Story by: Mason Dunn/Contributor to RACE22.com
Hampton, VA(June 16, 2009) — Six races and two winners so far in the 2009 season of the Crossroads Fuel Late Model Stock division at historic Langley Speedway in Hampton, VA as the schedule begins to hit its summer stride with five races over the next six weeks including the Hampton Heat 200 scheduled for July 11.
As no surprise to anyone familiar with the track in Hampton, Danny Edwards is one of the two drivers to have visited Victory Lane this season. The surprise is that he has only done it two times as 21-year old, CE Falk has laid clam victories in the other four races competed so far this season.
D. Edwards opened up the season with a win only to see the next two races taken by CE Falk before the first rain-out of the season on May 9th. May 16th saw D. Edwards return to Victory Lane for the first time in over a month before once again having CE Falk claim the next two victories on May 23rd and June 6th. In the two races won by D. Edwards, CE Falk holds two runner up finishes while D. Edwards has finishes of second(twice), third and fourth during Falk’s four victories.
What remains to be seen is how the car turnout will be for the Hampton Heat 200 as the purse is that which should attract a good number of cars but its placement in the middle of the racing season may deter some teams from making appearances. According to the man himself, there is a Williamsburg area businessman currently trying to work out the logistics and have Carl Long in a Late Model for the event.
This year’s Hampton Heat 200 will have a total payout of about $31,000 with the winner taking home a check for $10,000. Last year, current South Boston regular Nick Smith won the inaugural event and pocketed more that $15,000 in first-place and bonus money and is expected to return for this year’s event.
Falk currently has a 10 point advantage (296-286) over D. Edwards in the point standings with a bit of separation between the top two and the rest of the top 10. Mark Wertz currently holds third(238) with Greg Edwards fourth(236) and former Pro Cup standout Woody Howard in fifth(230). The rest of the top 10 is Wes Falk in sixth(228), Modified points leader Shawn Balluzzo in seventh(202), Jeff Shiflett in eighth(202), Dean Shiflett in ninth(182) and John Staton in tenth(162).
Langley Speedway’s current point system is a 50 point scale with a decrease of two points per position(50 for first, 48 for second, 46 for third and so on).
There has not been much traveling done by Langley Speedway regulars with the exceptions of CE Falk, whom has driven to a second place finish in a 200 lap race at Caraway and a fifth place finish in the ATK 150 at Motor Mile this past weekend and Woody Howard, who finished second and fourth in last weekend’s double header at South Boston.
The track is represented in the national points top 500 by CE Falk in fifth, Danny Edwards in 89th, Mark Wertz in 202nd, Greg Edwards in 209th, Wes Falk in 217th, Woody Howard in 231st, Jeff Shiflett in 311th, Shawn Balluzzo in 312th, Dean Shiflett in 382nd and John Staton in 418th. Meanwhile in the top 20 in Virginia state points, CE Falk is second and Danny Edwards is 14th.
We’ll have a full-report on the racing action this weekend on Sunday and will likely have updates from the racing action on Saturday night from our Twitter Updates. Check back for more.
