SHANE STACK fter Ohio Valley, Stack stayed busy and trekked out to St. Louis, Missouri, at the end of June for the Heads Up Hootenanny II at Gateway Motorsports Park. His luck finally started to turn around, and Stack captured the No. 1 qualifier honors in LDR with a 4.228 at 179.47. Stack made it past the grueling first round and continued on to the highly anticipated final round where he was paired against Rueckert. The two left the line with only one thousandth of a second between them, but when Rueckert lost traction, Stack pushed the Thrillbilly on to victory and the low elapsed time of the event with a 4.190-second, 183.22-mph scream to the finish. Stack and Terry, along with the rest of the LDR competitors, returned to St. Louis in August for the Street Car Super Nationals“ Anarchy at the Arch” event. Once again, Stack went straight to the No. 1 spot in qualifying with killer 4.135 at 184.70. Next, Stack won over John Urist at the start of eliminations, dispatched Rueckert in round two, and enjoyed a bye into the finals. He was poised to challenge Travis Esselman for the win, but a rainout meant the two wouldn’ t get to contest the top bragging rights.
A s the season wound down, Stack once again found himself racing at Huntsville Dragway, this time at the Radial Fest’ s“ Gauntlet” spectacle.“ It’ s my hometown track, but for some reason it’ s never good to me,” jokes the jovial driver. Although he qualified No. 1 for the third time in a row with a 4.19 at 183 blast, Stack red-lighted in eliminations and took solace in the fact that at least he didn’ t have far to drive to get back home.“ From Ohio Valley to Huntsville, I made, like, 25 passes between 4.32 and 4.13 without smoking the tires – that’ s a long way from where I came from.
“ At that point, I was looking at the points and knew it was tight between me and Jack Greene and Matthew Bell. I left Huntsville technically in the lead, but with the drop race figured in, I lost that position,” notes Stack, who had found himself in a surprisingly good position despite his struggles earlier in the season. With his nerves on edge, Stack knew the title was coming down to the wire.
Stack headed back to Georgia for No Mercy 8, and his killer consistency continued. In LDR, Stack ran 4.196 at 182.80 to find himself at the top of the qualifying order. Next, he went on to win the category outright after defeating Tyler Moss, Terry Parks, and Bill Futch on his way to the semifinals, where a bye put him on to face Scott Husted in the last round of the weekend. Stack had the holeshot advantage leaving the line, and never trailed as Husted blew the tires off.
In addition to winning the huge Limited Drag Radial class at the legendary No Mercy race, Stack also captured the championship in the process, and couldn’ t have been more relieved to have finally found validation and redemption after his trials and tribulations.
“ It felt great to get the win, and when I finally did, it was a huge relief. Plus, I had been to every one of Donald’ s races, and that was the first I ever won,” exclaims Stack, the undisputed king of LDR.“ The end of this year is, by far, the best I’ ve ever run. I had a good run in 2007, but the competition now is so much tougher now, and this championship is definitely my best accomplishment.” To sweeten his glory, he received a $ 5,000 championship payout, a commemorative championship jacket, and the first annual“ Mustang Mike” Modeste LDR championship trophy with a big gold chain to pay tribute to the late racer.
With the championship locked up and the monkey off his back, Stack’ s domination continued. He scored the win at October’ s Uncivil War 3 at Brainerd Motorsports Park in Georgia to the tune of $ 5,000, but it wasn’ t easy.“ It’ s a rough old track, and you can’ t go fast there. It wasn’ t handed to
“... I really love a points series. It gives you a purpose and a home, something to strive for other than just going to races, it’ s something more long-term …”
PHOTO: JAMES SISK
MEMPHIS BELLE
A disappointing showing at Tyler Crossnoe’ s Outlaw Street Car Reunion at Memphis inspired Stack to make the switch to larger 295 radials, a change he believes partially led to his string of consistent performances. me and I had to work for it, but I went in knowing that and won!” he says, bolstered by the confidence his success had brought.
To officially wrap up his 2017 LDR season, Stack made one final trip to Memphis for the Memphis Rockin’ Radial Series finale. Yet again, Stack was the big man on campus when he was the top qualifier and went on to finish out the weekend in the LDR winner’ s circle.
What at first seemed like a futile attempt eventually turned into something worth waiting for. Why Stack stuck with his Monte Carlo after so many frustrations early on and kept racing is actually quite simple – he loves the thrill of the chase.“ Plus, I really love a points series. It gives you a purpose and a home, something to strive for other than just going to races, it’ s something more long-term …” he adds.
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