Eriez Speedway
Francis edges Blair at Eriez for 3rd WoO win
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Francis (19) edges ahead of Robbie Blair. (Todd Battin)
HAMMETT, Pa. (July 27) — Steve Francis made World of Outlaws Late Model Series history at Eriez Speedway. With a victory in the 50-lap finale of Alltel Ohio Speedweek, Francis set a new modern-era (2004-present) WoO win standard. His 17th career triumph on the tour broke him out of a three-way tie atop the win list with Scott Bloomquist and Rick Eckert. | Slideshow
Francis, 40, of Ashland, Ky., earned $10,250 for his second win in four Alltel Ohio Speedweek events. The defending WoO champion also captured the opening event, on July 24 at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio.
It was the third WoO victory of 2008 for Francis, who started from the outside pole and led all but three laps of Sunday’s A-Main. He swapped the lead twice with polesitter Robbie Blair of Titusville, Pa., just before the race’s halfway mark but maintained firm control of the top spot from lap 21 to the checkered flag. Francis drove his Dale Beitler-owned Reliable Painting/Valvoline Rocket No. 19 across the finish line with a 0.379-second margin over Blair, who used the outside lane to draw close to Francis in the waning moments.
Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., finished third after losing the runner-up spot to Blair on lap 37. Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., ran predominantly the outside groove to charge from the 22nd starting spot to a hard-earned fourth-place finish, and 21-year-old Mike Knight of Ripley,N.Y., registered a career-best WoO placing of fifth at the track where he is the reigning Super Late Model champion. Blair, McCreadie and Knight scored their first top-five finishes of the four-race swing, making them the final entries in the battle for the Alltel Ohio Speedweek All-Star honor. The top-five finishers in each event became eligible for a $10,000 top prize that will go to the driver who receives the most votes in on-line polling at AlltelAllStar.com.
The most stirring stretch of the race came after the second caution flag flew, on lap 13 for a flat tire on the car driven by Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill. Blair shot by Richards for second on the restart and proceeded to mount a serious assault on Francis. Blair was scored the lead of laps 16-17 and also lap 20, but Francis was too strong on the bottom of the flat one-third-mile oval and gradually opened some breathing room after the halfway mark.
“When we were running side-by-side, I’m there hoping that he makes a mistake sooner or later,” Francis said of his battle with Blair. “He had an excellent car running out there (in the outside groove). I just didn’t realize you needed to be that wide out on the cushion. I was running through the slick part of the racetrack and didn’t realize you needed to be out there. We were able to get our wits back about us, get our car back under us and we were able to get back by him. It was just a fortunate deal that it happened the way it did.
“We pretty much focused on hitting our marks all night,” he continued. “The racetrack was very, very physical. It had icy-slippery spots, wet spots, rough spots – just really, really physical. You had to make sure you hit all of your marks. If you missed one you could kill your whole lap. We just tried to stay in our lane. If somebody was going to get us high and wide then they were going to get us and we were going to have to get up on the wheel and try to get back by them on the bottom.”
Blair, 37, was satisfied to match his career-best finish on the WoO. He also finished second on Sept. 4, 2006, at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa.
“I was hitting those holes (early in the race) and my car was actually shutting off because the floats were too high or whatever,” said Blair, who drove his self-owned Rocket machine. “I just decided on that one restart, ‘It still looks like there’s traction up there (on the outside). I don’t know why nobody is running up there.’ I was just trying to throw one lap up there and there was traction, so I stayed up there.
“I was having a ball," he continued. “I got ahead of him a couple of times. He was probably better in turns one and two and I was probably better in turns three and four, so it kind of evened out by the time we got back to the flagman. Then I got to racing Josh and it took me a while to get back by him — or maybe I would have had a shot at it. Who knows?”
The 20-year-old Richards, meanwhile, fell short of repeating his victory in last year’s inaugural WoO event at Eriez Speedway. He moved up to second on a lap-three restart and swapped the position twice with Blair before settling for third in his Seubert Calf Ranches Rocket. “I was a little bit softer on tires than Steve and Blair were, but for a little bit I could run with them,” said Richards. “I kept watching my dad tell me to run the top or the bottom. I hate it sometimes when I’d miss just a little bit, but our tires started to give up at the end so it was good for us to get third.”
No driver had a more exciting drive than the 34-year-old McCreadie, who discovered that there was indeed an outside lane and used it to charge forward. He moved his Sweeteners Plus Rocket by Knight for fourth place heading to the white flag. “It’s just sometimes mind over matter,” said McCreadie, who qualified poorly but came alive in the feature. “We struggled all night long with the car. Finally we hit on something. I owe it to Al Stevens, Tommy Grecco, Vic Coffey, Johnny Cocco and Frog — everybody who was on this deal. We struggled all night, and finally when you throw enough things at it you’re going to get lucky and that’s what we did. “The long green flag hurt me at the end, I needed more restarts. I wish I had done my job as a driver earlier to get it further up so we wouldn’t have had to work so hard, but it is what it is.”
Knight slipped back two positions from his third starting spot, but the rising young star was ecstatic over his best run to date with the WoO. “I usually run up top at this track,” said Knight, who drove his family-owned Mobilia Farms Rocket car. “I won a couple of races up top, but I was maintaining in the top five and I decided to stay on the bottom and just maintain. I wanted a good top five. I had never been in the top five with the Outlaws. I was just trying to be smart about it. If we get some money coming our way, we’d probably end up going on tour with the Outlaws. I’d like to get out there and do some more traveling and run with these guys. Hopefully we can get things going. That would be great.”
Finishing in positions 6-10 were points leader Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky.; Vic Coffey of Leicester, N.Y.; Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga.; Ron Davies of Warren, Pa.; and Rich Gardner of Waterford, Pa.
Among the feature non-qualifiers were WoO regulars Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., and John Blankenship of Williamson, W.Va., and Ricky Elliott of Seaford, Del., who finished second the previous night at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio.
World of Outlaws @ Eriez: (1) Steve Francis, (2) Robbie Blair, (3) Josh Richards, (4) Tim McCreadie, (5) Mike Knight, (6) Darrell Lanigan, (7) Vic Coffey, (8) Shane Clanton, (9) Ron Davies, (10) Rich Gardner, (11) Dan Stone, (12) Dave Hess Jr., (13) Chub Frank, (14) Andy Bozell, (15) Rick Eckert, (16) Doug Eck, (17) David Scott, (18) Shannon Babb, (19) Clint Smith, (20) Chad Valone, (21) Andy Kania, (22) Donnie Moran, (23) Greg Oakes, (24) Randy Lobb, (25) Dutch Davies. Fast qualifier (among 48 cars): R. Davies, 16.400 seconds. Heat race winners: Francis, Blair, Knight, Richards. Consolation winners: Scott, Oakes. Provisional starters: C. Smith, Eckert, Kania.
