River Cities Speedway
Smith gets first WoO win as Babb runs out of room
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Brady Smith (2) held off Shannon Babb (18). (ornesscreations.com)
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (July 11) — Brady Smith will always remember his first career victory on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. The Solon Springs, Wis., driver came out on top of a classic 50-lapper at River Cities Speedway, holding off a frenetic last-lap bid by Shannon Babb that had the quarter-mile oval’s big crowd holding their collective breath. | Slideshow
Concluding a battle that raged for virtually the entire distance, Smith and Moweaqua, Ill.’s Babb crossed the finish line straddling a lapped car. Babb blew off the outside of turn four with a head of steam and attempted to squeeze between the slower machine and the outside wall, but he ran out of room and flashed under the checkered flag with the right-front wheel of his Bowyer Dirt Motorsports car climbing the concrete wall. The 31-year-old Smith hit the stripe on the inside of the track a scant 0.121 of a second before Babb — while rubbing doors with the lapped car driven by Joey Pederson of East Grand Forks, Minn.
Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., finished less than a second behind the leaders in third, and Kelly Boen of Henderson, Colo., registered a career-best WoO finish of fourth after overtaking Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., on the final lap. Lanigan’s fifth-place finish pushed his streak of consecutive top-five runs to 12 and padded his points lead a bit more.
“That race had to be exciting for the fans,” said Smith, who earned $10,650, including a $500 bonus as the top-finishing non-series regular. “I know it was an exciting race for me. I worked hard for it.”
Smith started from the pole position, but he was outgunned for the lead at the initial green flag by front-row mate Babb. It took Smith until lap 26 to slip by Babb for the lead, steering to the front of the pack with an inside move in lapped traffic. Though Smith never officially relinquished the lead for the remainder of the race, he nearly handed it to Babb on lap 40. Smith bobbled between turns three and four and watched Babb slide under him to move ahead, but he yanked his car hard to the inside and crossed Babb off the corner to maintain command at the flagstand.
“I jumped the cushion that one time,” said Smith. “I got my right front just a little too high and lost my momentum. My car was just a tick tight, and I didn’t hit it quite right that one lap.”
With the event ending with 14 consecutive laps of green-flag racing, Smith found himself running three-wide for the lead off turn two on lap 43 with Babb and an inside-hugging Clanton. The following circuit Clanton, who started seventh, cleared Babb to seize second place. But Babb refused to give up. Tossing his Traeger Grills-sponsored Rocket around the track’s outside groove, he inched by Clanton to reclaim second on lap 48 and drew up to Smith’s rear bumper as the white flag was displayed.
On the final lap Smith ran low through turns three and four to pass Pederson's slower car, presenting Babb an opening to take a last-ditch shot at the lead on the top. Babb appeared to have sufficient momentum to reach the finish line first as he exited turn four, but his charge was thwarted because he didn’t have quite enough space between the lapped car and the homestretch wall.
“I knew Shannon was there,” Smith said. “I saw him underneath me a couple times, and I thought if I just rode high, I’d be OK to win the race. But as I was sizing that lapped car up down the backstraightaway, I saw him start creeping to the middle (into turn three) so I committed to the bottom. I had to go low because I figured Shannon would be coming. I didn’t know he’d get that good of a run off of four on the outside.”
With Smith, Pederson and Babb racing to the finish line under a blanket, there was only so much real estate available. Babb was the one who lost out, hitting the wall just yards shy of the finish line and thus scrubbing off enough speed to stop him from beating Smith.
“It could’ve got real ugly there,” said Smith, whose best previous WoO finish was a third on July 29, 2006, at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. “I don’t know if (Babb) lifted or not, but I know I was rubbing together with the lapped car and I could see him out there too.”
Babb’s car bounced across the finish line and he immediately drove it off the track in turn one. He limped back to the pit area with damage to the left-side bodywork of the machine and a broken right-front spindle. “A door opened up and I went for it — and then it closed,” Babb said. “We ran out of racing room there. Coming out of four I was just gonna try to beat (Smith) to the line off the outside, but I saw that lapped car move up a little and I was just thinking, ‘I’m done.’ ”
It was the second straight year that Babb put on a show but fell short of victory in WoO action at River Cities. In June 2007 he started 23rd after moving into a backup car and finished a fast-closing third. “I got into traffic that one time (on lap 26) and he got by me,” said Babb, recalling how he lost the lead. “I was thinking I was still gonna get back by him, but every time I was setting him up a caution came out. There were like three cautions one after another (laps 27, 31 and 36) after the first half of the race ran non-stop, and that hurt me. I just needed to race more. It’s disappointing to come so close, but it was a fun race.”
Smith certainly enjoyed the action. “Right now this is the second favorite win of my career,” said Smith, who ranks his $35,000 Knoxville (Iowa) Late Model Nationals victory in 2007 as his greatest triumph. “To win against this level of competition – man, these guys are the best of the best. I’m just proud that we finally won a World of Outlaws race. It’s been a long time coming.”
Boen, 43, was the race’s surprise, pulling off a fourth-place finish in his first WoO start of the season. He got as high as third midway through. Lanigan also ran as high as third early before finding himself in a multi-car battle for fourth. Losing fourth to Boen on the final lap didn’t sit well with Lanigan, who made it clear to Boen following the race that he took exception to the physical pass.
Notes: The winner's Bloomquist Race Car is sponsored by Amsoil. ... The race was slowed by cautions on laps 27, 31 and 36. ... WoO's Wild West Tour continues Saturday, July 12, with an event at Estevan (Saskatchewan) Motor Speedway.
World of Outlaws @ River Cities: (1) Brady Smith, (2) Shannon Babb, (3) Shane Clanton, (4) Kelly Boen, (5) Darrell Lanigan, (6) Josh Richards, (7) Steve Francis, (8) Rick Eckert, (9) Jimmy Mars, (10) Tim Fuller, (11) Clint Smith, (12) Chub Frank, (13) Vic Coffey, (14) John Blankenship, (15) Brad Seng, (16) Joe Isabell, (17) Mike Balcaen, (18) Joey Pederson, (19) Jeff Isabell Jr., (20) Sean Beardsley, (21) Dustin Hapka, (22) Ricky Weiss, (23) Tom Corcoran, (24) Howie Schill, (25) Al Purkey. Fast qualifier (among 37 cars): Weiss, 12.179 seconds. Heat race winners: Clanton, Babb, Boen, Lanigan. Consolation winners: Pederson, Balcaen. Provisional starters: Isabell, Beardsley, Corcoran.
