Coming Home: Lucas Wolfe Ready to Race Twice at Williams Grove this Weekend
Lucas Wolfe will get a couple of chances to compete at his home track twice this week, as the World of Outlaws visit Williams Grove Speedway on Thursday, May 14 and Friday, May 15 for two full nights of racing. He’ll also get to catch up with a number of people that only get to see him race a handful of times each season.
Courtesy: World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Media Relations
Mechanicsburg, PA—May 13, 2009—It’s been quite a while since Lucas Wolfe has been back home in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, let alone paid a visit to his home track, the famed Williams Grove Speedway. Competing full-time with the World of Outlaws in his sophomore season has kept him on the road for the better part of the last two months, as the series has raced 17 times from coast-to-coast so far in 2009.
Wolfe will get a couple of chances to compete at his home track twice this week, as the World of Outlaws visit Williams Grove Speedway on Thursday, May 14 and Friday, May 15 for two full nights of racing. He’ll also get to catch up with a number of people that only get to see him race a handful of times each season.
“I’m definitely looking forward to being around home for the next couple of weeks and being able to have everyone come out,” he noted. “I’m excited to be able to go back to a track that we know pretty well and have run well at on occasions. Hopefully we’ll be able to have a strong weekend and a good time there.”
Wolfe only raced once at Williams Grove last season with the World of Outlaws, picking up a fifth-place finish in the spring race. He missed the Summer Nationals as he was recovering from a back injury sustained in early June. He did race once last August at the track as a tune-up before returning to World of Outlaws action and picked up a Top-10 at the half-mile, where he has eight career wins.
“It was disappointing last season to only get back there to race once with the Outlaws,” he shared. “It was disappointing that we didn’t get to see all the people we are used to seeing and racing with and for the car owners Jim and Laura Allebach, who don’t get to see their car very often.”
After the National Open was rained out last fall, this week will be the first time since last July that the World of Outlaws have competed at Williams Grove. Wolfe looks to use all of his experience at the track which dates back to 2003 to his advantage. He has nearly 70 career Top-10 finishes there.
“We haven’t been there all that much recently and maybe everyone else will be rusty and we might have an advantage,” said the reigning Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year. “Hopefully that’s the case. It was a good result for us last year and hopefully we can beat the weather this year and get a good result.”
Wolfe, who is in his second full year on the road with the World of Outlaws aboard the Allebach Racing Maxim, has returned to a number of tracks this year that he visited for the first time last season, as he continues to learn the intricacies of countless tracks from coast to coast. He picked up a season-best fifth-place finish at Manzanita Speedway earlier this season in just his second start at the track.
“Experience is definitely important,” said the 22-year old. “You have to run every race, because it’s hard to get time back when you miss them. You have to be able to do the right things at the right times and that is what we continue to get better at. Most of the tracks we have gone to this year, we have run better than last year our first time there. In the next few weeks, we’ll go to some race tracks that we have gone to numerous times so hopefully that will show in our results.”
Wolfe again has his father Randy turning the wrenches for him this season on the road and for a majority of the year so far, it has been just the father and son traveling up and down the road, doing all of the works on the race car. They will have a few extra helping hands during the East Coast swing.
“There is a tremendous amount of work,” explained the second generation driver. “It gets a little tight with just the two of us if there is a long drive in between. For the most part we have been ok and we have had a few people help out here and there, which has been a savior to us. The next few weeks we’ll have all the help from home and that will help give us a break from just having the two of us. Once we go back out in June it will be just the two of us again, and that’s just the way it is. We seem to be all right with it.”
Wolfe matched his season-best finish of fifth on Tuesday night at Delaware International Speedway in his first career visit to the sprawling half-mile. He is currently just outside of the Top-10 in the series championship standings and will compete at a number of tracks he has traditionally run well at over the next few weeks as the World of Outlaws East Coast swing continues.
“We have to start running better,” he deadpanned, when asked about what will make it a good spring and summer. “We have made improvements on the majority of nights that we have raced. I don’t really have a target, we just have to be running better and get some momentum up. We just want to be more competitive by the time we get to the summer.”
