CONCORD, Nc — Chub Frank went racing on an off-weekend from the World of Outlaws Late Model Series schedule in an attempt to shake himself out of a slump.
Instead, the superstar from Bear Lake, Pa., destroyed his favorite car – and by all accounts, narrowly escaped serious injury.
Frank, 47, experienced arguably the worst crash of his 31-year racing career on Saturday night at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway, the half-mile oval he invaded for the 28th annual Stanley Schetrompf Classic that was part of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. His car's entire front clip was ripped away when a steering failure sent him careening into an opening in the track's inside guardrail entering turn three.
Though Frank was also hit by Jeremy Miller of Gettysburg, Pa., as his disabled Corry Rubber Rocket car slid up the track, he quickly climbed out of the demolished machine under his own power. He walked gingerly due to a bruised foot, but he was otherwise uninjured.
“I'm pretty much O.K.,” the hard-nosed Frank said on Monday afternoon from his shop in Northwestern Pennsylvania. “I'm still a little sore, but that's basically because I had muscles stretching in ways I know they're not supposed to stretch.”
Frank was leading a B-Main when his car's steering malfunctioned as he raced down the high-speed backstretch. He immediately knew he was in major trouble.
“I was just trying to keep going straight,” said Frank. “I was running three-wheel brakes, so I knew if I hit the brake I'd go to the left and hit the wall head-on. I was hoping I could make it to the end of the straightaway and then spin it out in the corner, but the car kept pulling left and I ended up catching the wall right at the opening.”
Hard contact with the steel guardrail literally sheared off all the frame rails of Frank's car from the firewall forward. Parts – radiator, air cleaner, left-front wheel, shocks, springs, bodywork, etc. – went flying in all directions as Frank spun back across the track. After sliding into the path of Miller, Frank's car came to rest with its rearend against the outside wall and flames smoldering from an engine that was still connected to the motor plate by only a single bolt. The mangled mess of metal tubing that had been Frank's front clip was in turn four after being hit by Matt Lux of Franklin, Pa., as it fell from the sky.
Hagerstown's safety crew had to use three tow trucks to get Frank's ravaged equipment back to the pit area – one to haul the disengaged front clip that still had the right-front tire attached, plus two more for the remainder of the car.
Frank waxed nostalgic about his wiped-out car, a 2006-vintage mount that he had dubbed ‘Old Faithful' after running it for much of his six-win '07 season on the WoO LMS and then repairing it after a wild flip in the 2008 Circle K Colossal 100 at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway. He also credited it with keeping him safe in the seat.
“That opening ripped the front of the car apart, but the car did its job,” said Frank, who wears a Safety Solutions R-3 head-and-neck restraint system. “The cockpit held up the way it's supposed to in a crash. That's one of the reasons I run a Rocket car. I've got 100-percent faith in the safety of Rocket cars.”
Frank was uncertain about the extent of the damage to his very valuable Custom Race Engine, which had its headers ripped off, valve covers crushed and virtually all its lines torn asunder. It also apparently absorbed a hit from Miller's car. Frank sent the engine south with Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., who competed in Saturday's event, so Custom's Larry Clark could pick it up and bring it back to his shop in Knoxville, Tenn.
With another of Frank's engines already at Custom for freshening, Frank's powerplant supply is now down to one entering the WoO LMS's $20,000-to-win Buckeye 100 this weekend (May 1-2) at K-C Raceway in Alma, Ohio. He does have three cars ready to go, however, and if he does not get the freshened motor back before the weekend his backup car will be the identically-lettered machine he prepares and houses for his Canadian buddy Peter Mantha Jr.
Sitting seventh in the WoO LMS points standings with a top finish of fifth in eight E-Mains so far this season, Frank certainly hopes he can put his early-season doldrums behind him when the tour visits K-C Raceway this weekend and Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., on Tues., May 5. He's enjoyed plenty of success at both tracks – he pocketed $50,000 for winning the 2007 Dirt Track World Championship at K-C and has two career WoO LMS victories at Lernerville – so the eternally optimistic Frank is confident the next two events could begin his resurgence.
“Racing can knock you down in a hurry and right now things aren't going very well for us,” said Frank, whose last win on the WoO LMS came on May 18, 2008, at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway. “We've been struggling for the last year. We have a fast car once in awhile, but we haven't been consistently fast.
“I have faith that everything will turn around and we'll get going. You just gotta keep plugging along and keep working.
“I like 100-lappers (like K-C's extra-distance affair this weekend) and Lernerville is one of my favorite tracks,” he added, “so hopefully these can be a couple good races for us.”
For more information on the Buckeye 100 on May 1-2 at K-C Raceway and the ‘Showdown in Sarvertown' on May 5 at Lernerville Speedway, visit www.kc-raceway.com and www.lernerville.com.
Additional info on the WoO LMS can be obtained by logging on to www.worldofoutlaws.com.
