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JASON FEGER USES VP113 RACE FUEL TO CLINCH UMP DIRTCAR SUPER LATE MODEL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
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OCTOBER 27, 2009
FEGER WINS UMP DIRTCAR SUPER LATE MODEL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
SAN ANTONIO, TX (Oct. 27, 2009) During the 2009 UMP DIRTcar Racing Super Late Model season, among 1,573 different drivers who earned points, it was a group of five VP-powered drivers who rose to the top. Starting with Jason Feger, who enjoyed a career year and used VP113 racing fuel to win his first UMP DIRTcar national points championship and lead the circuit in feature wins. Feger was followed by two-time defending national champ Dennis Erb Jr. who was powered by VP’s Late Model Plus. Rusty Schlenk used VP113 to finish a career-best third in the national points, followed by two other drivers using Late Model Plus— two-time national champion Randy Korte and Steve Sheppard, Jr., who was second in feature wins in 2009 with 19.
While Feger had the national crown clinched before even entering the points-season-ending UMP DIRTcar Nationals on Oct. 9-10 at Eldora Speedway, he earned every cent of the $20,000 championship check he'll receive at the 2009 UMP DIRTcar Racing Awards Banquet on Jan. 9, 2010 in Springfield, IL. He spent the second half of the season in a tight battle for the points lead with Erb, who saw his reign atop the organization's Super Late Model ranks end with a runner-up finish, 31 points (3,026-2,995) behind Feger.
Feger's 22 feature wins during the UMP DIRTcar points season (he added a 23rd sanctioned victory in an Oct. 11 event at Kankakee County Speedway after points ended) gave him a career-high total and put him at the top of the circuit's win list by three checkered flags over Sheppard's 19 scores.
A total of 57 different engine builders were reported as winning UMP DIRTcar Super Late Model features in 2009, led by the 38 victories tallied by Bill Schlieper's Pro Power Racing Engines of Sullivan, WI.
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GREG ANDERSON USES VP'S C25 RACE FUEL TO TAKE PRO STOCK WIN AT POMONA
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NOVEMBER 15, 2009
VP FUELS NHRA WINNERS, 2009 CHAMPIONS IN POMONA
POMONA, CA (November 15, 2009) VP Racing Fuels, the Official Racing Fuel of NHRA Championship Drag Racing, fueled all the Pro Class winners at the year-end Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona as well as the 2009 points Champions. Antron Brown and Mike Neff rode VP Nitro Race power to wins in Top Fuel and Funny Car respectively, while Tony Schumacher and Robert Hight used the same fuel to secure the points championship for those classes. Meanwhile, VP’s C25 racing fuel powered Greg Anderson and Eddie Krawiec to the Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle wins, as well as Mike Edwards and Hector Arana to their respective season championships..
The sky-high championship drama that remained after Robert Hight in Funny Car and Mike Edwards in Pro Stock earned their season titles Saturday evening, ratcheted up in Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle before Tony Schumacher and Hector Arana, respectively, claimed the titles. Although the Top Fuel title officially was decided when Tony Schumacher, with a two-point lead, and Larry Dixon, both unexpectedly lost in the semifinals, in essence it was won Saturday night when Schumacher stole Dixon's No. 1 qualifying berth and the points that go with it to go from a two-point deficit to a two-point lead entering race day, a margin that ended up being the final score. Arana won the championship in the semifinals when Eddie Krawiec, who needed to win the race and set a national record, was unable to earn a backup run in the semifinals. He did win the race and, ironically, like Dixon, finished second by two points.
The stage had long been set in everyone's mind that Schumacher and Dixon would square off in a winner-take-all final round, but someone forgot to tell Massey and Brown, who worked their way to a surprising final round. The final was short-lived, though, as Massey left .008-second too soon, then smoked the tires on Don Prudhomme's machine. Brown raced to the title, his eighth in the class, with a strong 3.801.
"Of all my years racing, this was a career year," said Brown. "We won a lot of rounds and got a lot of points, but we just have to tackle this Countdown a little different way next year, and we're going to work real hard on that. This was a whole new package we were running this weekend and not the stuff we were running earlier this season, and it kind of bit us in the Countdown. We got our car turned around this weekend, so hats off to Brian [Corradi] and Mark [Oswald, crew chiefs]. We'll have a lot more resources next year [being with Don Schumacher Racing] and be back at this race next year running for the title like [Schumacher and Dixon] were this year."
Neff, a former world champion crew chief with Gary Scelzi, finally got his first win as a driver in a wild final-round battle with teammate Ashley Force Hood. Neff smoked the tires at 60 feet and appeared dead in the water until Force Hood smoked her tires 200 feet out. Neff recovered better, and while Force Hood was sashaying wildly all over the track and eventually tagged the wall, Neff was long gone to a 5.13 to record his first win.
"It feels awesome to get our first win. We've been to a lot of finals and had some bad breaks and just couldn't seem to get it done, so your confidence starts to get rattled and you start wondering if you're ever going to get a win. Today we got a lot of breaks but we ran good at the right time.
Neff, who reached the final earlier this year in Phoenix and in Reading, came from the No. 10 spot with his Drive One Mustang by getting past Jim Head, team owner John Force, and Tim Wilkerson, running as quick as 4.12 in the second-round conquest of his boss.
Force Hood didn't win the championship that was locked up by her teammate, Robert Hight, on Saturday, but her run to the final did lock up second place despite the best efforts of several other drivers to steal it from her. After qualifying her Dean Antonelli and Ron Douglas-tuned Castrol GTX Mustang No. 1, she raced past Bob Bode, Del Worsham, and Ron Capps to reach the final, the 13th of her Funny Car career.
After a late season full of Mike Edwards domination – capped by Edwards' coronation as the new champ Saturday evening – Anderson and Kurt Johnson both ended up with a final season outing that gives them hope after a pair of disappointing seasons. In a rematch of last season's final round here, Anderson won again when Johnson turned on the red-light with a -.017 foul. The win is Anderson's milestone 60th win in 88 career finals.
Anderson, unaccustomed to playing second fiddle, can go into the off-season confident that Ken Black's Summit team is back as they outran Edwards all day, including in the semifinals where Anderson beat the new champ , 6.57 to 6.66. Prior to that, Anderson had run 6.580 and 6.575, outperforming Edwards in both of those rounds as well in defeating Dave Northrop and red-lighting Greg Stanfield.
"Mike did a whale of a job this year and he deserves to be the champion," Anderson acknowledged, "but we found a way today to outperform him. The years I won the championship, I always wanted to win this race, too. You think, 'If I don't win this race, it will be a hole in that championship season' because when you're the champion you want to be standing on that last stage. It makes the title complete. I certainly don't want to take anything away from Mike because he had 24 great races, but right now I'm the last guy standing tonight and the happiest guy right now. Tomorrow night [at the awards ceremony], he'll be the happiest guy, but right now I'm the happiest guy.
Krawiec, who won the season title last year without winning a race, finished in second place with his fifth win of the season when Doug Horne turned on the red-light by .001-second. Krawiec ran a dazzling 6.905, low e.t. of the meet and a run he could have used the round before.
Krawiec needed a near miracle to catch Arana in their battle for the season championship, even after Arana went out unexpectedly in round two on a red-light. By that point, Krawiec had already beaten Steve Johnson and Jim Underdahl with a pair of 6.95s but found himself needing next to not only beat teammate Andrew Hines in the semifinals but run at least 6.918 to get a backup for the national record and the 20 bonus points he'd need in addition to also winning the final round to squeak past Arana. Hines went -.010 red against Krawiec, but Krawiec's third-straight 6.95 was nowhere close to the necessary backup he needed, and didn't even earn the Harley rider lane choice against Horne in the final round, the 17th of his career.
“If I had had that final-round e.t. [in the semifinals], I think Hector would have been sweating it out a little bit,” said Krawiec. “My bike was on a rail there in the final, finally. That was the first pass of the weekend that I could say that my bike made a respectable pass down this track, and I’m pretty excited.
“Last year, I was fortunate to come up here and not have the race win and have the championship, but this year I still am a very lucky person to be in here talking about getting the race win and not the championship. It came down to two points. It shows you how important qualifying is. We bobbled a little bit this weekend in qualifying, which ultimately could have cost us. We were trying to keep Hector from getting to that three-round deficit for us, and unfortunately for us, we didn’t, and it shows in the end. But our Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley Davidson bike has been running really well second half of the year. I’m excited. I’m looking forward to next year. This year’s behind us already, so looking forward to 2010.”
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VP TAKES CENTER STAGE IN SPEED BROADCAST OF WoO FINALS
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NOVEMBER 9, 2009
SPEED BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS VP AT WoO WORLD FINALS; WINNERS CELEBRATE IN VP VICTORY LANE
CONCORD, NC (Nov. 7, 2009) Host Dave Despain held court in a VP-sponsored SPEED broadcast of an eventful World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Saturday in Concord, NC, where both Sprint Car and Late Model winners celebrated in VP Racing Fuels Victory Lane. Powered by VP’s Late Model Plus, Jimmy Owens drove to victory in the 50-lap WoO Late Models feature while Joey Saldana used power from VP’s M1 Methanol to take his 20 th WoO Sprint Car win of 2009, making him only the fifth driver in history to win 20 or more in a season. When the dust had settled, Josh Richards clinched his first career World of Outlaws Late Model Series points championship over runner-up and mentor Steve Francis, while Donny Shatz won his fourth consecutive and second straight WoO Sprint Car championship driving for Tony Stewart Racing.
The 21-year old Richards became the sixth different, and youngest, series champion since the tour was reincarnated in 2004 under the World Racing Group banner, winning $100,000 with the title. At Sunday’s WoO Awards Banquet, VP Racing Fuels also presented a new $500 cash award to Richards, beginning a WoO tradition in which the driver with the most feature wins in a season will use the cash to buy drinks at the bar for all his friends and family after the banquet. As a result, the crowd continued to enjoy the post-banquet party into the wee hours.
VP also provided a special award to 14-year-old Tyler Reddick in the form of a 54-gallon drum of Late Model Plus fuel for winning the most VP Racing Fuels ‘Nice Jugs' awards during the season. The Nice Jugs award gives two VP 5-gallon Motorsport Containers at each race to the fastest time-trialer who doesn't qualify for the feature event.
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VP'S LATE MODEL PLUS RACE FUEL POWERS CHAD SIMPSON TO WDRL CHAMPIONSHIP
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OCTOBER 30, 2009
CHAD SIMPSON WINS WDRL CHAMPIONSHIP
MT. VERNON, IA (October 30, 2009) Chad Simpson, of Mt. Vernon, IA, capped off a great racing season by claiming the 2009 WDRL Late Model Championship for the second year in a row. Piloting his #25 Brinkman Motorsports MasterSbilt race car and powered by VP’s Late Model Plus race fuel, Simpson took WDRL wins at Deer Creek Speedway as well as the Yankee Dirt Track Classic for the second time, worth $10,000. He also brought home the victory and $7,000 in the Liberty 100, realizing a career-long ambition. His final stand-out event in 2009 was the Knoxville Nationals where the team had a very strong finish against some of the best drivers in the country.
Brinkman Motorsports finished the 2009 season with eight wins out of 33 entries for a win average of almost 25%. They also ran in the top ten 80% of the time, with twenty seven Top 10s and 22 Top 5s. Brinkman Motorsports and Simpson will be honored at the WORLD Dirt Racing League Awards Banquet held on Saturday, November 14th, 2009. The Awards Banquet will be held at the Meskwaki Casino and Hotel in Tama Iowa.
Brinkman Motorsports would also like to thank all sponsors for their support in 2009, including Mastersbilt Racecars, Pro Power Racing Engines, VP Race Fuels and CenPeCo Oils.
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