Shafer Jr. chase down late model championship
Paul Shafer Jr. put an exclamation point Saturday on his late model championship at Grundy County Speedway with a runaway victory in the final feature race.
The Portage resident also finished off a pretty amazing accomplishment— one that six-time track champion Eddie Hoffman alluded to during his postrace compliments.
“They did a real good job,” Hoffman said. “Maybe … I’m not sure, but he might have finished every lap. They put together a really excellent year.”
In fact, Shafer did complete every lap of every race that counted for points during the 11-night regular season that included 13 features.
Shafer was more than eager to share the credit with crew members Chris Purdy, Dave Billings, and Mike and Kim Larson.
“They helped keep our cars rocking and rolling all season,” Shafer said. “They never skipped a beat. There were many days we changed rear ends, front suspension and setups.
“No matter what, they never gave up on the car or me. They’re the best.”
The driver, however, kept it pointing in the right direction.
“You just use your head, race smart, and understand when to use the bumper and understand when not to,” Shafer said. “It’s all about being smart — not wrecking the other guys and racing with respect.”
Shafer had two feature wins and five second-place finishes during his run to the title. It was his first full season at Grundy after several on traveling circuits.
“It was a lot of fun,” Shafer said. “It worked out with the tour, with no conflicting dates. And it gave us something to do every weekend.
“We’ll do it again. Maybe not next year or in the next five years. But maybe when I get older and get sick of traveling around, we’ll race here weekly again.”
Couldn’t be closer: Kevin Murphy struggled in qualifying, had a rough heat race and was third in the feature race.
But the Manhattan native held on at the finish to win his second consecutive Mid-American division title by one point over Blake Brown.
“I have nothing but respect for Blake Brown,” Murphy said. “He’s an awesome race car driver. We had no problems this year. We drove each other super clean.”
Murphy spent much of the race running in second behind Marqus Hoover. He appeared to have the faster car, but couldn’t risk contact.
“I was doing everything I could,” Murphy said. “I couldn’t spin anybody oui or spin myself out. Thatwas agonizing.”
Brown, meanwhile, came from third during the late stages to pass Hoover for the win on the final lap in the Jeff Olson-ownedNo. 71.
“I needed one more piece to fall there for it to be ours,” Brownsaid. “Congrats to Murphy and those guys. They ran a good race all year. And thanks tomy guys. They kept us in the game. And I have to thank Jeff for everything. He stood behind us all season.”
Helping hand: Jeremiah Senko won the 4-cylinder division title by 14 points over Zach Legner. Senko finished fourth in the feature behind winner — and teammate— Scott Ingram.
Ingram, however, helped Senko’s championship cause in a bigway earlier in the night.
“In practice a coil pack went out,” Senko said. “I thought I blew the motor. Fortunately we had a spare, and Scott helped me get it back together. It was quite an
eventful night. This is awesome. It took three years, andwe finally got it done.”
Trading cars: Street stock champion Eddie Ligue finished up his feature victory with a burnout. But it wasn’t a classic by any means.
“It was a nice, little smokey burnout, but I kept it half-throttle,” Ligue said, laughing.
Liguewas in theNo. 1 regularly
driven by Randy Weese. Weese offered him the car after Ligue’s No. 72 lost its brakes during the practice sessions.
“We were working on it, but couldn’t get a pedal,” Ligue said. “When it was time for qualifying, Randy said to jump in his car and give it my all. He’s an excellent teammate, that’s for sure.”
The title was Ligue’s third at Grundy, to go along with one at Illiana Speedway.