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HIGHLAND, IL. (October 1, 2010)- It was the second race in a row in the Crates series at VLR that would come down to the wire, and ironically it was VLR_Shock holding off BLS_F1yer again, which was the same thing he had to do to win at Brownstown last week, another ¼ mile track just like this one.’

This was the first dtr2 open league race ever ran at this bullring, and it was the Crossville, Tn., driver who picked up his second win in a row in the VLR Crates, and tied up the points with BLS_F1yer, who grabbed his third straight finish of second place.

“I was very surprised that I won,” said a happy VLR_Shock, who looked to rebound from his fourth place finish in the VLR Gen 3 series from last week. “I really thought Doit 2 was going to be the guy to beat. I knew F1yer and VLR_18 would be also, but they were starting way back in the pack.

“There were a lot of fast guys here and I am just happy to be in the winner’s circle.”

The 22-year-old driver showed his supremacy early in the night’s proceedings, by winning his heat race after starting fifth place. He would then go on to lead the first forty laps of the main event virtually unchallenged after slowly pulling away from Doit 2.

While Shock was busy stretching his lead over Doit 2, BLS_F1yer and VLR_18 were working their way through the pack. With 15 laps to go VLR_Shock still held a five car length lead over new second place BLS_F1yer, but that was quickly about to change with lap cars playing into the picture.

Just like the previous week’s race at Brownstown, VLR_Shock would come up on the lap car of BLS_Deadbolt. Shock would try everything he could to clear him and ultimately he would, but not before BLS_F1yer cut the gap to just a car length with twelve laps remaining in the 60 lap show.

The lap car danger wasn’t over yet, though. With nine laps to go BLSJsn! and ERL_BLKJAK collided, and this sent them to the infield just as the leaders were getting ready to head into turn one.

It looked like the battling cars of VLR_Shock and BLS_F1yer would make it through safely, but that was before ERL_BLKJAK suddenly tried to get his car back on the track right in front of them.

Suddenly, he turned up and caught the left rear of VLR_Shock, which sent him up the track and cause BLS_F1yer to have to slam the brakes to keep from both of them wrecking.

“I’m not sure what he was thinking there,” VLR_Shock said after the race. “He’s a rookie right now, though, so hopefully he’ll learn and get better. I just took it in that turn like normal and hoped to make it out the other side, but he got into us a bit, luckily it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

After the intensity of the battle with the lapped cars was over, VLR_Shock and BLS_F1yer renewed their battle until the end.

F1yer and Shock would battle extremely hard and this allowed VLR_18 to close in from a straight-away behind to just three car lengths with four laps to go.

Shock and F1yer would finally gather it up and come home across the line 1-2, nearly side-by-side in the tracks debut at VLR. VLR_Shock felt fortunate to hang on for his second win in three races this season.

“I had a big lead for a long time and was just trying to hold F1yer off because I knew he was going to be right there at the end,” said Shock in victory lane. “I’m just happy that I was able to hold off the fastest guys in the game tonight and win.”

BLS_F1yer came up just 0.007 seconds short in what was almost identical to last week’s finish, but he was still happy to get second and be tied for the points lead.

F1yer was unable to find a way around Shock on the final lap, with the bottom line being the stronger one on this night.

“I was pretty much winging it that last lap,” F1yer said. “I ran Shock down just by being smooth. I hit between a .34 and .37 every lap just trying to stay smooth. Those lappers helped out a lot, but I think I would have caught him anyhow. I was just pretty much going to wing it the last lap, though.”

F1yer drove from eighth in the second b main all the way to the front to start eighth in the a main before rallying to nearly get the win after charging to the front all night. VLR_18 had to come through the b main as well, and nearly upset both Shock and F1yer’s chance for a win.

“My plan was working, I let F1yer go at the beginning, and I was like well I hope he catches Shock, and they race, and I get up there,” said VLR_18, who won the first crate race of the season. “It almost worked, but I needed a couple more laps.

“I’m happy with third, it was a good race. It was clean.”

VLR_18 missed the feature the week before after his car blew up in the heat race, and he didn’t have a back up available. He climbed up in points with his strong run, but still sits a distant fifth in the standings.

“I’m just going to try to win races and let the points take care of themselves, I guess. I’m not really watching points right now.”

BLS_BLZ of National City, Mi., came home with a good finish, as he started fifth and ended up one spot higher at the end, in fourth after 60 circuits on the ¼ mile track.

“I played the patience game, I just lifted and let everyone that was coming up on me pass by,” said BLZ. “I waited for everyone to get together and (mess) up so that way I could pass them all back.

“It was a good run, I didn’t get hit by anybody, and didn’t hit anybody.”

East Moline, Ill., driver WFO_Rainman started third and ran there for much of the early part of the race, but faded towards the end to come home fifth in a stacked field.

Finishing in positions 6-10 was Doit 2; BLS_Deadbolt of Erie, Pa.; BLSJsn! of Kokomo, In.; XCR_B58 of Ramona, Ca.; and ERL_BLKJak.

VLR_Shock gained two more points on BLS_F1yer this week to move into a tie for the lead as the racers head into the biggest track they have faced so far next week at the ½ mile Knoxville Day for a forty lap showdown.

A field of 25 drivers was signed into the event.

Heat winners were VLR_Shock, Doit 2, and BLS_BLZ. The B-Mains were captured by VLR_18 and BLS_F1yer. The 8-lap fast dash was taken by VLR_Shock.

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

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

1. (1) VLR_Shock
2. (8) BLS_F1yer
3. (7) VLR_18
4. (5) BLS_BLZ
5. (3) WFO_Rainman
6. (2) Doit 2
7. (9) BLS_Deadbolt
8. (10) BLS_Jsn!
9. (6) XCR_B58
10. (4) ERL_BLKJAK

Time of Race: 11:27.61
Margin of Victory: 0.07 Secs.
Rookie of the Race: Doit 2
SuperClean Fast Time Award: BLS_F1yer 11.29
SuperClean Hard Luck Award: ERL_BLKJAK