Tanner English had been named to drive the No. 116 made famous by Randy Weaver
During the off-season team owners Randy Weaver and Chip Stone named 25-year-old Tanner English as the driver of the famed No. 116 car for the 2019 season. And as a matter of fact, the team did participate in a total of nine events at East Bay Raceway Park and Volusia Speedway Park during Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks making eight of the nine feature races they entered and scoring one top-5 finish.
However, what looked to be a promising situation has fallen apart. On Saturday afternoon, Weaver sent out a message via Twitter announcing that the No. 116 Stone-Weaver Racing team had shut down its operation and sold its equipment. A sponsor deal that had fallen through was cited as the cause for the closure. But also, Weaver promised to support English as much as possible going forward.
Here is the full text of the post from @rweaver116 on Twitter:
“Just letting everyone know that do to sponsor commitment that didn’t come through that swr racing has sold out the 116 super team this does not affect dream racing tech or outlaw racing s.e. I personally will help Tanner English as much as possible and he understands my situatio”
As pointed out in the post, Dream Racing Technologies and Outlaw Racing will not be affected. Weaver constructs and sells “Longhorn by Weaver” chassis through those companies.
Weaver had been the driver of the No. 116 car for many years until a severe concussion derailed his career 2016. He made a brief comeback in 2018 but only raced a few times and has not indicated that he plans to race again.
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