Bill will be truly missed by all of us in the dtr2 community and it was a pleasure to know him, race with him, and talk to him on vent. Bill always seemed to be having a great time whenever you talked to him, and always made my day brighter when I'd pop into vent. RIP Bill.

Bill would have wanted the show to go on, though, and so it would.

The night would start with qualifying, and twenty-three dirt late models made an attempt at time trials. Coming out on top, however, was VLR_JW, as he was able to snag his fourth pole of the season in just his fifth start.

It seems that he knows how to get his car dialed in each week for the three lap qualifying, but despite his fourth pole to date, he only has got to victory lane once, and that was in the first race of the season at Florence.

This was the first Gen3 league race ran on this track in dtr2, and the element of surprise would certainly play a part in the 100 lap A Main.

In a fast paced race featuring some of the biggest names in dtr2, it was VLR_JW who drove his #3 dirt late model to victory lane for the second time this season, and nipped the hardest charger of the night, BLS_F1yer by just three car lengths at the line for the win in the 1st annual USRA_Bill 100 at Brownstown.

 

The most impressive story of the night -- besides JW, was the #1 machine of BLS_F1yer. He had a very eventful night that started with a three wide battle for the lead in his heat race, which resulted in him getting knocked back to third where HDR_11 then finished him off and forced him to go to a backup car for the B Main.

However, BLS_F1yer would not be denied, and he went on to win the B Main after starting on the back row. By way of winning the B Main, he'd start eighth in the feature and immediately start working his way to the front. Contact with VLR_Shock early on allowed him to move up into fifth spot, and he kept working his way up slowly, but surely.

 

After getting by VLR_4 on lap 46, he'd set his sights on pole sitter VLR_JW, already a straight-away ahead of the rest of the pack.

Despite a valiant effort, his quest for the win ended up only three car lengths from what would arguably be one of the best victories of his online racing career. With five more laps, this race report may have been totally different.

“It was pretty uneventful, I was looking at JW's ass for 100 laps seemed like,” quipped F1yer, who moved up one spot in the point standings to fourth. “The start of the race was actually pretty good racing, except for me running over Shock. I rode behind Wheel and McGee there for a while, then Wheel got into McGee. Faschek and I had a good race, too. We had a five way battle up there for the lead, so I guess it was pretty good racing. I had to say I was shaking like crazy back there at the end, though. We just ran out of laps, but JW is just awesome every week seems like. He was my pick to win.”

WFO_ICE of Tahlequah, Ok., who won here Friday night in the VLR Crates, moved forward from the tenth starting spot to finish in fifth spot, but never threatened the top four finishers as the race wore on.

"200 laps in three days is too damn many at this track. My arm was asleep fifty laps in, and the last twenty I kept screwing up and found a faster line," ICE remarked. "Everybody looked drunk when the track dried out, seemed like we were all sliding all over the place. We'll take our fifth and not complain about it since we were struggling early on to get in a rhythm."

VLR_18 came home third and in the process lost the points lead to JW for the first time this season (He was second to JW leaving Florence in the season opener), as problems plagued him the whole week leading up to the race.

"We had some issues that needed worked out with our car and so we were a bit off the fastest guys up there. I just wanted to hang in there and get a decent points day out of it. This is shaping up to be a good battle. We'll rest off this weekend and celebrate July 4th and come back to McKean with a good run."

VLR_McGee, who fell to eighth after starting third, ran over to VLR_18's pits after 18's interview to have a chat with him about a bump early in the 100 lap feature. The two traded verbal jabs for a bit, in what has become a heated rivalry between VLR's youngest and oldest member, before VLR_18 lightly punched McGee in the arm and quickly ran to his hauler.

McGee was gracious enough to stay and give a brief interview following the incident, instead of chasing VLR_18 around the pits.

"Same story, different week. He's got all the talent in the world, but can't harness it half the time. I just need to get it together and see if I can get a clean finish at McKean."

JW, who started from the pole, was surprised by the superiority he demonstrated over the talent-laden field, until F1yer began reeling him in towards the finish.

“I didn't think our car was as good as it was until we got out there,” said JW, “This car was awesome. We were good right around the middle to top (grooves), and we got a great start. I was nervous as heck at the end, though. F1yer was catching little by little and we're glad to hold on. He drove his tail off to catch us.”

During a long run that stretched from lap 20 to 73, JW built a lead of over a straightaway before BLS_F1yer began gradually marching him down towards the end

BLS_Superman made the A Main again this week, and brought home a good seventh place finish, but still saw room for improvement, despite having a heavily bruised leg from a baseball incident a couple days before the race.

"My car was not set up for a slick track. I couldn't find the line, I didn't know where to run with it that slick. I guess we should have went with totally soft tires, but we didn't know what everyone else was doing. We were fine when it was kind of wet, but when it dried out for the feature I was off. I couldn't find the line for the entire 100 laps. It was a decent night for us overall considering that my leg hurts like crazy right now."

JW's heart was still pounding during the post-race press conference in the Brownstown victory lane.

“Damn that was fun. F1yer done a good job, but we got us the win and the points lead,” he said with a smile, "The downside is we will probably have to miss a couple more races and not be able to battle it out with 18 for the points win, which sucks. Our goal is just to win as many as we can now and let the chips fall where they may."

Finishing in positions 6-10 was VLR_McGee of Spartanburg, Sc.; BLS_Superman of Dandridge, Tn.; DT77 of Pennsylvania.; VLR_Faschek of Hindman, Ky; Michigan driver BLS_Zombie rounded out the top 10.

One of the pre-race favorites who retired early was VLR_Faschek. The Kentucky native qualified in eighth place, but was able to win heat two and start second for the A Main. He was able to fight off some fierce challenges from teammates VLR_18 and VLR_53 before succombing to pressure by BLS_F1yer on lap 46. His night went sour after this and he ended up with a DNF.

The winners of Sunday night's 12-lap heats were VLR_JW, VLR_4, and VLR_McGee. The 15-lap B-Mains were captured by VLR_Jason and the B Main Bandit BLS_F1yer.

Next week the drivers of the VLR Summer Scorcher series will take off in honor of Independence Day, and will return on Friday, July 9, 2010 for the VLR Crates at McKean County Raceway in Smethport, Pa.

 

Two days later the Gen3 series will be in action once again at the same track for a shootout under the lights in what's sure to be a fantastic double header.

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For more information on the VLR series, visit www.teamvlr.com

Qualifying Results: 1. JW 2. F1yer 3. 18 4. Superman 5. Shock 6. Mcgee 7. Doit 3 8. Faschek 9. Jsn 10. 43A 11. ICE 12. BOB 13. DT77 14. Jr 15. Doit 10 16. OK 17. kelly 18. Rick 19. Zombie 20. Sam 21. Dude 22. Hunter 23. woowoo43

Top 10 Results of VLR Late Model series USRA_Bill 100 (Finishing Position/Start/Driver/Laps Completed): 

1. (1) VLR_JW/100

2. (8) BLS_F1yer/100

3. (6) VLR_18/100

4. (5) VLR_Shock/100

5. (10) WFO_ICE/100

6. (3) VLR_McGee/100

7. (4) BLS_Superman/100

8. (7) DT77/100

9. (2) VLR_4/100

10. (9) BLS_Zombie/100

Time of Race: 20 Mins., 17.19 Secs. 

Margin of Victory: 0.33 Secs.

Rookie of the Race: BLS_SuperMan

SuperClean Fast Time Award: BLS_F1yer 12.03

SuperClean Hard Luck Award: VLR_4