Story by: Mason Dunn ~ mason@RACE22.com
Photos by: Bruce Albin/PicYer Photo and
Bill Carr/Motorsports Photo News Service

Hampton, VA(October 14, 2009) -- Going into the final points race of the 2009 season at Langley Speedway, CE Falk had a 20 point cushion over second place Danny Edwards Jr. meaning that CE needed only to finish 11th or better to secure his first track championship. Well Falk had the number 11 in mind but in a different context as he would end up winning his 11th race of the season at Langley over Edwards.

After rain cut practice short for all teams and washed some of the rubber off of the track, Falk was able to earn his first pole since the twin 75 lap races back in early September with a lap of 16.425 beating Edwards by 0.018 seconds. Doug Warren, Greg Edwards and Matt Waltz would complete the top five after qualifying. Dean Shiflett made a car change for the finale, hopping in the James Long owned number 21 and qualifying 12th for the feature.

At the start Falk showed his mind was on keeping his car out front and cleared his front row partner by a car length coming out of turn two. The beginning of the race saw a 38 lap green flag run in which Falk and Danny Edwards opened up a gap of about half a straight over third place Greg Edwards while the man on the move was Mark Wertz who had climbed from his seventh place starting position up to fourth. First caution of the day was displayed for a piece of debris up by the wall in the exit of turn two.
The field wouldn't stay green for long as contact sent Kyle Waltz for a spin on the back stretch on lap 45 to bring out the second caution bunching up the leaders once again.

Falk continued to flex his muscles on the restarts opening up two to three car advantages over second place Danny Edwards by the time they reached the back stretch and the lead would only continue to widen from there. As the laps ticked off the board the leaders began to catch more and more lap traffic leading up to a scary moment for Falk on lap 88 as the lapped machines of Duane Shreeves and John Staton made contact with each other sending Shreeves for a spin off the exit of turn two. Falk made it through unscathed but saw his lead erased as the caution came out for the third time.

The field would only go green for two more laps before Shreeves lost control of his machine off turn four, going for a spin on the front stretch. The fourth and final caution of the day set up a 11-lap dash with Falk, Danny Edwards, Greg Edwards, Wertz and Doug Warren making up the top five cars on the track. At the drop of the green Falk once again motored out to a three car length advantage over Danny Edwards while Greg Edwards, Wertz and Warren battled for third. Falk however would have no challenges in the final run and would cruise to his 12th victory of the season(11th at Langley) by about half a straightaway. The top five remained unchanged after that final restart followed by Jeff Shiflett, Matt Waltz, Staton and Shreeves sixth through ninth the last cars on the lead lap. Kyle Waltz finished in 10th, one lap behind the leaders.

Victory Lane saw an overjoyed CE Falk who went around to each one of his crew members to share a special thank you for the season they had put together. "Thank you to all the fans and my family down there in Turn 4 and all the fans up here and Langley Speedway and Crossroads Fuel (division sponsor as well as the evening's race sponsor) for giving us a place to race," said Falk.

"And, all my crew guys; They've stuck behind me for three years and finally, we've got something to show for it. This is awesome. Langley Speedway track champion. I can't believe it," said a noticeably winded Falk. "This is awesome. This is the way that we wanted to end it. Me and Phil(Warren, crew chief) talked about it. It was, like, 'Man, we know we want to finish 11th (which would have been good enough to secure the title), but we come here to win every week and this car was just awesome the whole night."

After the night's events CE Falk claimed the title over defending champ Danny Edwards Jr., by 22 points, 886-864. Mark Wertz, Greg Edwards and Dean Shiflett completed the top five in points after 19 events, one of the longest season's in Whelen All-American Series competition. Kyle Waltz will finish 10th in the final points rundown and win the Late Model Rookie of the Year award for 2009. At the age of 21, CE Falk also becomes the youngest Late Model champion in Langley Speedway history since the division started competition back in the 1980s.

Crossroads Fuel 100 Results
1) (40) CE Falk; 100
2) (26) Danny Edwards; 100
3) (27) Greg Edwards; 100
4) (55) Mark Wertz; 100
5) (15) Doug Warren; 100
6) (01) Jeff Shiflett; 100
7) (4) Matt Waltz; 100
8) (17) John Staton; 100
9) (38) Duane Shreeves; 100
10) (1) Kyle Waltz; 99
11) (64) Rick Gdovic; 98
12) (88) Mitch Sarvis; 97
13) (18) Greg Burgess Jr.; 94
14) (34) Paul DeBolt; 56
15) (21) Dean Shiflett; 48
16) (96) Bruce Livingston; 10
17) (41) Wesley Falk; 1

Final Top Ten In Points
1) (40) CE Falk, 886
2) (26) Danny Edwards, 864 (-22)
3) (55) Mark Wertz, 814 (-72)
4) (27) Greg Edwards, 778 (-108)
5) (06) Dean Shiflett, 630 (-256)
6) (01) Jeff Shiflett, 612 (-274)
7) (21) Woody Howard, 604 (-282)
8) (41) Wesley Falk, 586 (-300)
9) (4) Matt Waltz, 580 (-306)
10) (1) Kyle Waltz, 548 (-338)
Race Winners; CE Falk(11), Danny Edwards(3), Woody Howard(2), Greg Edwards(1), Paul DeBolt(1), Mark Wertz(1)