Port Royal Speedway
Flag-to-flag Clint Smith dominates Port Royal
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Clint Smith picked up $7,000. (pbase.com/cyberslash)
PORT ROYAL, PA – June 17, 2008 – Clint Smith brought his recent World of Outlaws Late Model Series struggles to a resounding end as the Great Northern Tour opened. With one of the most dominant performances on the tour this season, Smith cruised out front from flag-to-flag to record his first victory of 2008 in a 40-lapper at Port Royal Speedway. | Slideshow
“The car was back good again,” a relieved Smith said after steering his J.P. Drilling/Cliburn Tank Lines GRT mount to a slump-busting triumph worth $7,150. “It was just idling around great. Tonight it wouldn’t do anything wrong.”
Smith, 43, of Senoia, Ga., started from the pole position and led the entire distance, but seizing that top spot on the first lap was anything but easy. He was actually outgunned for the lead twice by fellow front-row starter Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., but a caution and a red flag on the opening circuit negated Frank’s passes and allowed Smith to assume command for good when the third attempt to start the race was successful.
No one was able to seriously challenge Smith, who built a full-straightaway victory margin over the Reliable Painting/Valvoline Rocket driven by defending WoO champion Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky.
Frank settled for a distant third-place finish in his Lester Buildings Rocket. Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., improved two positions to finish fourth in the Gypsum Express Rocket — just his second top-five finish of the season — and Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., started and finished fifth in the GottaRace.com Rocket to run his WoO consecutive top-five streak to five races.
Smith credited his Hoosier tire selection with propelling him to his 11th career WoO triumph. “I was on the right rubber,” said Smith, whose last WoO win was on Sept. 15, 2007, at I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Mo. “Chub beat me the first couple (attempted) starts because he was softer on rubber, so I wasn’t panicking. I figured my car was plenty good and we were gonna pass him back if the race stayed green. On that third start, I finally got some heat in the tires. I didn’t spin the tires when I got to the flagman, so I stayed alongside Chub into the corner and I pulled him off (turn) two.”
Smith simply perched his car on the strip of rubber that formed along the inside of the half-mile oval and pulled away from the field. “We’re usually good in this type of (surface) condition,” said Smith, who finished fifth in last year’s WoO inaugural at Port Royal Speedway. “I could run as fast as I wanted to ride. I just ran three-quarter throttle most of the time. I wasn’t hardly using the brakes in the corner, I was just rolling right through there. I just had to watch that lapped traffic, which was treacherous.”
Indeed, Smith’s scariest moment came on lap 35 as he was lapping WoO Rookie of the Year contender Danny Johnson of Phelps, N.Y. Contact between the two cars on the backstretch peeled up the left-front corner of Smith’s hood.
“The Doctor (Johnson) was just hugging the bottom so I went to the outside, and then he went straight to the wall,” recalled Smith. “I slammed the brakes on and he hit me. It almost got ugly for both of us, but I know he didn’t hit me intentionally. The World of Outlaws don’t use the move (over) flag, so he didn’t know I was there.”
The victory moved Smith to seventh in the WoO points standings. He overtook Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., who salvaged a 10th-place finish despite using a provisional to start the A-Main (he was knocked from the lead in his heat by a broken stud-bolt on his car’s water pump) and pitting on the opening lap of the feature to change a right-front tie-rod that was bent in a scrape with Jere Wierman of Stewartstown, Pa.
“We needed to get a win,” said Smith, whose only previous victory this season came on Feb. 15 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. “We’ve been struggling a little bit, so I know I need a good road trip if I have any hope of getting back in the points race. This is a good start I guess.”
Francis, 40, grabbed sole possession of the WoO points lead with his runner-up finish. He entered the night tied for the top spot with Lanigan.
“We had a good car, but it wasn’t as good as Cat’s car (Smith),” said Francis, who surged forward from the fourth starting spot to take second from Frank on lap two. “We were just a little bit off and finished second.”
Frank, 46, wondered what might have been if his initial-start passes of Smith hadn’t been erased, but he still wasn’t satisfied with his car’s performance. “Maybe if I got ahead of him I could’ve gotten into a rhythm and held him off,” said Frank. “But for some reason I couldn’t steer my car for like eight or 10 laps, so it probably would’ve been tough to stay up there.”
A total of three caution flags and one red flag slowed the A-Main.
Clanton brought out the first caution when he stopped on the opening lap. Subsequent cautions flew on lap four for Rick Eckert of York, Pa., who slowed and then pitted for quick service, and on lap 25 for Kirk Ryan of Lewisberry, Pa., whose strong run ended with mechanical trouble as he ran in sixth.
The red flag was needed for a multicar tangle between turns one and two on the race’s second attempted start. Lanigan and Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., got together near the front of the field, setting off a scramble that involved Eckert, among others, and left the car of Selinsgrove, Pa.’s Jim Yoder balanced on the side of the Sweeteners Plus machine driven by WoO Rookie of the Year contender Vic Coffey of Leicester, N.Y.
Both Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., and Jeremy Miller of Gettysburg, Pa., lost potential top-10 finishes to flat tires. Richards was running sixth when his car’s deflated right-rear tire forced him to pit during the lap-25 caution period (he rallied to finish 13th), while Miller tumbled from seventh to 15th in the finish because his car’s bald right-rear tire went flat on the final circuit.
World of Outlaws @ Port Royal: (1) Clint Smith, (2) Steve Francis, (3) Chub Frank, (4) Tim Fuller, (5) Darrell Lanigan, (6) Shannon Babb, (7) John Blankenship, (8) Matt Parks, (9) Donnie Moran, (10) Shane Clanton, (11) Rick Eckert, (12) Jeff Smith, (13) Josh Richards, (14) Scott Haus, (15) Jeremy Miller, (16) Tim Fedder, (17) Eric Zembower, (18) Danny Johnson, (19) Kirk Ryan Jr., (20) Alan Sagi, (21) Jere Wierman, (22) Vic Coffey, (23) Jim Yoder, (24) Jason Covert. Fast qualifier (among 55 cars): Richards, 20.052 seconds. Heat race winners: Richards, C. Smith, Fuller, Lanigan. Consolation winners: J. Smith, Covert. Provisional starters: Clanton, D. Johnson, Zembower.
