|
Daytona Beach, FL. You
can’t help but notice the enthusiasm that rising star Josh Richards has for
chasing the most ambitious schedule in the history of the 360 OTC World of
Outlaws Late Model Series.
After preparing himself by running the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Winternationals from Feb. 5-10 at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla.,
and a pair of UMP DIRTcar Racing Late Model events as part of this week’s
36th annual Florida DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Mopar Speedshop at
Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., the rising 18-year-old star is
ready for the 360 OTC WoO LMS campaign to kick off on Feb. 15 and 17 at
Volusia.
“I’m definitely really pumped,” said Richards, a product of Shinnston,
W.Va., who drives the familiar Mark Richards Racing owned Seubert Calf
Ranches, Ace Metal Works, TSR-Tony Stewart Racing, Petroff Towing, MCB
Motorsports Rocket Chassis No. 1. “We started off well at East Bay, and
we’ve started off fairly well (at Volusia, where he finished seventh on
Monday and fifth on Wednesday).
“And compared to last year, I feel like we have some momentum (heading into
the WoO season) and will be O.K. once we start running more point’s races.”
In 2006 Richards started off slowly with the 360 OTC WoO LMS, struggling for
the first half of the season while trying to balance the work associated
with his final year of high-school and competing against an all-star array
of dirt Late Model talent.
“That was kinda hard to do,” Richards said of simultaneously being a student
and virtual fulltime racer. “I had to work hard and focus on school, and
then worry about coming here (to the racetrack) and doing well. It was hard
to just focus on racing.”
After graduating late in the spring and working through some crew changes,
Richards settled in. He accumulated more points than any other driver during
the second half of the season, rolling up 12 top-10 finishes in the last 14
events, including his second career 360 OTC WoO LMS victory, on Aug. 26 at
Columbus (Miss.) Speedway.
Now Richards, the 2005 360 OTC WoO LMS Rookie of the Year, begins the meat
of his ’07 campaign with great confidence, bolstered by full focus on racing
and great confidence in his crew.
“All I’m thinking about is racing,” said Richards. “And since we picked up
Jeff Dillinger and Jimmy Frey (as crewmen), they’ve been a great help.
They’ve just given the whole team a boost and got us running better, so
we’re really looking forward to this year.”
Richards flashed his ’07 potential last week at East Bay’s Winternationals.
Competing in the complete six-night event for the first time in his young
career (in past years he arrived only for the weekend shows because he
couldn’t miss too many days of school), he was one of the strongest
competitors of the series.
“We had a good car pretty much all week,” said Richards. “We made four of
the six races, and I had a chance to make the other two.”
Richards started off well on Mon., Feb. 5, winning his heat and finishing
fourth in the 30-lap feature. He followed that up with an eighth-place
finish on Tuesday night (after winning a B-Main) and a 19th-place run on
Wednesday night (after winning a heat).
“We messed around with the car a little bit the first two nights,” he said.
“The third night we switched to a swing-arm (setup) – which we really never
run a whole lot – and we probably were gonna run top-five in the feature but
kinda got spun out.”
After failing to qualify on Thursday night (fourth in heat, fifth in
B-Main), Richards nearly pulled off his first-ever triumph at East Bay in
Friday’s 50-lap A-Main. He started 17th after winning the B-Main, but he
drove forward to challenge eventual Steve Shaver before settling for a
runner-up finish in his Seubert Calf Ranches/Ace Metal Works mount.
“We messed with the swing-arm a little bit (on Friday) to get a little more
comfortable and the car was really good,” said Richards. “We could’ve won
the race.”
Richards didn’t qualify for the East Bay finale on Saturday night (sixth in
heat, fourth in B-Main), but he was still satisfied with his performance in
the Winternationals.
“It’s the best week I’ve ever had at East Bay,” he said. “I’d only run two
features there prior to this trip and didn’t do too good, so it was real
exciting to just go there and start off the year good.
“It’s a different track. It’s slimy, then it gets wet, you’re always
wheel-spinning there almost all the way around the track. It really doesn’t
compare to a whole lot of other places we go to, so you have to have the
right mindset about running there. A lot of guys go there and struggle, and
it gets them down for the rest of the year. You gotta realize, It’s just
East Bay. You treat it like it’s its own race season.”
For Richards, the six consecutive nights of racing at East Bay – and another
five shows this week at Volusia – served as a nice tune-up for the grueling
360 OTC WoO LMS schedule that awaits him (without the travel between shows,
of course). The tour currently boasts 50 confirmed dates at 41 tracks in 23
states.
“Last year we ran 54 total races (including 30 with the 360 OTC WoO LMS),
and this year I think we have 75 scheduled including the Outlaw shows,” said
Richards. “We’ll definitely be running our share of races.
“You’re just gonna have to be on all the time this year. I’m sure there’s
gonna be a point in the season when everybody gets wore down, since we’re
gonna have almost 20 more races. But we’re just gonna have to keep on going,
and hopefully get ourselves positioned where we’re in the hunt in the middle
of the year.”
|
