Story by: Mason Dunn/Contributor to RACE22.com
Special Thanks to Bruce Albin for the Photo on the Home Page and Special Thanks to Heather Warren for helping get some photos.
Hampton, VA(June 29, 2009) — Seventeen cars made up the field for Saturday night’s 100 lap Crossroads Fuel Late Model Stock main event at Langley Speedway and the field seemed to be very close to each other especially on the qualifying time sheet.
Mark Wertz laid claim to the pole with a time of 16.425 edging out last week’s winner Greg Edwards by a mere 0.001 second advantage. Points leader CE Falk would place his machine in third with a time of 16.430. Here is where it gets a bit confusing as the fourth and sixth place qualifiers of Duane Shreeves(16.459) and Danny Edwards(16.477) would have to relinquish the starting positions they earned and start 10th and 11th respectively due to the track’s tire policy(both fell out of last week’s race before halfway and bought two new tires for the race rather then running the same four they ran the week before).
This would move the machines of Paul DeBolt and John Staton up into top five starting positions. The separation from the pole time to 11th was only 0.163 seconds. Missing from the field was the 21 machine of Woody Howard, who decided to take the week off following a hard crash in the first turn in last week’s event. Greg Edwards would use the high line to overtake pole sitter Mark Wertz and lead lap one but it was short lived as Wertz would challenge back on the inside.
He reclaimed the lead on lap three with CE Falk following him past G. Edwards into second a lap later. Short time later Paul DeBolt would also follow them underneath G. Edwards and move into third. Lap 11 saw a new leader as CE Falk would muscle his 40 machine past Wertz for his first lead of the night. DeBolt would lose two spots as he was bypassed by the 27 of G. Edwards and the 06 of Dean Shiflett.
DeBolt found his #34 machine back in fifth just ahead of the hard charging Danny Edwards who had already climbed to sixth from his 11th starting spot by lap 10. Caution would be displayed for the first time in the event on lap 18 as the 10 of Casey Wyatt would spin off turn 2 with hard contact behind him between the 38 and 96 machines of Shreeves and Bruce Livingston. Several cars would be unable to continue and we would restart with 82 to go and the 40 of CE Falk still at the front of the field.
The hard charging cars of D. Edwards and Wes Falk who started 11th and 13th respectively had worked their ways up into the sixth and seventh positions on the track. CE Falk would wait til the very last second of the restart zone between turns 3 and 4 and open up and four car separation between himself and second place Wertz.
Dean Shiflett would be hung out to dry and fall from fourth spot to outside the top five in seventh after being bypassed by DeBolt, D. Edwards and W. Falk before rejoining the inside line in front of his brother Jeff. The 26 of D. Edwards would move past DeBolt and set his sights on his brother Greg for third.
The theme for the night’s race seemed to be sibling rivalry as there were battles going on throughout the field between the Edwards, Shiflett and Waltz brothers. The only two brothers not trading any paint were the Falk brothers as CE continued to lead while Wes was stuck fighting for a spot in the top five.
At the halfway point the race seemed to be opposite of the race seen last week as only one caution flag had been display through the first half of the race before a momentary red flag was displayed due to the need for the rescue squad to respond to an incident behind the grandstands. Numerous teams would make visits to pit road including the 06 of Dean Shiflett who would make a right rear tire change that would come back to haunt him. At the restart only the top 11 were still on the lead lap with 14 cars still running on the track.
Falk continued to show dominance on the restarts and opened up another multiple car length lead as the Edwards brothers would continue to battle each other for the third position on the track. D. Edwards would continue to mount a tough challenge to his brother before his efforts were halted by the caution flag for Shawn Balluzzo looping his 48 machine on the back stretch.
On the restart the 34 of DeBolt would get a great jump and bypass both the Edwards brothers moving his machine into third place and even after a challenge from G. Edwards on the inside DeBolt would clear him to take the third spot officially on lap 62. D. Edwards would follow DeBolt on the outside past his brother to take over the fourth spot on the track.
As CE Falk would continue to run away with the lead in the event D. Edwards and Dean Shiflett began to mount their charges as by lap 75 they both had moved into second and third respectively before D. Shiflett would overtake D. Edwards for the second position on the track on lap 83. Caution would then be displayed for issues for the 12 of Doug Warren who slowed to a stop on the outside of turn 4 and was done for the evening.
DeBolt would once again get a great jump on the start and pass the 27 of Greg Edwards for fifth as D. Shiflett began to hound the rear fender of CE Falk making it quite clear that a win was the only thing on the mind of the driver of the 06. As the laps wound down Shiflett put more and more pressure on the 40 of Falk trying to force a mistake and would get alongside him with 7 to go before making the pass a lap later and then almost losing it as the car got all kinds of sideways on the exit of turn 4 coming to 5 to go.
Shiflett would retain the lead after the slip and begin to drive away from Falk before taking the checker flag and the apparent win. Several top five finishers would attempt to file protests against the tire change but the track would not accept them as they were already investigating the potential rules violation.
It was then determined that there was no need for replacing the right rear with a new tire and that the 06 would be disqualified from the night’s event making the winner the 40 of CE Falk. The win was Falk’s fifth of the eight race old season. Danny Edwards would finish second with Mark Wertz in third, Paul DeBolt in fourth and Greg Edwards in fifth.
1. 40 CE Falk
2. 26 Danny Edwards Jr.
3. 55 Mark Wertz
4. 34 Paul DeBolt
5. 27 Greg Edwards
6. 41 Wes Falk
7. 01 Jeff Shiflett
8. 10 Casey Wyatt
9. 48 Shawn Balluzzo
10. 4 Matt Waltz
11. 1 Kyle Waltz
12. 90 Terry Carroll
13. 12 Doug Warren
14. 17 John Staton
15. 38 Duane Shreeves
16. 96 Bruce Livingston
DQ. 06 Dean Shiflett
Points Update
Car Driver Pts Leader Next Pos.
1. 40 CE Falk(5) 384
2. 26 Danny Edwards(2) 360 (-24) (-24)
3. 27 Greg Edwards(1) 328 (-56) (-32)
4. 55 Mark Wertz 320 (-64) (-8)
5. 41 Wes Falk 302 (-84) (-20)
6. 01 Jeff Shiflett 288 (-96) (-14)
7. 48 Shawn Balluzzo 280 (-104) (-8)
8. 21 Woody Howard 252 (-132) (-28)
9. 1 Kyle Waltz 228 (-156) (-24)
T10. 06 Dean Shiflett 214 (-170) (-14)
T10. 4 Matt Waltz 214 (-170) (Tied)
