Georgia’s Shane Clanton made history Saturday night, as he became the first driver history to win four of the five Late Model features at the annual Dirtcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park. Photo courtesy WoO LMS Media
Putting an exclamation mark on his tremendous DIRTcar Nationals performance, Shane Clanton of Zebulon, GA, led the final 19 laps of Saturday’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series main event to claim his fourth victory in five races at Volusia Speedway Park’s annual week of Super Late Model racing in Barberville, FL.
The utter domination solidifies Clanton’s recovery from a dismal 2014 season the saw the 39-year-old racer go winless on the WoO LMS for the first time since the national tour was restarted in 2004. Looking for his first ever WoO LMS championship, Clanton has firmly established himself as the 2015 title favorite as he leaves Florida with a commanding 90-point lead over defending series champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, KY.
“That was a good ole Georgia ass-kickin’ right there,” said Clanton whose early-season trip through Georgia and Florida included five victories overall with nine top-five finishes in 11 events between three tracks. “We were by far the class of the field. I don’t give a damn what anybody says. We worked our ass off all winter long. This feels good.”
Clanton became the first driver in the 44-year history of Volusia’s annual week-long stretch of February Late Model racing to claim four victories in the same year. The unprecedented performance began with a DIRTcar Late Model-sanctioned victory in Monday’s opener and concluded with a sweep of the week’s three WoO LMS programs.
The four triumphs and a fifth-place finish in Wednesday’s DIRTcar-sanctioned event lifted Clanton to the DIRTcar Nationals overall points championship, earning the WoO LMS veteran his first Big Gator trophy to go along with his four smaller Gator trophies earned throughout the week.
Jimmy Owens of Newport, TN, finished second in Saturday’s A-Main, 2.234 seconds behind Clanton at the finish of the 50-lap race. Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, TN, was third, while three-time and defending WoO LMS champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, KY, charged from his 22nd starting spot to finish fourth and 15th-starting Steve Francis of Ashland, KY, finished fifth.
Driving a Clements-powered Capital Race Car owned by his father-in-law Ron Davies, Clanton moved forward from his sixth starting spot and settled in behind polesitter Tim McCreadie of Watertown, NY, in the early going.
Clanton was content to ride behind McCreadie until the race’s waning laps, but a hard-charging Owens forced him to abandon those plans.
Owens briefly took the second spot from Clanton on a lap 24 restart, but Clanton quickly took the spot back and went to work on McCreadie. After Clanton’s lap 29 pass for the lead was nullified by a caution, he took advantage of McCreadie’s lap 32 slip in turns three and four to race ahead for good.
Clanton turned back brief challenges from Owens and Bloomquist on the race’s final two restarts and pulled away to the 24th WoO LMS victory of his career.
“I drove me heart out tonight just biding my time and making the right moves at the right time,” said Clanton, who has already equaled his winningest WoO LMS seasons of 2008 and 2013. “The pace tonight was just unbelievably fast. I was afraid I was gonna hurt my right-rear tire, so I just paced myself the first 15 or 20 laps. Owens got up to second there and I knew I had to go then. I just took the right moves and got back by him and made the right move to get by McCreadie.”
Owens appeared to be the class of the field when he charged by Clanton on lap 24, but his bid to claim his first career DIRTcar Nationals victory fell short to Clanton’s domination.
“I didn’t want to see them restarts,” said Owens, who drove his Brian Rowland-owned Club 29 machine to his first top five in three starts at Volusia this week. “Shane’s been in a different zip code all week, so I consider this a win instead of second.”
Bloomquist was the only driver besides Clanton to win a Late Model feature at this year’s DIRTcar Nationals with his DIRTcar-sanctioned triumph on Wednesday night. But his bid to drive his Sweet-Bloomquist Race Car to a second victory was denied.
“Shane really just had everybody covered tonight and he was good all week,” Bloomquist said. “We know when we get beat, and we got beat this weekend.”
McCreadie slid back to sixth at the finish with Kent Robinson of Bloomington, IN, seventh. Former WoO LMS Rookie of the Year Eric Wells of Hazard, KY, was eighth at the finish with fellow series regulars Chase Junghans of Manhattan, KS, and Boom Briggs of Bear Lake, PA, rounding out the top 10.
The race was slowed by six cautions, all for either flat tires or mechanical woes. The race’s first yellow flag came just after second-running Frank Heckenast, Jr. of Frankfort, IL, clipped the rear of Walker Arthur’s slowing machine. The contact caused significant damage to the left-front of the 2014 Rookie of the Year’s car, eventually forcing him out of the race.
Other potential contenders to fall by the wayside included Billy Moyer of Batesville, AR, who slowed from the fourth position with apparent engine troubles on lap 29. Mechanical issues also struck three-time WoO LMS champion Josh Richards of Shinnston, WV, ending his run from 18th to seventh on lap 38.
Saturday’s event concluded the WoO LMS tour’s stretch of seven events in Georgia and Florida to open the season. The series returns to action March 20-21 with a doubleheader weekend at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway in Calvert City, KY and I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, AR.
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DIRTcar Nationals
Volusia Speedway Park – Barberville, FL
Race Results – Feb. 21, 2015
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
1. (6) Shane Clanton/50 $10,100
2. (4) Jimmy Owens/50 $5,000
3. (12) Scott Bloomquist/50 $3,100
4. (22) Darrell Lanigan/50 $2,600
5. (15) Steve Francis/50 $2,100
6. (1) Tim McCreadie/50 $1,950
7. (3) Kent Robinson/50 $1,900
8. (5) Eric Wells/50 $1,350
9. (17) Chase Junghans/50 $1,300
10. (30) Boom Briggs/50 $550
11. (25) Morgan Bagley/50 $1,100
12. (9) Ricky Weiss/50 $1,050
13. (11) Chub Frank/50 $1,000
14. (29) Rick Eckert/50 $350
15. (27) Brandon Sheppard/50 $850
16. (7) Tyler Bruening/50 $800
17. (18) Josh Richards/37 $920
18. (20) Kenny Pettyjohn/37 $750
19. (21) Chad Hollenbeck/35 $730
20. (19) Dennis Erb Jr./30 $700
21. (8) Billy Moyer/29 $800
22. (13) Kyle Bronson/29 $700
23. (24) Jonathan Davenport/24 $700
24. (2) Frank Heckenast Jr./20 $750
25. (10) Mark Dotson/19 $700
26. (16) Walker Arthur/15 $700
27. (14) Jared Landers/13 $700
28. (26) Brandon Overton/12 $700
29. (23) Ivedent Lloyd Jr./10 $700
30. (26) Dale McDowell/2 $700
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