MIDDLEBOURNE, WV (November 6, 2016) – VLR_Shock comes home with one of the biggest wins of his long career as he picked up the checkered flag in the $150 to win Hillbilly 100 Sunday night at Tyler County Speedway in a thrilling finish that featured four cars breaking away from the field and battling to the very end.
Pennsylvania driver SKM_Smallz earned his first career pole award with a blazing fast 11.26 qualifying lap-time. He would go on to win his heat race and earn the pole start in the 100 lap feature with VLR_Shock starting to his outside. The two competitors powered around the top side single file for the early portion of the race until a caution came on on lap 22 as defending VLR champion JW slowed in turn one with a flat tire.
JW had charged up and caught the leaders and was locked in a close battle for second when the tire came apart. JW would restart at the tail of the field but would look to make noise later in the race with his fresher tire on the left rear.
The cars rumbled out of turn four for the restart with 78 laps to go. Smallz jumped back in front of Shock coming out of turn 2 on the restart and the two immediately hooked up again. However, ICE_KG had other plans as he had now moved into third place and quickly looked to put his #17 Ginger-Power machine in the lead. On the first lap after the restart, KG stormed down low and pulled off a wild slidejob on VLR_Shock to move into second.
Just one corner later the Illinois driver and most recent VLR winner made a similar move under SKM_Smallz to try to move into the lead. Once again the move was successful and KG was suddenly the leader just like that. It would be short lived, though, as Smallz felt the move coming and dipped back under KG to take the lead. The sellout crowd were on their feet as the two battled it out with the cash on the line.
After a few laps the action had calmed down a bit as VLR_Shock also had moved back ahead of KG to take over second again and set his sights on Smallz for the lead as the top three were under a blanket. ICE_KG was feeling pressure from behind halfway through the race on lap 70, though, as the hard charging VLR_JW had moved his way into fourth and was gaining on the leaders. KG began to get impatient with the #70 machine closing in on him and looked under VLR_Shock to pass and move into second. However, the move didn't work and the #0 of Shock ended up in the wall while KG took over second and SKM_Smallz instantly saw his two car length lead swell to eight car lengths with twenty laps to go and was well on his way to his first career VLR win.
It wasn't that easy, though, as Smallz would have issues of his on shortly after building the big lead. His #7 machine smacked the wall in turn four after he got in to hot and the big lead was instantly evaporated. Just like that, Smallz, Shock, KG and JW were all slicing and dicing for the lead with fifteen to go. JW continued to work the bottom side while the other three used the high line to their advantage. With 14 to go JW had pulled alongside Smallz for the lead while Shock and KG rode nose to tail right behind them. The move of the race came one lap later, and it wasn't by the top two drivers either.
Coming off turn two with 13 to go the #70 of JW got loose and slid up into the left side of leader SKM_Smallz. The duo pushed up the track and VLR_Shock made a bold move to launch under them as soon as he saw the contact. The move paid off big time as the drivers went three wide of the lead heading into turn three as the fans were once again on their feet with excitement. Shock gunned it on the low line and slid up in front of JW and Smallz to take his first lead of the race on lap 87.
VLR_JW would go on to clear Smallz and set his sights on the 0 as the two drove two completely different lines. VLR_Shock would manage to hold on to a three car length lead until the very end though and he went on to claim his first career season opening VLR win in his career.
In Teamvlr.com Victory Lane Shock said he was fortunate to make it to victory lane with the intense battling up front. "This is a huge win for me and I'm sweating like crazy because it was intense all race and there was no time to breathe. Usually in a long race like this it gets spaced out a bit between cautions and you can kind of relax. But in this one there was either someone right on my bumper or someone right in front of me who's bumper I was on. It was a pretty wild race but a lot of fun and I'm glad to get a win out of the way early here at VLR."
VLR_JW stayed right with VLR_Shock in the last 10 laps of the race, but the Mississippi driver could not close in to make a move for the lead after restarting dead last with 78 to go. "I think we just burnt the tires off there as we were coming up through the pack. It is what it is but Shock was gonna be damn tough to beat either way. I am happy a vLR guy won and we swept the top two so I can't complain about that."
ICE_KG tried the outside every lap and had a fairly quiet third place finish despite storming to the lead for a brief moment after the restart.
“I had a lot of fun tonight. They completely reworked the track this week before the race and it really made it exciting for the fans and drivers having two good grooves to race on. I felt like we could've won and I was closing in on JW and Shock at the end but we ran out of laps. All in all I'm happy to start the season with a top 3 after we won the season finale last season.”
SKM_Smallz nearly snagged his first career win at VLR after starting on the pole, but a late fade resulted in a fourth place finish.
"I was really happy to have such a strong car up on the top side tonight and I don't think anyone would have caught me if my power steering hadn't gone out there with 15 to go. Then JW tangled up with me and I was done after that. The handling went away completely. I have mixed feelings about our race. On one hand it was nice to lead the most laps and contend for a win, but it sucks that we have nothing really to show for it by finishing fourth. I think this does give us momentum for the rest of the season though and shows that we can compete with the best of the best out here."
Completing the top ten were VLR_Bubba, who recorded his best finish at VLR in eight years, VLR_Atwood, XRL_RB, WFO_Faschek, J-Mac, and ICE_MattB10
In preliminary action, Smallz set the overall fast time amongst the 22 entrants, with a lap of 11.267 seconds.
Next week the VLR tour heads 2,000 miles west to the brand new Wildcat Raceway in Tucson, AZ. Everything is hotter in the desert so look for more intense racing action at the 3/8 mile oval. See you there! For more information on the Team VLR Dirt Late Model Series, visit www.teamvlr.com
Pos Driver
1 VLR_Shock
2 VLR_JW
3 XCR_KingGinger
4 SKM_Smallz
5 VLR_Bubba
6 VLR_Atwood
7 XRL_RB!
8 WFO_Faschek
9 J-MAC
10 ICE_MattB10
11 WFO Rainman
12 VLR_43a
13 ICE_Eric41
14 WFO_Goldfish
15 DeadBolt
16 xXtoxonXx
17 War48
18 WFO_Greezy
19 peanut
20 XCR*Basham
21 ICE_KK21JR
22 Hoover
- VLR_LastPlace