World of Outlaws Notebook
Notes: WoO set for Tennessee tripleheader
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Tazewell, high-banked even on the straightaways, hosts WoO drivers Saturday. (mrmracing.net)
Next up on the 2013 World of Outlaws Late Model Series schedule is an April 26-28 trip to Tennessee that represents a rare occurrence for the national tour: a same-state tripleheader comprised of three different tracks.
When the series rolls through the Volunteer State this weekend for events on Friday at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Saturday at Tazewell Speedway and Sunday at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, it will mark just the third time in the circuit’s history that it contests races on consecutive days at three tracks in a single state.
The only other instances that match this in the WoO record book both came in Ohio. In 2008 the series ran at Muskingum County Speedway, Eldora Speedway and Sharon Speedway from July 24-26 and in ’10 visited Sharon, Attica Raceway Park and Muskingum County from July 29-31.
This weekend’s WoO action was originally scheduled as a doubleheader at Smoky Mountain and Tazewell, but it grew to a full three-race swing after Duck River’s event was postponed from March 24 due to wet and cold weather. All three events will be topped by a 50-lapper paying $10,000-to-win.
A high-banked, quarter-mile oval just over an hour’s drive south of Nashville, Duck River will host the WoO for the first time on Sunday. Smoky Mountain’s World of Outlaws show will be its first since 2004, while the famed banks of Tazewell will see WoO competition for the fourth season in a row.
A total of 16 WoO events at eight different tracks have been run in Tennessee since 2004, when the tour was restarted under the World Racing Group banner after a 15-year layoff. Eight of those races came during the 2004 and ’05 seasons, including six in ’04.
Eleven drivers have won a WoO race in Tennessee. Five drivers own a pair of victories (Scott Bloomquist, Steve Francis, Shane Clanton, Tim McCreadie and Chris Madden) and six have single triumphs (Rick Eckert, Brian Birkhofer, Billy Moyer, Jimmy Owens and Bub McCool). Bloomquist and Owens are the only Tennessee drivers to win a World of Outlaws event in their home state.
Tazewell’s past WoO winners include Clanton, Madden and McCool, who scored his first-ever World of Outlaws triumph in last year’s event. The lone WoO stop at Smoky Mountain in ’04 was captured by Eckert.
T-Mac heating up
If the 2012 season is any indication, Tim McCreadie is ready to go on a WoO hot streak.
Last year the 39-year-old star from Watertown, N.Y., won his first WoO race of the season at 311 Motor Speedway in Pine Hall, N.C. — and on Saturday night he put his first ’13 checkered flag on the board at the same half-mile oval. He followed his ’12 triumph at 311 Motor Speedway with 16 straight top-10 finishes — including one stretch of nine consecutive top-five runs that bested even record-setting champion Darrell Lanigan’s longest top-five streak of the season — so he’s hopeful that success at the Tar Heel State track is once again a harbinger of good things.
Of course, McCreadie slumped badly in ’12 after his strong May-July, absorbing eight DNFs and scoring just a single top-five finish over the final 15 WoO events. But he’s off to a much stronger start this season, raising the confidence for sustained success he has in his Sweeteners Plus Warrior Chassis.
His victory in last year’s event at 311 marked his first top-five run (and just his fourth top 10) in 10 races; this year through an identical 10 races he already has four top-five and seven top-10 finishes.
This weekend McCreadie will look to improve upon his previous WoO finishes at Tazewell, which include a best of fifth in 2011 (he was 12th in ’10 and 23rd in ’12). He entered the 2004 WoO event at Smoky Mountain but did not start the feature and has never visited Duck River.
Solid rookie runs
WoO Rookie of the Year contenders Morgan Bagley of Longview, Texas, and Dillon Wood of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., enjoyed much-needed uplifting performances on Saturday night at 311 Motor Speedway. Bagley’s sixth-place finish was his career-best on the WoO, while Wood rallied from the 23rd starting spot for a ninth-place finish that represented his first top-10 outing of 2013 (though not a career-best).
Wood’s run was especially noteworthy considering the trials and tribulations he encountered leading up to the feature. First, he was penalized for arriving late to his spot in the time-trial qualifying order, knocking his ninth-fastest time down to 16th. (Late arrivals can time no better than half the night’s field — 29 cars, in this case — plus one.) He then dropped out on the opening lap of his heat race after the ball spline on his transmission broke, forcing him to pull out his backup car. A points provisional got him into the main event.
Saturday’s program marked Wood’s first WoO appearance with Georgian Derek Gahring serving as his chief mechanic. The 22-year-old added Gahring, who spent recent seasons working with WoO regulars Chub Frank and Clint Smith, after running the first nine events of the season with his father Todd as his lone crew member.
Looking to rebound
WoO travelers Clint Smith and Bub McCool will look to rebound this weekend after seeing potentially solid finishes slip through their fingers on Saturday night at 311 Motor Speedway.
Smith, who was happy to see last Friday night’s WoO show at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway called off early due to approaching storms because he did not yet have an engine ready to go, qualified strong at 311 with the fresh powerplant to earn the fourth starting spot in the feature. He was running fifth at a lap-nine caution flag when the ball spline on his car’s transmission broke, forcing him to limp into the pit area and suffered a disappointing 24th-place finish.
McCool, meanwhile, was running sixth and appeared ready to challenge for a top-five spot when he slowed on a lap-22 restart and retired with an overheating engine.
