Imperial, PA (10-5-14) - VLR’s Sunday Night Series headed into the Steel City for the Pittsburgher 50 at Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. Pittsburgh is known for many things. Steeler Football, sexually deprived Quarterbacks named Ben, a running back named Frenchy, Halusky, Mario Lemieux, and after Sunday night, the biggest upset victory in VLR history.
Many of DTR2’s top drivers could not make the show this week, including Wheel, BW, Ray, JW and Squirrel. With ebola sweeping over the VLR drivers, could RB make it three in a row? Qualifying kicked off the show, and it was VLR_Shock taking his first pole of the year. For a man who has seen a lot of poles in his time (not that there’s anything wrong with it), it was a long dry spell of poleness. AIR-RB continued his streak of good time trials coming in second. Followed by JFR_LP, Smallz and DO!T_Dirty.
Heat 1 started off with Shock getting into Dirty early on, dropping both to the back of the field, benefitting homestate hero JFR_LP who went on to a not well earned win. Eric_41 missed the start of the heat while watching Smurfs 2. Which is a really fine movie and deserving of Oscar consideration. Heat 2 was won by AIR_RB. There was a stacked B-main that saw a three wide finish with Shock narrowly beating BLS_Jmac at the line.
With the preliminaries in the books, it was now time for the 50 lap A-main. King Ginger once again had the pole with Jmac on the outside front row. With the draft and some top cars missing, this was anybody’s race to be had. The first lap was lead by Eric_41 , with lots of beating and banging throughout the field. On lap 2, Jmac took the lowside and powered by for the lead.
On lap 5 there was a chain reaction wreck that took both Momper 43 and JFR_Duster (yet again) out of the race. Jmac had built up a nice sized lead by this point, but with some timely bump drafts from AIR_RB, JFR_LP had quietly moved into second place.
On lap 15, LP drove down low and got the lead, but not without putting a permanent “122” imprint on his right side panel from the car of BLS_J-Mac. Jmac made a good save and gathered the car up to stay in second. Back in the pack, Shock and RB had drafted their way to Jmac, with Shock eventually taking the spot while leaving his dance partner behind, discarded like an old pair of sneakers on the side of the highway (sometimes I find ones that fit me, but usually not that lucky).
LP had built up a sizeable lead at this point, which was surprising because the only thing he knew about drafts was that they are $2 at the Selinsgrove Hotel on Tuesdays. LP held on to take his first of probably not many VLR A-mains, giving JFR its first win in many seasons.
Shock was second, and RB’s winning streak was stopped, but he came in with a fine 3rd.
Dirk continued his awesome season with a 4th place finish, and Jmac had his career best VLR finish with his 5th place. King Ginger finished 6th, with Smallz in 7th for another good run, Eric crashed in at 8th, with Momper43 and Duster completing the top 10.
LP credited his win to the Barry Wright chassis after campaigning Bloomquist for many years and a new diet of Yoo Hoo and red meat. The strict regimen has helped him lose 1/3 of a pound over the last 567 weeks.
This has to be the most upsets in one season in VLR Series History. Wheel and Shock have been shut out of victory lane 4 weeks in a row now. With the handicapping system, and a lot of practice, anybody can win this year. Next week, VLR stays in the great state of Pennsylvania for another week for the Hoosier 50 at Thunder Valley. Hope to see you there.