Land of Legends Raceway
Canandaigua gives Kid Rocket another WoO win
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Josh Richards made it two in a row at Canandaigua. (Bill Moore Sr.)
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. (June 24) — This time Josh Richards made it look easy. Two days after pulling off a dramatic, come-from-behind victory in Canada, Richards rolled to a dominant flag-to-flag win before a standing-room-only crowd in theWorld of Outlaws Late Model Series Turner Automotive 40 presented by Ferris Mowers at Canandaigua Speedway.
The 20-year-old sensation from Shinnston, W.Va., raced off the pole position to register his second straight triumph on the WoO, following up his score on Sunday night at Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway. It was his fourth overall win this season, tying him with Billy Moyer for the tour lead in that category.
“I’ve seen everybody else get on these little waves and run really good, and it’s so fun when it happens to you,” said Richards, who has already matched his career-high single-season WoO win total achieved in 2007. “Everything is just going our way — we’ve been fast, and of course I’ve been lucky. I just want to keep riding this wave through Lernerville (Speedway’s Firecracker 100 this weekend) and the rest of the year, and hopefully we can catch Darrell (Lanigan) in the points. If we keep running like this, I think we’ll be all right.”
Richards drove his Rocket Chassis house car across the finish line with a commanding edge of 2.753 seconds – nearly a full straightaway – over Rick Eckert of York, Pa. Eckert challenged Richards briefly early, but his Raye Vest-owned GRT car wasn’t quick enough to keep pace with Kid Rocket as the race wore on.
Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., who spent several years as a big-block modified regular at Canandaigua, advanced from the 11th starting spot to finish third in the Sweeteners Plus Rocket, while WoO points leader Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., finished fourth after steering his GottaRace.com Rocket by the Lester Buildings Rocket driven by Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., on the final lap.
There were few worries during the event for Richards, who maintained a consistent speed from start-to-finish. “The car was just awesome,” said Richards, who earned $7,150 for his 10th career win on the WoO. “The only real problem I had was on the initial start. I drove (turns) three and four a little easier than I should have and I kinda pushed up the racetrack, so Chub was able to get by me. Luckily the caution came out (for a multi-car tangle between turns three and four) – and I didn’t do the same thing the next time.”
Richards essentially clinched the checkered flag when he executed a breathtaking explosion by three lapped cars in turn two on lap 21. The slower cars had allowed Eckert to draw close, but he never got a sniff of the top spot again after Richards gained some breathing room with his maneuver.
“When I caught up to them (the pack of three lapped cars), I was so zoned in that I just drove right in between them,” described Richards, who picked the pole position in the pre-race draw for the third consecutive A-Main. “The car just stuck like glue, and I was like, ‘Wow!’ I don’t think I could’ve done that too many more times, though.”
The move was a tell-tale sign of how comfortable Richards was at Canandaigua, a sweeping half-mile oval that hosted the WoO for the first time. “I like tracks like this where you can just focus, hit your marks every lap and keep up your momentum,” said Richards, who closed within 30 points of Lanigan in the WoO standings. “This place races a lot like Volusia (Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.), and we’ve always been real good there. There’s less bank here, but the way the backstretch is shaped and the way you drive into one, you can refer to Volusia a lot.”
Eckert, 42, slid from the third starting spot to second on the opening-lap restart and stayed there for the race’s entire distance, but Richards was too much for him. “I was too loose the whole race,” Eckert said of his orange machine’s handling. “I thought I might have a chance when I caught (Richards) in lapped traffic, but he made some good moves to get around those cars and I got stuck behind them.”
The 34-year-old McCreadie – a crowd favorite thanks to his days in Canandaigua’s big-block modified ranks – made the biggest move forward. But his charge stalled after he reached third place on lap 18. “My car just got too tight,” said McCreadie, who initially closed in on Eckert after taking third but steadily lost ground over the final third of a race that ran caution-free from lap 11 to the finish. “When you get tight here you can’t keep your momentum up when you run the top through the corners. I’ve run this place enough that I should’ve known better than to tighten up (the car) before the feature, but what’s done is done.”
Lanigan, 38, continued his sterling run of consistency, quietly moving from the eighth starting spot to a fourth-place finish. He slipped underneath Frank rounding turns three and four on the last lap and beat the Pennsy star back to the finish line by a scant 0.039 of a second. It was the ninth consecutive top-five finish for Lanigan, whose streak has taken him from fifth place in the points standings (64 points out of first) to a 30-point lead.
Notes: The winning Rocket Chassis has a Cornett engine and sponsorship from Seubert Calf Ranches and Mark Richards Racing. ... The feature was slowed by just three cautions. ... Among drivers joining the tour in New York was Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., driving the T&R Logging No. 17H previously driven by West Virginia driver Jared Hawkins. ... The race marked the Dirt Late Model debut of Larry Wight, a 15-year-old DIRTcar modified racer from Baldwinsville, N.Y. Wight's father John owns the teams of Tim Fuller and Billy Decker. ... Shane Clanton rebounded to finish 11th after clipping the inside wall in turn two on the 11th lap. ... Consolation winner Tony Knowles advanced 10 positions to notch his first career WoO top-10 finish. ... WoO's Great Northern Tour continues with Wednesday's stop at Big Diamond Raceway in Minersville, Pa., before ending with the $40,000-to-win Firecracker 100 presented by GottaRace.com on June 27-28 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.
World of Outlaws @ Canandaigua: (1) Josh Richards, (2) Rick Eckert, (3) Tim McCreadie, (4) Darrell Lanigan, (5) Chub Frank, (6) Clint Smith, (7) Shane Clanton, (8) Steve Francis, (9) Tony Knowles, (10) Tim Fuller, (11) Shannon Babb, (12) Billy Decker, (13) Vic Coffey, (14) Brent Rhebergen, (15) John Blankenship, (16) Greg Oakes, (17) Danny Johnson, (18) Rich Gardner, (19) Ricky Elliott, (20) Mike Marlar, (21) Joe Isabell, (22) Dan Stone, (23) David Scott, (24) Jeremy Miller. Fast qualifier (among 34 cars): Babb, 18.351 seconds. Heat race winners: Babb, Francis, C. Smith. Consolation winner: Knowles. Provisional starters: Isabell, Miller.
