Rick Eckert, seen here from earlier action, scored the World of Outlaws Late Model Series victory Friday night at Ponderosa Speedway. Photo by Troy Bregy
It took a visit to a track he had never even seen before for Rick Eckert to finally return to World of Outlaws Late Model Series victory lane.
Racing in front of a record crowd at Ponderosa Speedway in Juncton City, KY in the track’s first-ever WoO LMS event, Eckert of York, PA overtook race-long leader Darrell Lanigan of Union, KY amid heavy traffic on lap 30 of Friday’s main event and later survived heavy pressure from Shane Clanton of Zebulon, GA and Chub Frank of Bear Lake, PA in the closing laps of the 50-lap race.
After a lap-45 caution gave him clear track ahead, Eckert pulled away from Clanton and Frank and cruised through the final five laps on his way to earning $10,775 for his first WoO LMS victory since July 9, 2013.
“I was getting tired of hearing about that (winless streak),” said Eckert, the 2011 WoO LMS champion whose most recent series victory came at Gillette Thunder Speedway in Wyoming. “I snuck by Darrell there in traffic. When you’re the leader, traffic’s bad. I knew when I got to traffic there I seen Shane’s nose, but thankfully that caution came out.”
Clanton settled for the runner-up spot, 0.707 seconds behind Eckert at the finish. He survived lap-32 contact with Lanigan, who nearly spun while looking low in an attempt to retake the lead from Eckert. The damage to Lanigan’s car forced him out of the race and dropped him to a 21st-place finish.
The 12th-starting Frank finished third, matching his best WoO LMS finish of the season. Three-time WoO LMS champion Josh Richards of Shinnston, WV, finished fourth, moving him ahead of Lanigan for second in the series standings, 96 points behind Clanton. Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, GA, rounded out the race’s top five finishers.
Eckert’s long-awaited victory marks his first triumph since joining forces with Paul Crowl and Shawn and Lisa Martin of Viper Motorsports to field a Cornett-powered MasterSbilt by Huey machine on the WoO LMS tour this season. The new team struggled out of the gates this season, logging just four top 10s and no top fives in the year’s first 10 WoO LMS races. But the team has hit their stride of late with Friday’s victory giving Eckert back-to-back top-five WoO LMS finishes for the first time since August.
“We really struggled at the beginning of the year,” said Eckert, who last season finished second in the final WoO LMS standings while filling in for Richards in the Rocket Chassis house car. “I just couldn’t fit in these cars. We kept working on them, working on them, and the last couple weeks we made some big strides.”
Clanton did all he could to keep pace with Eckert during the race’s final laps, but his Weldbank Energy Capital Race Car was hampered by front-end damage from the contact with Clanton earlier in the race. The second-place result gives Clanton 11 tops fives and 12 top 10s in 13 WoO LMS races this season.
“Overall it was a good night to finish second with a torn-up race car,” said Clanton, who hasn’t won since winning four of seven races to start the WoO LMS season. “Hats off to Eckert. He needed that one as much as we did. We drove our heart out, just come up a little short.”
Looking to end a lengthy winless streak of his own, Frank charged forward during the second half of the race and appeared ready to challenge both Clanton and Eckert before the lap-45 caution gave the front-runners clear track. He was unable to mount a serious challenge on Clanton in the run to the finish, but the third-place result was a major improvement over his finishes of 12th and 17th during last weekend’s WoO LMS doubleheader in North Carolina.
“We had a good pretty good car tonight,” said Frank, who hasn’t won on the WoO LMS since Aug. 22, 2009. “The track actually was pretty racy. It got racy even though it had a little rubber on it and you could race on it pretty good. Restarts were key for us. The car’s back, so we’re looking forward to doing some more racing.”
James Rice of Verona, KY, advanced from his 14th starting spot to finish in the sixth position, while Eric Wells of Hazard, KY, rallied from 24th to seventh after having to use a provision to start the race. Kent Robinson of Bloomington, IN, was eighth at the finish with 19th-starting Brandon Kinzer of Allen, KY, and 16th-starting Michael Chilton of Salvisa, KY, rounding out the top 10 finishers.
The race was slowed by five cautions with a spin by Kinzer bringing out the first yellow flag with two laps completed. A lap-11 yellow waved for the slowing machine of Dustin Linville of Bryantsville, KY, who won a heat race and was running sixth before a broken driveshaft ended his run.
A scramble following Lanigan’s lap-31 troubles led to the race’s third caution and a four-car pileup back in the pack brought out another caution one lap later. The final caution on lap 45 occurred when Mason Zeigler of Chalk Hill, PA, slowed with a flat right-rear tire.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit WorldofOutlaws.com.
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
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Race Results – May 8, 2015
1. (3) Rick Eckert/50 $10,775
2. (4) Shane Clanton/50 $5,550
3. (12) Chub Frank/50 $3,550
4. (6) Josh Richards/50 $3,150
5. (5) Dale McDowell/50 $2,050
6. (14) James Rice/50 $2,200
7. (24) Eric Wells/50 $1,950
8. (10) Kent Robinson/50 $1,300
9. (19) Brandon Kinzer/50 $1,350
10. (16) Michael Chilton/50 $1,150
11. (9) Gregg Satterlee/50 $1,050
12. (15) Tim McCreadie/50 $1,650
13. (20) Frank Heckenast Jr./50 $1,500
14. (22) Josh Rice/50 $900
15. (23) Morgan Bagley/49 $1,400
16. (1) Mason Zeigler/45 $850
17. (7) Mike Marlar/42 $770
18. (11) Brad Neat/32 $750
19. (18) Chase Junghans/32 $1,280
20. (21) Brandon Overton/32 $1,450
21. (2) Darrell Lanigan/30 $1,350
22. (13) Justin Rattliff/30 $700
23. (8) Dustin Linville/11 $700
24. (18) Steve Francis/10 $800
Time of Race: 29 Mins., 46 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 0.707 Secs.
Yellow Flags: Five (laps 2, 11, 31, 32, 45)
Lap Leaders: Lanigan (1-29), Eckert (30-50)
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