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Shaffer records 3rd straight Thunder Through the Plains victory

RISING CITY, NEB. (8-4-10) By Brian Liskai– Tim Shaffer and his Aaron Call, Janet Holbrook owned team has the competition scratching their heads. The man known as “The Steel City Outlaw” punished the field Wednesday, Aug. 4, during the O’Reilly Auto Parts All Star Circuit of Champions’ first visit to the Butler County Motorplex, the fifth of nine stops on the traditional Thunder Through the Plains tour.
Shaffer, the defending All Star champion, continues to stretch out his point lead toward another title. Wednesday win for the Aliquippa, Pennsylvania driver was his third consecutive victory. In fact, Shaffer has not finished out of the top three in 9 of the last 10 All Star events and has now picked up five wins in the last 8 All Star features.

Ironically, Shaffer’s win Wednesday gives him 28 All Star wins for his career, moving him past Chad Kemenah (the 2002-2005 series champion) into 17th on the series’ all-time win list. Kemenah’s brother, Brian, is Shaffer’s crew chief.

“Once again the guys gave me an awesome car. The CH Motorsports, Kistler Engines, J&J Chassis, VRP Shocks have been working great,” said Shaffer beside his Technique Roofing, JRP Transportation backed machine.

“I wasn’t sure if I wanted that or not. It seemed like I was getting through lapped traffic good but I thought I heard someone coming…I guess Gravel (David) was coming pretty good at times. At one point there at the end I got the wing too far back and it was letting us get loose and I thought I might be in trouble, but it worked out great,” added Shaffer. “I have to thank Janet and Aaron…they’ve given me a great team with Brian Kemenah and we brought in Leonard McCarl and Bobby Basinger helping us out during this tour and everybody is working great together.”

As the green flew for the feature, Watertown, Connecticut’s David Grave drove by pole-sitter Brad Greer from his outside second row starting spot to lead the first lap. On the next circuit, Shaffer, who started second, regrouped and rocketed past Gravel and began to pull away, quickly catching the back of the field on the fast one-third mile oval. By lap 4, Jonathan Allard has worked his way from eighth to third.

The action would halt on lap 5 as Gage Dorr slowed in turn two. On the restart Shaffer now had his hands full with Gravel and Allard. The final caution would fly a lap later for an Austen Wheatley spin. On the restart it was a four-car battle up front between Shaffer, Gravel, Allard and Greg Wilson.

As the race would go green the rest of the distance, Shaffer began to pull away, picking his way through lapped traffic. Shaffer would streak to the checkered, averaging 91.403 mph for a race that took just 7 minutes, 21 seconds to complete. Shaffer’s fastest lap was 102.164 mph as his margin of victory was 1.367 seconds over Gravel with Allard coming home third, Wilson fourth and Jamie Veal fifth.

Gravel’s runner-up finish moves him closer to Greg Wilson for second in the All Star point standings.

“Tim Shaffer is the best that we race with. I just have to get better in lapped traffic,” said the 18-year-old beside his DDR Motorsports, JRC Transportation backed sprinter. “We were catching him at one point in lapped traffic but Tim is just so good. I tried my hardest just trying to keep up. Tonight was our second second place run during Thunder Through the Plains so one night will be our night.”

“I have to thank all my sponsors, especially my owner Ray, my dad and Rob and Jake…they work so hard on the car. Ever since we got Rob (Hart, crew chief) our car has been awesome…I can’t thank them enough,” added Gravel.

For Allard, who hails from Chico, California, a third place run made up for an average qualifying effort, leaving him to start eighth in the feature in his Morrie and Katie Williams owned #0.

“We just had to get around the top and the more speed we made around the top the easier it was in traffic,” said Allard beside his Sharp Insurance, GT Trends, K&N Filters, Platinum Powder Coating backed machine. “Tim Shaffer is hard to beat and David Gravel is doing a great job so to come from mid-pack to finish third is pretty good. What a great place to come for the first time…we really enjoyed it here and I’d like to thank all you guys for coming out.”

“I have to thank my guys, Ashley and Shawn and Trace. They’ve been working real hard. We’ve been out here for about a month and half and I’ve been putting them through some torture and this hot weather is getting to us out here but we’re getting ready for the (Knoxville) Nationals and we should have a pretty good run out there,” added Allard.

For more information on the O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions go to www.allstarsprint.com

Butler County Motorplex - 8/4/2010

O'Reilly Auto Parts Night

All Star Circuit of Champions

Qualifying - Kistler Engines

1. 35AU-Jamie Veal, 12.350; 2. 89G-David Gravel, 12.364; 3. 83-Tim Shaffer, 12.367; 4. 44W-Austen Wheatley, 12.400; 5. O4-Cap Henry, 12.433; 6. W20-Greg Wilson, 12.435; 7. 3B-Brad Greer, 12.442; 8. 7K-Robbie Wolfgang, 12.452; 9. OA-Jonathan Allard, 12.507; 10. 77AU-Mitchell Dumesny, 12.540; 11. 6-Bill Rose, 12.542; 12. O-Brandon Wimmer, 12.547; 13. 9X-Gary Wright, 12.601; 14. 13V-Seth Brahmer, 12.777; 15. 1H-Bill Belog, 12.779; 16. 12-Jared Ridge, 13.010; 17. 96AU-Bruce White, 13.048; 18. 24AU-Ricky Miolo, 13.110; 19. 27-Andy Shouse, 13.460; 20. 23S-Stuart Snyder, 13.584; 21. 44-Doug Lovegrove, 13.586; 22. 19-Patrick Stasa, 13.740; 23. 17-Gage Dorr, 13.834; 24. 91-Jeff Stasa, 13.908

Heat 1 - MSD Ignition (10 Laps - Top 7 Transfer)

1. 9X-Gary Wright; 2. 12-Jared Ridge; 3. 77AU-Mitchell Dumesny; 4. 35AU-Jamie Veal; 5. 3B-Brad Greer; 6. 44W-Austen Wheatley; 7. 27-Andy Shouse; 8. 19-Patrick Stasa

Heat 2 - Kear's Speed Shop (10 Laps - Top 7 Transfer)

1. 13V-Seth Brahmer; 2. 89G-David Gravel; 3. O4-Cap Henry; 4. 7K-Robbie Wolfgang; 5. 6-Bill Rose; 6. 23S-Stuart Snyder; 7. 17-Gage Dorr; 8. 96AU-Bruce White

Heat 3 - All Pro Heads (10 Laps - Top 7 Transfer)

1. O-Brandon Wimmer; 2. 1H-Bill Belog; 3. 83-Tim Shaffer; 4. OA-Jonathan Allard; 5. W20-Greg Wilson; 6. 24AU-Ricky Miolo; 7. 44-Doug Lovegrove; 8. 91-Jeff Stasa

A-Main - O’Reilly Auto Parts (30 Laps) [#]-Starting Position

1. 83-Tim Shaffer[2]; 2. 89G-David Gravel[4]; 3. OA-Jonathan Allard[8]; 4. W20-Greg Wilson[3]; 5. 35AU-Jamie Veal[5]; 6. 77AU-Mitchell Dumesny[9]; 7. O-Brandon Wimmer[12]; 8. 7K-Robbie Wolfgang[7]; 9. 6-Bill Rose[10]; 10. 3B-Brad Greer[1]; 11. 23S-Stuart Snyder[20]; 12. O4-Cap Henry[11]; 13. 27-Andy Shouse[19]; 14. 24AU-Ricky Miolo[18]; 15. 1H-Bill Belog[15]; 16. 13V-Seth Brahmer[14]; 17. 19-Patrick Stasa[22]; 18. 91-Jeff Stasa[24]; 19. 12-Jared Ridge[16]; 20. 9X-Gary Wright[13]; 21. 44W-Austen Wheatley[6]; 22. 17-Gage Dorr[23]; 23. 44-Doug Lovegrove[21]; 24. 96AU-Bruce White[DNS]

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