Bristol Motor Speedway
WoO notes: Francis, Clanton get pumped up
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Clanton shows off his fancy Tri-City trophy. (Todd Battin)
Steve Francis and Shane Clanton certainly loved the $10,000 checks they earned for their victories in last weekend’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series ‘Oil Region Labor Day Classic’ A-Mains at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa. But the tour regulars also were unusually pumped about the hardware they received for their triumphs.
For the second straight year Tri-City co-promoters Mike Graham and Roger Crick presented unique, event-themed trophies to their holiday-weekend WoO winners — specially-made vintage gas pumps — that were big hits with Francis and Clanton.
“There’s only three trophies I keep in my living room downstairs at my house – the World 100 (globe), the Dirt Track World Championship trophy and the gas pump trophy I won here last year,” said Francis, who captured Tri-City’s Saturday-night A-Main for the second consecutive season. “I told Dale (Beitler, his car owner) we’re gonna have to win again tomorrow (Sunday’s race) to get another gas pump because I’m gonna set this one alongside the other one I already have in my house.”
Clanton, meanwhile, was pretty sure where his gas pump was going to be placed upon his return to Georgia. “I’d say it’s gonna go in Ryan’s room,” said Clanton, thinking of his 5-year-old son. “Jennifer (his wife) and I already told him I won him a gas pump, so he’s just waiting for me to get it home.”
The end is near
Francis finished ahead of WoO points leader Darrell Lanigan in six of the seven events contested in August, including all three of last weekend’s events. Alas, the run of success has provided Francis little help in his pursuit of a second consecutive WoO title. The Ashland, Ky., driver has seized firm control of second place in the standings, but he’s gained a mere 18 points on Lanigan, cutting his deficit from 146 to 128 points.
Lanigan, who maintained solid command of the points race because he finished just one spot behind Francis in four raes during the month of August, is clearly in the driver’s seat for his first career WoO championship. Just six races remain on the 2008 schedule — and one, the Armour Vienna Sausage Southern Showdown on Oct. 8 at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., will offer only show-up points because it is not being run under the normal tour format.
The numbers say that even if Francis wins the five remaining full-points races, Lanigan can clinch the title by finishing 12th in each race. That gives Lanigan quite a bit of room for error, albeit not enough for him to feel any sense of comfort.
When asked following a fifth-place finish on Sunday night at Tri-City if he can now taste the $100,000 WoO crown, Lanigan quickly responded, “I don’t feel nothing yet. I won’t until this thing is over.”
Getting stronger
After breaking a streak of 16 consecutive finishes outside the top five when he placed fifth on Aug. 23 at K-C Raceway in Alma, Ohio, Rick Eckert came back with third-place runs at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway on Friday night and Tri-City on Sunday night.
“Clint (Smith), me and (GRT’s) Joe Garrison have been talking and we made some changes to our cars,” Eckert said following Sunday night’s action. “They’re definitely working better. We’re not there yet, but at least we’re finally back in contention.”
Eckert’s Raye Vest-owned car also is sporting a new Jay Dickens engine, which the York, Pa., star credits with helping him improve his qualifying performance.
“It’s all about qualifying. You gotta qualify good to run good (in the feature),” said Eckert, who earned his first WoO fast time honor since April 18, 2006, on Friday night at Bedford. “You can’t keep coming out of the B-Main or missing the (feature) redraw and starting 14th or 16th. These guys (WoO regulars) are too good to spot them positions every night. Lately we’ve qualifying better and getting better starting spots, and that’s the main reason why our finishes have been better.”
Smith, meanwhile, emerged from some summer doldrums as well last weekend. He finished third in Saturday night’s main event at Tri-City and placed seventh on both Friday night at Bedford and Sunday night at Tri-City.
Smith was behind the wheel of the same GRT car that NASCAR star Jeff Gordon drove under Smith’s watchful eye in June’s Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Smith pressed the machine, which sports a new black-dominated graphics scheme that Smith plans to use on all his cars in the future, back into service in August and got it rolling with some hard work in the garage prior to last weekend’s Keystone State swing.
“We did a Winston Cup-style squaring job on it at the shop,” said Smith, whose car still sports the Dunn Benson Ford logo that he added to honor his former car owner, Carlton Lamm, during the Aug. 15 WoO show at Lamm’s hometrack in Fayetteville, N.C. “We got all the suspension right and did all the little fine-tuning we haven’t had time for, and it seems to be paying off.”
Beat-up machine
Getting swept up in a multi-car tangle early in Bedford Speedway’s feature last Friday night left 2006 WoO champion Tim McCreadie with plenty of repair work before Saturday night’s program at Tri-City Speedway.
McCreadie, who ended up in the wreck after returning to the track following a pit stop to clean mud out of his Sweeteners Plus car’s rear wheels (he had been running second), rebuilt the machine on Saturday in Tri-City’s pit area. The 34-year-old driver spent almost two hours smashing bent body pieces back into shape, and his chief mechanic, Al Stevens, received assistance from several fellow WoO drivers and crewmen, including Francis and Clanton, to get the car ready for competition.
Racing the rest of the weekend with the car’s front clip apparently bent, McCreadie managed finishes of fourth and sixth at Tri-City.
