pick up his first win since the season opener at East Bay.
Racing at the half-mile oval east of the Great Smoky Mountains, West Point, Mississippi's VLR_JW slowly pulled away over the course of the 50-lap race to back up his fast qualifying run with a feature victory.
JW led for much of the distance after starting from the pole in his Team VLR/Gatorade sponsored Rocket car. Early on the 28-year-old found himself in a side by side battle with Mav as the two ran side-by-side and exchanged some paint between in the process. Harold, Florida driver VLR_JJ snuck in and battled for a while as well.
Ohio driver Mav took over the lead while the teammates of JW and JJ did battle as veteran Mav eyed his first ever VLR win while playing the role of underdog. However, JW was able to get past JJ and would quickly advance past Mav before cruising to victory.
"Man this is awesome to rebound after finishing tenth last week," said an excited VLR_JW, who had a DNF last week at Volusia after smacking the wall while running second. "It felt like I hadn't won a race in forever so I knew I needed to come out and make sure everyone knew I wasn't gonna go away easy."
VLR_JW, who was looking for a statement win after last weeks disastrous finish, did just that at Antioch by sitting on the pole and racing away to the win at the high-banked red clay oval. The Mississippi Missle sits third in points, just one point out of second with three races remaining in the most competitive VLR season in series history.
JW crossed the finish line 1.92 ahead of second place Mav, who earned his first career top five at VLR and nearly got his first win in the series to boot. Last weeks winner at Volusia, VLR_JJ came home third, less than a car length behind Mav.
6-time defending VLR Champion BLS_18, of Brookfield, Wisconsin crossed the line fourth, while impressive rookie driver JFR_17, of Independence, Kansas, continued his impressive season with his second top five of the year, and his fourth top ten finish in a row.
"I spent all week preparing for this race," said JW, who tamed the extremely tough track for his second win of the season. "I felt like I had something to prove and to be the first winner on this track is special to me. It's a drivers track so you gotta be on your toes and not make mistakes because it's easy to get in trouble here.
"The track really tightens up coming out of four and I didn't want a repeat of last week where I slammed the wall and wrecked."
Mav led several laps early in the race before JW was able to get around him. The Ohio driver surprised many with his outside pole qualifying position, but proved it was no fluke as he raced home to a runner-up finish. He couldn't quite pull off his first-ever VLR series victory, however.
"I'm happy," said Mav, whose previous best finish in VLR action was a seventh in last season's opening race at Lucas Oil. "I would've loved to have won here at VLR, but anytime you can get second with this field of drivers you know you've done something."
VLR_JJ, meanwhile, fell back to fourth early and battled with BLS_18 for several laps before working his way by. The Florida driver steadily closed in on second place runner Mav but ran out of time as he finished the race less than a car length behind Mav.
"I got to racing BLS_18 really ahd and JW and Mav got away," said JJ, who has two top three's in two starts this season at VLR. "Finally I got by Wheel and ran Mav down but I just ran out of laps.
"This track was tricky to drive but I did my best just didn't have enough time."
BLS_18 has had one of the most up and down seasons of his long career, and his streak of three top two finishes in a row ended with a fourth at Antioch. The defending champion started off the season with multiple dissapointing finishes of 7th, 9th, and 17th and has spent the majority of the season trying to claw out of the whole he dug early on.
"We're still trying to make some ground up," said BLS_18, who has clawed his way back to second in the standings as he goes for his seventh straight championship at VLR. "I wish people would quit dive-bombing in the corners because it was really throwing me off my line.
"I'm just glad we're out of this place and heading on to Attica next week where I always seem to run good."
BLS_BW43 of Sparta, Michigan finished sixth, as he continues to run consistently and log good finishes. Hometown hero BLS_F1yer, of Hickory, North Carolina finished seventh, and had the fans on their feet with his B Main win; Rookie driver VLR_Brad of Lawrenceburg, Indiana continued to impress with a strong eighth place finish; The Canadian Terror XCR_X brought home a ninth place finish, and was commended for racing exceptionally clean in the feature; and Oswego, New York driver IFRT_RB had an accident early in the race and ended up tenth.
Notably missing from the event was points leader VLR_Shock, who's primary car blew up in hot laps with no backup car available. VLR_JW subbed for the Crossville, Tennessee driver.
A field of 33 cars assembled for the event, which was the first trip by VLR to the half-mile speed plant.
JW was quickest in Time Trials with a lap of 13.578 seconds. It was his third pole of the season.
The VLR tour will head north next Sunday for a visit to the Attica Raceway Park in Attica, Ohio. Many of the top drivers in the sport are expected to attend as it's now crunch time for drivers looking to move up in points with just three events remaining. In two weeks VLR heads to Boone, Iowa for the Boone Supernationals at the ultra racy track.
For more information on the VLR series, visit www.teamvlr.com.