Big Diamond Speedway
Babb's bad break lifts Lanigan at Big Diamond
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Darrell Lanigan earned $7,000 at Big Diamond. (pbase.com/cyberslash)
MINERSVILLE, Pa. (June 25) — Everything is going Darrell Lanigan’s way on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Proof positive came midweek at Big Diamond Raceway, where Lanigan continued his surge to the top of the tour’s points standings with an eventful victory in the inaugural Jack Rich Coal Country 40. | Slideshow
Angry after being penalized two spots from his outside-pole starting position because officials ruled he jumped the race’s original green flag, Lanigan came back to secure his second WoO triumph of 2008 thanks to a little assist from Lady Luck. Lanigan, 38, of Union, Ky., appeared headed to a runner-up finish in his GottaRace.com Rocket when Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., saw his thrilling high-side charge to the front end with a flat left-rear tire on lap 34, putting Lanigan in the lead for good.
“I figured we’d run second and be happy with that,” said Lanigan, who earned $7,150 for his 10th career win on the WoO. “We got behind when (officials) put us back (to fourth) on that start, but it came back to us.”
Polesitter Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., chased Lanigan for the final six circuits but never offered a serious challenge, finishing second, 0.741 of a second behind his fellow WoO traveler. It was his best outing in the J.P. Drilling GRT car since opening the Great Northern Tour with a victory on June 17 at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway. Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., finished third in the Seubert Calf Ranches Rocket. He led laps 1-29 before losing the top spot — and two additional positions — when a scrape with Babb momentarily sent him sliding off the track in turn two, effectively ending his bid for a third straight WoO win. Completing the top five was eighth-starting Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., in the RSD Enterprises Rocket and sixth-starter Rick Eckert of York, Pa., in Raye Vest’s GRT mount.
The 34-year-old Babb, meanwhile, finished 10th — a tough pill to swallow for the driver who got the evening’s near-capacity crowd jumping with a show-stopping, cushion-pounding run to the front. Driving NASCAR Sprint Cup star Clint Bowyer’s Rocket No. 18, Babb found the outside lane of the 3/8-mile oval to his liking and used it to hustle forward from the seventh starting spot. He seemingly had completed his march when he slipped underneath Richards and nosed ahead at the start-finish line to lead lap 30.
After Babb executed a power-slide that forced Richards over the turn-two bank moments after the first lead change, the Illinois driver found himself with a healthy edge over Lanigan and ready to snap out of a recent funk on the tour. But Babb slowed to bring out the race’s sixth and final caution flag on lap 34, the victim of a flat left-rear tire. He ceded the lead to Lanigan while making a pit stop for new rubber.
“I went into (turn) one, got into the (rough) stuff at the top and pulled the left-rear tire off the rim,” Babb said of his heartbreaking misfortune on lap 34. “It was real disappointing after we got going so good on the outside, but actually our day was doomed anyway. Our right-rear (tire) had a rock hole in it and was losing air, so we probably wouldn’t have made it to the finish.”
Lanigan gladly stepped into the void left by Babb. He controlled the remainder of the distance to extend his streak of top-five finishes to 10 in a row – a run that has taken him from fifth place in the points standings (64 points out of first) to a 36-point lead over Richards through 18 events.
“I didn’t know if we’d be able to hold on for the last few laps,” said Lanigan, who had a coal-miner’s helmet placed on his head for Victory Lane photos. “I thought I could hear somebody back there a few times, but you always hear something when you’re leading. I was just happy to hold on and get a win after the way the race started.”
Smith, 43, couldn’t threaten Lanigan over the final sprint to the finish. “I was married to the bottom (lane),” said Smith, who slipped as far back as fifth. “I didn’t have the gear to run the top, so I basically had to follow Lanigan around at the end.” A second-place finish still sat well with him. “It was a lot of hard work and a lot of hard racing to get this finish."
For starters, Smith drove a car that needed extensive repairs after he was involved in an accident on Saturday night at Quebec’s Autodrome Drummond. He also dropped in his smaller 412 cubic inch engine after hurting his stronger piece the previous night at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Speedway, and he had to survive some metal-rubbing exchanges with Jason Covert of York Haven, Pa.
Richards, 20, was unable to recover after his run-in with Babb knocked him from the lead. He didn’t blame Babb for his fate, however. “During the caution (on lap 29 for Danny Johnson’s flat tire) my dad showed me ‘elbows up,’ which means, ‘Go to the top,’ ” said Richards. “He only meant to run the top in one and two, but I thought he meant to run the top in three and four, too. I went to the top in three and four and that let Babb get under me. I saw Babb lead that lap (30), so I just tried to drive in there (turns one and two) as hard as I could. I got outside of him, but he slid up into me and pushed me over the bank.
“I don’t hold anything against him for it,” he added. “It was just hard racing. He’s extremely competitive and wanted to win just like I did, and I know he didn’t do it on purpose.”
Clanton, 32, was the race’s early outside hustler, moving from eighth to third in just five laps. But he slid high in turn two on a lap-17 restart, fell to fifth and never fully recovered. “When the (top) started getting rough, I was done,” said Clanton. “I didn’t have the right shocks on to get through the holes, so I’m happy to get a fourth out of it.”
The 42-year-old Eckert quietly recorded his fifth consecutive top-five finish on the Great Northern Tour. “I was too tight in (the corners),” said Eckert. “Some of those guys could run wide open through the middle, but I had no traction.”
The race’s most serious incident came on lap three when several cars stacked up in turn two, including 2007 WoO Rookie of the Year Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y.; Dan Stone of Thompson, Pa.; and Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., who drove the Tracy Seymour-owned No. 17H. All three drivers had their cars towed off with significant damage.
World of Outlaws @ Big Diamond: (1) Darrell Lanigan, (2) Clint Smith, (3) Josh Richards, (4) Shane Clanton, (5) Rick Eckert, (6) Steve Francis, (7) John Blankenship, (8) Jason Covert, (9) Chub Frank, (10) Shannon Babb, (11) Ricky Elliott, (12) D.J. Myers, (13) Jim Yoder, (14) Jim Bernheisel, (15) Vic Coffey, (16) Joe Isabell, (17) Danny Johnson, (18) Scott Haus, (19) Jeff Rine, (20) Mike Marlar, (21) Dan Stone, (22) Tim Fuller, (23) Jeremy Miller, (24) Jeff Strunk, (25) Chad McClellan. Fast qualifier (among 34 cars): Marlar, 16.235 seconds. Heat race winners: Babb, Lanigan, Richards, Francis. Consolation winners: Rine, Bernheisel. Provisional starters: Isabell, Miller, Strunk.
