THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407080745
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The second half of the racing season at Langley Raceway in Hampton and Southampton Speedway near Capron, Va., will get under way Saturday with several South Hampton Roads drivers in the thick of divisional title chases.
The most competitive battle is in the Grand Stock division at Langley, where Roger Bress of Norfolk and Gordon Weeks Jr. of Newport News are tied for the lead with 280 points each.
Weeks and Yorktown's Mike McVaugh have dominated victory lane by combining to win 11 of the 13 races. Weeks has six victories and McVaugh five. Bress, with only one victory, has stayed even in the title chase with Weeks with a series of top-five finishes.
In other divisional battles at Langley, Norfolk's Phil Warren leads the Late Model Stock class by 10 points over Buddy Malish of Hampton; Charlie Bryant Jr. of Portsmouth is 14 points behind Newport News' Kevin Adams in Limited Stock; and Williamsburg's Brian Loving owns an 18-point lead over Virginia Beach's Jim Adkins in Mini-Stock.
The tightest points race at Southampton is in the Sportsman division, where Speck Edwards of Capron leads Franklin's Vic Story by two points. Chesapeake's Lonnie Renfro is third, 20 points behind.
Another close race is in the Late Model Sportsman class, where Bert Culpepper of Chesapeake trails Emporia's Mike Shearin by six points.
Culpepper is the winningest driver in the division with four victories. Rodney Brickhouse of Chesapeake, a three-race winner, is third in points, 72 behind Shearin, who has a pair of victories.
Late Model Sportsman drivers will compete in a 40-lap feature Saturday night at Southampton. Shorter features also are scheduled in the other four regular classes, in addition to a 20-lap Enduro event. Time trials begin at 5:45 p.m.
Six races also are scheduled for Langley Raceway, where time trials begin at 5 p.m. and racing at 7. by CNB