MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (Aug. 16) — The half-mile, paper clip-shaped Williams Grove Speedway has little in common with the bullrings that Brandon Sheppard grew up racing on in the Midwest.

On Friday night, however, Sheppard had no trouble negotiating the sprawling oval that sits in the middle of central Pennsylvania Sprint Car country. The 26-year-old star from New Berlin, Ill., looked like a big-track master on his way to a dominating flag-to-flag victory off the pole position in the 40-lap World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series feature.

Sheppard’s series-leading 16th triumph of 2019 in Mark Richards’s Rocket Chassis house car was worth $10,000 and came by 2.254 seconds over Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., who overtook WoO rookie Ricky Weiss of Headingely, Manitoba, for second on a lap-24 restart but, like Weiss before him, wasn’t able to summon enough speed in his Skyline Motorsports Capital Race Car to offer even a token challenge to the eventual winner.

Weiss settled for a third-place finish in his Bloomquist Chassis after starting in the same spot but running second for the race’s first 24 laps. Fourth-starter Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa., slipped out of the top five early in the A-main but rallied to reach fourth on lap 16 and finished in the position in his XR1 Rocket while seventh-starter Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa, completed the top five driving an XR1 Rocket mount fielded by western Pennsylvania’s Todd Cerenzia.

There was simply no peer for Sheppard, who cruised unmolested around the historic track that hosted the WoO Late Model Series for the first time since April 22, 1988, when the tour’s inaugural event of its short-lived first incarnation was contested there.

“My car was awesome,” said Sheppard, whose 53rd career WoO checkered snapped his modest three-race winless streak on the circuit. “I could put it wherever I wanted. I had a line that I was pretty comfortable in, but I could run wherever I needed to run.”

Three restarts during the feature — following caution flags on laps 20 for Dylan Yoder of Selinsgrove, Pa. (stopped in turn two), 24 for Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill. (flat left-front tire while running fifth) and 33 for Brent Larson of Lake Elmo, Minn. (trouble on the homestretch) — barely hampered Sheppard. He pulled away with ease each time the green flag flew.

For a first-time Grove starter who admittedly is still learning the intricacies of racing on larger tracks, Sheppard looked right at home.

“It was a fun track,” said Sheppard, who extended his commanding lead in the WoO standings to 236 points over Weiss and 260 over Clanton. “I like most of the half-miles we race at, but usually I don’t feel like they’re as racy (as smaller tracks). It seems like these ones out East here are really racy, though.

“I felt like the middle and the top was decent tonight here. I felt like I could make pretty good laps through the middle of the racetrack too, so overall it was a good first experience here. Hopefully we get to come back.”

Sheppard swept the program, setting fast time in qualifying and winning his heat race before leading every lap of the A-main. His perfection provided evidence of his adaptability to new territory.

“I just did what I always do (before debuting at a track) — I go back and watch a lot of video and look at the track a lot when I’m here,” Sheppard said. “I ride around it on the (motor) bike (upon arrival) and look at the banking to try and see where it will help me and hurt me. That’s what I do at every first-time track I go to … and pretty much every night really. I just try to check it out and see where I think the line might be. That really helps me I feel like.”

Repetitions behind the wheel of Richards’s potent equipment has also made him more adept at circling monster-sized dirt tracks like Williams Grove.

“Just racing ‘em and racing ‘em with Mark has definitely made me a lot more comfortable on them,” Sheppard said. “And we’ve got our car dialed in for me, especially at these big tracks. That’s where we’ve seemed to be really, really good this year, on the big tracks.

“That’s always what I’ve wanted to be good at from the start. There’s a lot of big-money races on the bigger tracks — obviously Eldora (Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio) is a half-mile and Knoxville (Iowa) is too. Just time and experience is what’s made it what it is for me.”

Clanton, who turns 44 on Aug. 29, advanced from the fifth starting spot to record his second career runner-up finish at Williams Grove. He also placed second in his only previous start at the track, on June 6, 2004, in an Xtreme DirtCar Series event.

While Clanton didn’t make a serious bid for the lead after overtaking Weiss for second, he felt his car wasn’t far off Sheppard’s, if at all.

“I think I needed track position,” Clanton said. “I think if I’m out front, I’d do the same thing he did.”

Clanton explained that the “aero” dynamics in play on the big, fast track were a significant factor.

“Air is so important here, especially late in the race,” Clanton said. “I think I had a chance early in the race if I’d been in second, just because there was more grip in the corners. Later in the race, we were running so fast down the straightaways that we just slid in the corners. If the pace would’ve slowed down another half a second we probably could’ve raced all over it, but that’s just Mother Nature (a thunderstorm hit the track around 3 p.m.).

“The corners got so slick, but the straightaways were still so wet and fast we were just sliding getting through the corners. When you can use the whole racetrack like (Sheppard) was — go through the middle and then cut to the bottom — the next guy’s in trouble (in such a situation).

“And this place is pretty narrow down the straightaways so it’s hard to get away from the air (off other cars). Me and Ricky rubbed (battling for second) just because of the buffering of the air. Our cars are moving around so much down the straightaway that we rubbed a little bit and didn’t even mean to.”

Clanton actually used the swirling air to his advantage to pass Weiss on the lap-24 restart.

“I finally got to his outside at the flagstand, and when I went in turn one I had his air that he needed on the right side,” Clanton related. “Then when I cleared him, he said he lost the air on his nose and went all the way across the racetrack.

“But I think his tires were dying too,” he added. “He had a little softer tire than me and Sheppard did.”

Indeed, Weiss, 30, lost a bit of speed during the race’s second half due to his tire selection.

“He could kind of go a little higher and cut down across the bottom, but when we were getting into lapped cars I thought it would get kind of interesting.

“Our car kind of came alive and then would go away and then came alive, and Mark (Richards) said that was probably due to our tire choice,” said Weiss, who continues to chase his first-ever WoO feature win. “We were a little bit softer than (Sheppard) and Clanton. Ours fired off good, but theirs just maintained a little longer.

“Coming into lapped cars (while chasing Sheppard) we could kind of tail it in and stick on the bottom and I thought it might get interesting, but of course the caution come out. Then his tires just maintained better and ours kind of faded a little bit.

“But all in all, it was a good night for our first time here. I’m happy where we’re at in points. Staying there, that’s our goal now.”

Notes: Mason Zeigler of Chalk Hill, Pa., charged from the 17th starting spot to reach fifth place following the lap-24 restart, but he slipped out of the top 10 just before the final caution flag flew on lap 33. He finished 11th. … The flat tire that short-circuited Dennis Erb Jr.’s bid for a top-five finish came after he ran over something on the track and bent his car’s wheel. … Outside polesitter Jason Covert of York Haven, Pa., ran in the top five throughout the race’s first half but finished seventh. … Rick Eckert of York, Pa., who won a ULMS-sanctioned event at Williams Grove on March 29, was never a factor in the A-main. He started 10th and finished eighth. … Around 3 p.m. the track was struck by a strong thunderstorm that lasted about 30 minutes. But while the speedway and grounds were swamped, the skies cleared soon afterward and Grove management decided to press on and hot laps started at about 7:15 p.m., just 15 minutes behind schedule. … A respectable crowd also turned out for the program, which included Williams Grove’s headline 410 sprint car division.