(St. Louis, MO - June 27th, 2006) -- The Walters Motorsports team split up for the majority of the weekend. On Friday, Shane headed to Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, IL. On Saturday and Sunday Evan headed to the St. Louis Karting Assoc. At the same time on Sunday Shane was at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, IL for their Mid-Season Championships.

On Friday, the team would have nothing but bad luck. Shane would struggle to find a decent line throughout the entire night. As a result he would finish 6th in his heat race. In the feature, he would start in the 6th position. However, he needed to get into the top 4 to make the long trip worth while. On the start he would loose one position and get pushed back to 7th. He would be right on two cars bumper the entire race as he was able to find find a little grip along the very bottom. The two cars in front of him were racing side by side which left no room for him to get around. Toward the half way point trouble would strike. While he was heading into turn 1 the right front ball joint would break off. The car would dig down into the track very hard and he would come to a quick stop. He would also break the right front shock and a tie-rod. Shane would be forced to finish out the night with a DNF.

On Saturday, Evan headed to SLKA to test for the race on Sunday. He was actually testing for the upcoming STARS of Karting event in two weeks as well since he was running his JICA motor. At the same time Shane spent the entire day fixing his DIRT car and still was not able to get it all done. He would finish it up on Sunday morning before he headed to the race track.

On Sunday, Evan raced in both the TaG Jr. Class with his 100cc JICA motor. This motor is much slower then the TaG Motor he normally runs with this class. However, he was not running to win, he was just running to tune on his motor before the big weekend in Charlotte, NC. He also raced in the "Run What You Brung" class with this same kart. Christian Vogel, another competitor on the STARS of Karting tour joined Evan in this class with his JICA motor. In qualifying, he got the pole position in the "Run What You Brung" Class. In the TaG class he would not even get a single lap in due to a kinked fuel line. In the pre-final's, Christian would take over the top spot spot in the "Run What You Brung" class while Evan would come from the 7th position to finish 3rd in the TaG class with the much slower motor. In the final's, Christian would take the win while Evan followed in 2nd in the "Run What You Brung" Class. Luck would work in his favor during the TaG Jr race. The two kart's battling for the lead in front of Evan would tangle and both would crash out. This would leave it up to Evan to take the win.

At the the same time Shane was at Tri-City Speedway for their Mid-Season Championships battling it out with the 27 car field. He was very excited heading into the race because he had made some changes the car over the past few weeks and he knew he would have a fast race car. In the heat race, Shane would start dead last. He would work his way through the field very quickly and he would finish in the 2nd spot. He only needed a few more laps to get his first heat race win. His heat results would send him to the Dash to start in the 5th position. Shane worked his way up to the 4th position and he was pressuring 3rd with 2 laps to go. However, on the final lap he would loose power in the corner and he would get passed back for the 4th position finishing 5th. In the 20 lap feature, the starting line up was messed up do to them starting a lot of the cars up by track points. As a result instead of starting in the 5th position he would start in the 9th position. On the first lap, a car would spin in front of him. Since a car was on the outside of him he had nowhere to go. He tried to squeeze between the car on the outside and the spinning car on the inside but he just barely clipped his left rear. It was enough for him to get his nose under the other car and force him to come to a stop. This would force Shane to the rear of the 23 car field (27 cars showed up to race but only 23 started the feature event).

This would complicate his goal of reaching a top 5 finish. However, it would not be the end. He would drive very hard for the rest of the race. By lap 12 he had worked his way into the 6th position passing 18 cars in 12 laps. However, for the next two laps he would idle in the 6th position. He had overheated his tires and he needed a long caution for them to cool down. He got it on lap 14. When the green flag flew after the long caution he had 6 laps remaining to get to the front. He would run right on the number 77's bumper and he would get under him every lap until lap 19 but he continued to get chopped off in the center of the corner. On the final lap he was still sitting in the 6th position. They were three wide in front of him and the car he had been trying to get around for a long time moved up the race track going into turn 1 just enough for Shane to stick his nose under him. On the back straight he would go door to door with him and he would grab the bottom going into turn 3. When they crossed the finish line he was sitting in the 3rd position only a half car length behind 2nd with a car good enough to take the win.

Next weekend the team plans to put their wheels back on the DIRT. Shane will head to I-55 Raceway on Saturday. Then, for sure he will head to Tri-City Speedway on Sunday and look for his first DIRT victory of his career. The team has had a winning car 2 weeks in a row at Tri-City but bad luck has struck the team both times sending them to the back only to work their way back up to a great finish.

For more information on the above race tracks including driving directions. Please visit www.TriCitySpeedway.net and www.I55Raceway.com.

Click here to view Shane's 2006 schedule and results. Click here to view Evan's 2006 Schedule and results. Please stay turned to these pages using the TOURS link at the top of this page and follow the team with their results and point standing throughout the 2006 racing season.