Paul Stone Begins Big Adventure Starting With Wild West Modified Shootout
By Ben Deatherage
Despite only have raced a handful of times in 2015 Paul Stone, of Winton, California, was impressive at Merced Speedway on May 30th driving for car owner Jack Mounce. The reason he was not in his Kenneth Stone & Sons Spreading/K.F. Engineering/Stone Motorsports/Speed Shift TV/Victory Chassis/Carl's Chevrolet #66P Victory is because he had a bad wreck at Somerton, Arizona's Cocopah Speedway in February.
“I really haven't ran that much this year,” said Stone, “I was down in Arizona for the Winter Series and my car ended up getting totaled at Cocopah. The only other race I've been at is the one I won at in Merced and by now we would have had four or five, so basically I've spent all year building a new car.”
Stone has had quite a decorated career including three championships at Merced Speedway, a championship at Kings Speedway in Hanford, and a championship at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare. In addition to track titles he also won the Wild West Modified Tour back in 2009 when it came through the state of California. The only track apart of the Wild West Modified Shootout that he has ran at is Southern Oregon Speedway. In that lone appearance he was at the Lon Skinner Memorial and in fact led for much of the race before he lost his steering with five laps to go.
After the Wild West Modified Shootout he will head east to the Sunflower State of Kansas to pick up a brand new BMS chassis from Belleville Motorsports. They will stick around the area to run a few local shows and head north to Wisconsin for the $20,000.00 to win Cheesehead Triple Crown in late June. Then they head south to Iowa and take part in some racing with the IMCA Hawkeye Dirt Tour before making another trip up to North Dakota for the Dakota Classic Modified Tour. Then they will go back to Iowa and participate in the Harris Clash at Knoxville Raceway in mid July. In all it will be twenty-four races in just over thirty days. And his only pit crew for the Wild West Modified Shootout? His wife Jill.
“My goal is always to make the main event, make new friends, and don't tear the car up,” continued Stone, “anything above that is icing on the cake.”
The 2015 Wild West Modified Shootout kicks off at Southern Oregon Speedway on Saturday June 13th. The tour will wrap things up at Willamette Speedway on the 19th and 20th to close the speedweek out for the second straight year. Teams from Oregon, Washington, California, North Dakota, Montana, and British Columbia Canada are expected to make the journey.
All races will be broadcasted through Speed Shift TV and you can either purchase each race for $19.95 or buy the whole week for $99.95. Orders can be made onhttp://www.speedshifttv.com. Be sure and don't miss out on these great races featuring the best Modified drivers in the Pacific Northwest region.
2015 Wild West Modified Shootout Schedule:
Saturday June 13th Southern Oregon Speedway White City, OR
Sunday June 14th Siskiyou Motor Speedway Yreka, CA
Monday June 15th Coos Bay Speedway Coos Bay, OR
Tuesday June 16th Cottage Grove Speedway Cottage Grove, OR
Wednesday June 17th Sunset Speedway Park Banks, OR
Thursday June 18th Travel Day
Friday June 19th Willamette Speedway Lebanon, OR
Saturday June 20th Willamette Speedway Lebanon, OR
Former Wild West Modified Shootout Champions:
2014- Alex Stanford
2013- Jesse Williamson
2012- Jesse Williamson
2011- Brian Poppa
Wild West Modified Shootout All-Time Win List (2011-14):
Jesse Williamson- 6
Alex Stanford- 5
Brian Poppa- 4
Ken Schrader- 2
Mark Carrell- 1
Braedon Hand
Scott Lenz
Travis Peery
Nick Trenchard
Mark Wauge