Published: July 05, 2008 11:11 pm            

Shaffer rolls to victory at Action Track

TERRE HAUTE — Who knew that all of the blood, sweat and tears poured into getting the Terre Haute Action Track raceworthy on Friday was all done so Tim Shaffer could turn the dirt into his personal playground?

The Run With The Pack Classic was delayed by several hours due to muddy track conditions, in fact, the feature didn’t start until early Saturday morning. But once it did, Shaffer utterly dominated the race, leading every lap on his way to an easy victory in an O’Reilly All-Star Circuit of Champions winged sprint car race.

Shaffer previously won at the Action Track in 2001 during a World Of Outlaws race. It’s unlikely he’s had any wins that came easier.

Shaffer started from the pole and quickly drew away from Danny Smith. The field bunched two laps into the race after a caution, and again at the 8-lap mark after a red flag, but on both restarts, Shaffer fought off Smith again and was never headed.

Shaffer had to contend with lapped traffic far more than he had to with Smith or any of the other frontrunners. Shaffer was lapping cars just five laps into the race. Luckily, his high line worked well in lapped traffic, as the slower cars congregated near the bottom of the track.

“I just got lucky enough to be able to run my car up top,” said Shaffer, who hails from Aliquippa, Pa. “They gave me such a good car I could run up there.”

Shaffer’s dominance was such that he had all but seven cars in a 24-car field lapped until a late yellow flag bunched the field again. Even in a two-lap sprint to the checkered flag, Shaffer won by a sizable margin over Smith. Brandon Martin was third.

The fact that there was a Run With The Pack Classic at all was a small miracle.

Hot laps were delayed by three hours as an army of earth-movers, tow trucks, steamrollers and all manner of other vehicles tried to get the mud-bogged Action Track into racing condition after early Friday rain showers. Among those trying to get the track in order was co-managing director of the Action Track Davey Hamilton, an Indianapolis 500 veteran who probably turned close to 200 laps of a different kind.

“Hats off to the guys who worked on the track. They put their hearts and souls into it and gave us a great track, especially from where it was earlier,” Shaffer said.

The rain caused other problems. High water forced closure of the tunnel to the infield, meaning fans who wanted to go to the infield had to cross the track on the west end of the facility at the pit entrance. The high water also affected bathrooms on the infield and fans were later invited to sit in the grandstands if they were inconvenienced.

Despite that, the crowd was large and most fans stuck around to watch the racing action once it began.

Drivers tested the track at 9 p.m. and voted whether to race on the surface. The vote passed, but there were dissenters. Third-place driver Martin mentioned on the post-race public address system that he thought the track was “a little unsafe”. Hot laps didn’t start until 10:35 p.m. and the feature was completed at 1:15 a.m.

Once the race card started, the track cured in nicely. The heats, B-feature and dash all ran as scheduled. Most notable in the heats was a victory by Tiffany Wyzand in the third of four heats, one of the few female drivers to take the checkered flag in the Action Track’s history.

There were no major incidents. Lee Stark brought out the red flag in the feature when his car flipped over between turns 3 and 4, but he was not injured.

The Action Track will next host the USAC Silver Crown First Financial Bank SUMAR Classic on July 23.

Run With The Pack Classic

Feature — 1. Tim Shaffer (won from pole position), 2. Danny Smith, 3. Brandon Martin, 4. Lance Dewease, 5. Randy Hannagan, 6. Greg Wilson, 7. Dale Blaney, 8. Blake Feese.

Heat winners — Kaley Gharst, Ryan Myers, Tiffany Wyzand, Martin.

Dash — Smith.

        

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