SMALLZ SNAGS FIRST CAREER VLR WIN IN DRAMATIC FASHION AT KNOXVILLE
KNOXVILLE, IOWA (November 20, 2016) – SKM_Smallz led all 50 laps of the Team VLR Late Model Knoxville Nationals on Sunday night - en route to the biggest win of his young sim racing career in the Kane's ITS/Mega Plumbing/Team SKM powered Rocket Chassis. However, the Pennsylvania driver had to fend off challengers all race long.
In the early part of the race he was gridlocked in a battle with VLR_Bubba who faded after a caution on lap 15. In the second half of the race, Smallz found himself with a decent lead over the field until ICE_KG and VLR_Shock both made strong rallies in the final ten laps. Smallz and KG were side by side heading into the last lap before KG got loose on the bottom leaving Smallz and Shock to battle it out utilizing two different grooves on the track. Shock dove under Smallz in turn 3 on the very bottom and the two came out of turn four dead even. It was Smallz on the top side who carried the momentum to the line and edged VLR point leader VLR_Shock by just .07 seconds.
ICE_KG held on to earn a strong third place finish, while VLR_JW and last weeks winner SKM_18 rounded out the top 5.
Smallz started on the outside pole but quickly raced to the lead on the initial start. He was able to race out to a narrow three car length margin over second place VLR_Bubba by lap fifteen when the caution flew. VLR_JW was running in fourth and came to a stop at the bottom of turn four with what appeared to be a flat tire. Smallz had seen this movie before as he had led nearly every lap in the season opening race at Tyler County before a late caution bunched the field up again and he ended up with a disappointing third place result. That wasn't the case this time, though, as the talented driver held off several tough challenges to take home his first career VLR win.
The Pennsylvania racer had built up an 0.7 second lead over ICE_KG after the lap 15 caution but the #17 of KG and the #0 of VLR_Shock began finding more and more speed on the very bottom of the track and were slowly reeling #7 of Smallz in. The laps were winding down quick though and it looked like Smallz would still win comfortably.
That all changed with five laps to go as he found himself jumping the cushion and his right rear smacking the wall hard in turn two. His lead had evaporated suddenly and he found himself locked in a three car battle for the win. Fortunately Smallz car was not damaged majorly and he continued on and was able to squeak out a win in front of 15,000 fans at the packed stadium.
"It feels great to get my first win here at VLR. We have been in all three races this year with a chance to win and had bad luck the first two, so to come out here tonight and get this win feels great," said Smallz in Team VLR Victory Lane. "The funny thing is that our car wasn't nearly as fast tonight as the first two races but we still were able to get the win. I felt like we had about a fifth place car honestly."
"I gotta thank KG and Shock for running me clean there at the end when I screwed up. There was some kind of glitch and I honestly thought it was over at that point. Apparently KG messed up at the exact same time as I did so it didn't cost us the lead like it probably should've. It feels like we got a monkey off our backs here finally and can just focus on winning for the rest of the season without the pressure."
VLR_Shock drove his Team VLR/Metal-Lite/J&J Steel Barry Wright racecar to finish second, solidifying his series points lead. “We had another strong car tonight that surprised me. We've won a race this season and finished second by a nose in the other two so I couldn't ask for a better way to start the season than this. I'm happy to see Smallz get his first VLR win. It's good to see some of the newer guys compared to most of us getting wins against good competition like this. Anytime you can beat guys like JW, Wheel, KG, Bubba, RB, Faschek, Atwood and all those guys it's a good night. So I'm happy for him and really happy with how we have came out to start the season. This is the best start I've ever had at VLR so I hope we can continue it."
ICE_KG brought home a strong third place result after making a frenetic charge to the front after the caution flew on lap 15. Unfortunately, the Wilmington, IL driver was left wondering what could've been after the race when he got too loose on the inside groove on the final lap coming out of turn one. "First of all I want to congratulate Smallz on the win and just say how awesome that race was. I had a great car and just shot right up to the front after the restart and really thought I was gonna win that one. If I hadn't choked on the last lap I think I had a really good shot. We were gonna be three wide coming to the line. I wish I could go back and replay that last lap one more time and see what would've happened if I hadn't messed up. Either way, still a good points night for us and I'm really excited about Lawrenceburg coming up."
Completing the top ten were VLR_JW, who went to the tail of the field after bringing out the caution with 35 to go, SKM_18, VLR_Atwood, VLR_Bubba, RB!, Basham and WFO_Faschek.
In preliminary action, VLR_Atwood won the B Main, while VLR_JW qualified on the pole with a scorching 13.87 lap time. Post-Thanksgiving VLR will be in Lawrenceburg, IN at the Lawrenceburg Speedway for the Whisky City 50 on November 27th! For more information, visit www.teamvlr.com.
1 SKM_Smallz
2 VLR_Shock
3 XCR_KingGinger
4 VLR_JW
5 SKM_18
6 VLR_Atwood
7 VLR_Bubba
8 XRL_RB!
9 XCR*Basham
10 WFO_Faschek
11 ICE_KK21JR
12 WFO_Greezy
13 ICE_Eric41
14 War48
15 WFO*Duster
16 WFO_Goldfish
- VLR_43a