Cornwall Motor Speedway
Kid Rocket reaches goal of Canadian victory
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Josh Richards celebrates at Cornwall. (Robert Lefebvre)
CORNWALL, Ontario (June 22) — Josh Richards is now an international superstar. The young sensation known as Kid Rocket achieved a personal goal on Sunday night, winning on Canadian soil for the first time with a memorable rally in the 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series portion of the First Americans IGA Triple Crown of Racing at Cornwall Motor Speedway.
Richards, 20, of Shinnston, W.Va., slipped back to third early after starting from the pole, but he came on to grab the lead from Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., on lap 40 and roll to his third WoO victory of the season.
“One of my goals was to win a race in Canada this year,” said Richards, who earned $10,150 for his ninth career series triumph. “It’s so cool to race in front of these fans up here. As a driver, you love it when the fans get into the racing.”
Richards also loved the way he pulled out a victory on the high-banked, quarter-mile oval, a longtime DIRTcar-sanctioned track that drew a standing-room-only crowd for the first-ever visit by the WoO. “It’s awesome to win like that,” Richards said of his come-from-behind effort in the Seubert Calf Ranches Rocket car. “We started on the pole, but we didn’t just lead every lap like we have in the past. It’s so much more fun to actually race your way to the front and beat the best guys in the country.”
Richards battled through some lapped traffic in the race’s closing moments to defeat McCreadie’s Sweeteners Plus Rocket No. 39 by 0.612 of a second. McCreadie, who started third and led laps 18-39, recorded his second runner-up finish in as many nights on the Great Northern Tour.
Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., finished third in the RSD Enterprises Rocket after racing off the outside pole to lead laps 1-17. WoO points leader Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., continued to rack up top-five finishes with a fourth-place run in the GottaRace.com Rocket, and Rick Eckert of York, Pa., place fifth in Raye Vest’s GRT car one night after posting his first WoO victory of the season at Quebec’s Autodrome Drummond.
The night’s action was marred by a grinding crash during hot laps involving Boom Briggs of Bear Lake, Pa. His car dug into the track surface when he slid into turn three for the first time, sending him into a wild series of flips. Briggs, who won the 2004 WoO Crew Chief of the Year Award when he worked for Chub Frank, was shaken up by the rough ride. He climbed from the cockpit with some assistance from safety workers and walked back to his trailer, but he was later transported to a local hospital for a checkup.
World of Outlaws @ Cornwall: (1) Josh Richards, (2) Tim McCreadie, (3) Shane Clanton, (4) Darrell Lanigan, (5) Rick Eckert, (6) Shannon Babb, (7) Billy Decker, (8) John Blankenship, (9) Clint Smith, (10) Steve Francis, (11) Chub Frank, (12) Danny Johnson, (13) Tim Fuller, (14) Neil Baggett, (15) Dan Stone, (16) Sean Beardsley, (17) Adam Ferri, (18) Tony Knowles, (19) Joe Isabell, (20) Ricky Elliott, (21) Jeremy Miller, (22) Peter Mantha Jr., (23) Greg Oakes. Fast qualifier (among 24 cars): Decker, 13.017 seconds. Heat race winners: Fuller, Clanton, Lanigan.
