JAMAICA,
VA – This time Shane Clanton got the job done.
Three months after finishing
second in a World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Virginia Motor Speedway despite leading nearly half the distance,
Clanton returned to the pristine half-mile oval and emerged victorious in Friday night’s scintillating ‘Summer Sizzler 50.’
It was the second WoO
LMS victory of the season for Clanton, who exorcised the demons associated with his April 14 loss to Moweaqua,
Ill.’s Shannon Babb.
“That went through my
mind tonight,” Clanton said when asked if he thought about his springtime defeat while leading Friday’s A-Main. “It’s always
in the back of your mind when you come back to a track where you lost a race that you led for a bunch of laps.”
Clanton, 31, of Locust
Grove, Ga., started from the outside pole in Ronnie Dobbins’s Custom-powered
RSD Enterprises Rocket, but he had to scratch and claw for every cent of the $10,000 first prize. He was involved in each
of the feature’s six lead changes – four with Jeremy Miller of Gettysburg, Pa.,
who fell from contention with mechanical trouble, and two with fellow WoO LMS regular Darrell Lanigan of Union,
Ky.
The final exchange of
the top spot came on lap 45, when Clanton criss-crossed lanes with Lanigan off turn four while racing through lapped traffic
and nosed in front at the start/finish line.
Clanton held on to win
by 0.539 of a second over Lanigan, whose charge from the eighth starting spot in his gottarace.com Rocket fell short.
Tim Fuller of Watertown,
N.Y., finished a close third in the Gypsum Racing Rocket to earn the $250 top rookie bonus, while Jason Covert of York Haven,
Pa., placed fourth in Barry Klinedinst’s Rocket and pocketed the $500 WoO LMS ‘Bonus Bucks’ award for being the highest-finishing
driver who was not ranked in the top 12 of the WoO LMS points standings and has not won a tour feature.
WoO LMS points leader
Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., was fifth after making a
late advance in his Valvoline Rocket. He extended his points lead to 22 markers over Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., who missed
the setup and finished 11th, and 40 points over Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga.,
who placed a quiet eighth.
Clanton gave his sixth
career WoO LMS victory some serious style points.
“It’s exciting when somebody
can pull up underneath and pass you, and then you can get back by him for the win,” said a pumped-up Clanton. “Winning the
Pittsburgher (100) last year (at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway) was
pretty exciting for me because I beat Chub (Frank), who’s so good there. But this is a great feeling, a race I’ll never forget.”
Clanton led the race’s
first 22 laps before being nipped at the line by Miller, who started fourth in the Buckler Motorsports Rocket.
Miller led laps 23 and
26-27 before his hopes took an abrupt about-face. After Clanton regained command on lap 28, Miller gradually slowed, eventually
retiring while running third during the race’s third and final caution period, on lap 32.
“An oil line broke,”
said the disappointed Miller. “It started shooting oil under the hood right when I got the lead, and then I started sliding
and going backward.
“It was hard to pull
out in that position – with the car running so well, and being the first time I ever led an Outlaws show. But it was the right
thing to do.
“This is a new Bullock
motor, so I didn’t want to hurt it,” he concluded. “We’ve only run it twice, and it’s working great. This thing gives me something
I can battle with.”
Clanton’s battle for
the checkered flag raged on with Lanigan, who was seeking his third WoO LMS win of the season.
Lanigan, 37, found the
inside lane to his liking and slipped by Clanton for the lead on lap 42, but he stayed there for only three laps. He faltered
for a moment in lapped traffic on lap 45 and ceded the top spot to Clanton, then couldn’t mount a comeback.
“I was good on the bottom
to get the lead, but then we got up to those lapped cars,” said Lanigan. “They didn’t get out of the way, but they just stood
their ground and they were sort of in my groove.
“I tried to go around
them in the middle (lane), but there just was nothing there and I lost my momentum. Shane went way out there, where I should’ve
went, and got the run he needed to pass me.”
Clanton was relieved
to make a successful recovery.
“When Jeremy got by me
(for the lead), I pushed the front end. That was my own fault,” said Clanton. “But when Darrell drove by on the bottom, I
was like, ‘Dang, I don’t know what I’m gonna do now.’
“So I just started hammering
the top, and by running the cushion I got back up to (Lanigan’s) quarter-panel. One time in lapped traffic I saw him sliding,
so I just turned left and got by him.
“When he slid, I either
had to let up so I wouldn’t run in the back of him, or turn left under him a little bit and cross him. I crossed him and it
worked.”
Clanton kept Lanigan
at bay over the final five laps by running the inside groove in an efficient manner.
“I didn’t know I had
to slow down that much through (turns) three and four to stay on the bottom off the corner,” said Clanton. “Once I did that,
I was pretty good.”
Lanigan was a surprisingly
upbeat runner-up.
“That actually was a
pretty fun race,” said Lanigan. “No one wants to finish second, but when you can race that hard, that fast, and that clean
with somebody, you’re not too upset.
“When you’re out there
with people you can trust, you can do that stuff,” he noted when asked about his close battle with Clanton.
Fuller, 39, never led
a lap despite starting from the pole position. He was hampered by a car that didn’t perform well on restarts.
“I don’t know why they
fired better than me on restarts,” Fuller said of Clanton and Lanigan. “I was really good on the bottom, but I needed laps
to get going – and by then, I was already too far behind them.”
Finishing in positions
6-10 were Ricky Elliott of Seaford, Del., who lost a top-five spot to Francis in the final laps; Booper Bare of Rockbridge
Baths, Va., who made his first WoO LMS appearance of the season; Smith; Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill.; and Gary Stuhler of
Greencastle, Pa., who drove Jerry Foster’s DirTek No. 5.
The race’s three caution
flags were caused by Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., who spun between turns three and four on lap 18; a three-car tangle
on lap 22 involving Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., Jack Pencil of Bedford, Pa., and Roland Mann of Chaptico, Md.; and David
Williams of Avenue, Md., who stopped on lap 32.
Thirty-five dirt Late
Models entered the event.
Miller earned the $100
National Interstate Insurance Fast Time Award for his qualifying lap of 17.845 seconds, and he also picked up the $50 National
Interstate Insurance Hard Luck Award for his misfortune in the feature.
Heat winners were Frank,
Richards, Clanton and Smith, and the B-Mains were captured by Rick Eckert of York, Pa.,
and Stuhler.
The WoO LMS continues
its weekend of action with events on Sat., July 21, at Hagerstown (Md.)
Speedway (the $12,000-to-win 60th Anniversary Classic) and Sun., July 22, at Eriez
Speedway in Hammett, Pa.
For more info on the
WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
Results of WoO Late Model Series (Finishing Position/Start/Driver/Laps Completed/Money Won):
1. (2) Shane Clanton/50
$10,000
2. (8) Darrell Lanigan/50
$5,000
3. (1) Tim Fuller/50
$3,250
4. (13) Jason Covert/50
$3,000
5. (11) Steve Francis/50
$2,000
6. (6) Ricky Elliott/50
$1,700
7. (15) Booper Bare/50
$1,400
8. (3) Clint Smith/50
$1,300
9. (10) Brian Shirley/50
$1,200
10. (18) Gary Stuhler/50
$1,100
11. (5) Chub Frank/50
$1,050
12. (17) Rick Eckert/50
$1,000
13. (12) Bo Feathers/50
$950
14. (7) Josh Richards/50
$900
15. (22) Billy Decker/50
$850
16. (19) Darryl Hills/50
$800
17. (16) Allen Brannon/50
$770
18. (21) Roland Mann/49
$750
19. (20) Jack Pencil/48
$730
20. (23) Dan Stone/42
$700
21. (4) Jeremy Miller/32
$850
22. (9) David Williams/31
$700
23. (24) Austin Hubbard/24
$700
24. (14) Sean Cosgrove/19
$700 SCR
