Eric Wells scored his first-ever World of Outlaws Late Model Series victory Sunday at Duck River Raceway Park. Photo courtesy WoO LMS Media
Eric Wells will never forget his first-ever World of Outlaws Late Model Series victory.
The tour rookie from Hazard, KY, inherited the lead on lap 47 when the top-three cars were swept up in a tangle with a lapped machine, then outran defending WoO LMS champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., to capture Sunday night’s 50-lap A-Main at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, TN.
“We had a pretty good car from the drop of the green,” said Wells, who earned a career-high paycheck of $10,800. “I don’t think I had the car to win if not for the misfortune of (the top three), but sometimes you gotta have luck on your side and tonight we did. I couldn’t be any happier to win a World of Outlaws race this early in our first season (as a regular).”
Wells, 24, suddenly found himself in the top spot after race-long leader Josh Richards of Shinnston, WV, second-place Scott James of Bright, IN, and third-place Rick Eckert of York, PA, crashed together on the homestretch while lapping Mark Gant of Savannah, TN. The Bluegrass State driver sidestepped the scramble and never flinched over the final three circuits of the rough-and-tumble race, pulling away in his father David’s Team Zero by Bloomquist mount to defeat Lanigan’s Rocket by 0.696 of a second.
Tim McCreadie of Watertown, NY, finished third in the Sweeteners Plus Warrior car, a couple of car lengths behind Lanigan. Tyler Reddick, a 17-year-old native Californian who now races out of DuQuoin, IL, recorded a WoO LMS career-best finish of fourth in a Team Zero by Bloomquist car and Tim Fuller of Watertown, NY, placed fifth in the Kennedy Motorsports Capital Race Car after starting 23rd because a broken battery box during heat action forced him to use a provisional to gain entry to the A-Main.
Wells fulfilled the promise he showed in February when he registered a pair of top-five finishes during the season-opening eight-race stretch of WoO LMS competition in Georgia and Florida. His triumph made him the fifth driver in WoO LMS history to win an A-Main while chasing the Rookie of the Year honor, joining Fuller (’07), Brian Shirley (’07), Austin Hubbard (’10) and Bub McCool (’12).
“Coming here today I was pretty down on (racing at Duck River) with the weather conditions and the muddy pits and everything,” said Wells, alluding to a night of action that many doubted would happen due to the heavy rain that saturated the quarter-mile oval and its grounds on Saturday and into Sunday morning. “I definitely have a different outlook on it tonight. I’ve been telling everybody I’m not really sure about this track, but I think it might be alright now.”
Wells, who started 12th, appeared to be in line for a fourth-place until the dramatic turn of events on lap 47. He couldn’t believe his eyes when, about a half-straightaway ahead of him, Richards tangled with Gant off turn four, nosed into the outside wall just past the flagstand and collected James and Eckert.
“I seen a mess here on the frontstretch and the track was blocked,” said Wells, whose previous career-high WoO LMS finish was fourth, on Feb. 21 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, FL. “I got on the brakes and tried to stay out of trouble. I just headed for the infield to try and stay out of it and keep our stuff in one piece. We slipped through that one and ended up with a win.”
While Wells had plenty of time to think about the high-profile challengers behind him during the red flag period that followed the multi-car accident, he was flawless over the race’s final three circuits.
“Being up front I could run my own line,” said Wells, whose victory came in his 20th career WoO LMS A-Main start. “On that restart we fired up good, and the last three laps everything went our way.
Lanigan, 42, settled for a runner-up finish after starting fifth and spending much of the distance running quietly just outside the top five. He competed just hours after traveling to Duck River from Florence, KY, where he was by his fiancée Erin Dailey’s side as she gave birth Sunday morning to the couple’s first child, a 7-pound, 14-ounce girl named Liala.
Richards, 25, absorbed the event’s toughest blow, finishing ninth after the lap-47 incident erased his dominant performance. With the exception of a brief challenge from WoO LMR rookie Dillon Wood of New Smyrna Beach, FL, who reached second place on a lap-29 restart and stayed close to Richards until stopping on lap 37 due to a broken yoke on his car’s transmission, no one threatened the two-time tour champion and current points leader.
“I feel like we definitely had the best car, but the lapped car got into us,” said Richards, who was seeking his third WoO LMS win of 2013. “I was underneath one of the lapped cars and he kept on turning down, turning down, and we got together and we all crashed.
“It was definitely a bad night. It’s hard to get in position to have a car that good and win a race, but you can’t let it get to you. We’ll go home, fix the front clip and see what we can do at the next races.”
Shane Clanton of Zebulon, GA, who entered Sunday’s program hot off a WoO LMS win on Friday night at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, TN, that pulled him within four points of Richards in the WoO LMS standings, stood to benefit greatly from Richards’s late-race problem. He was set to restart in sixth place – even after pitting to change a flat left-rear tire on lap 29 – but a right-rear flat tire forced him to pit again before the final restart and he finished 13th.
Eight caution flags slowed the event, most for slowed or stopped cars.
Chub Frank of Bear Lake, PA, finished sixth despite pitting to change a flat tire on laps 17 and 29. WoO LMS rookie Morgan Bagley of Longview, Texas, advanced from the 17th starting spot to place seventh; Clint Smith of Senoia, GA, who switched to his backup car after his primary machine was struck by terminal motor trouble during time trials, survived to finish eighth; Richards was ninth; and Josh Putnam of Killen, AL, rounded out the top 10.
Thirty cars were signed in for the first-ever WoO LMS event at Duck River, which attracted a near capacity crowd despite rain continuing to threaten the area on Sunday night. A brief shower did hit the track just before the start of the first heat, delaying the program for roughly 90 minutes.
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Lanigan set a new track record of 11.970 seconds in Ohlins Shocks Time Trials to earn his first fast-time honor of 2013. He eclipsed the previous Duck River standard of 12.171 seconds set last November by Vic Hill of Morristown, Tenn.
Heat winners were Richards, Eckert and Vicksburg, Miss.’s McCool, who went on to run second in the A-Main before dropping out on lap 29 due to a broken oil line. Putnam topped the B-Main.
The WoO LMS will continue a four-weekend stretch of racing in the Southeast with a doubleheader in Georgia, visiting Lavonia Speedway on Fri., May 3, and Swainsboro Raceway on Sat., May 4.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Duck River Raceway Park – Wheel, TN
Race Results – April 28, 2013
1. (12) Eric Wells/50 $10,800
2. (5) Darrell Lanigan/50 $5,650
3. (9) Tim McCreadie/50 $3,650
4. (7) Tyler Reddick/50 $3,000
5. (23) Tim Fuller/50 $2,550
6. (14) Chub Frank/50 $2,400
7. (17) Morgan Bagley/50 $1,950
8. (18) Clint Smith/50 $1,850
9. (2) Josh Richards/50 $1,850
10. (19) Josh Putnam/50 $1,100
11. (3) Scott James/50 $1,600
12. (1) Rick Eckert/50 $1,650
13. (8) Shane Clanton/50 $1,500
14. (10) Mark Gant/45 $900
15. (6) Dillon Wood/36 $900
16. (4) Bub McCool/36 $1,400
17. (16) Brad Skinner/35 $770
18. (13) Ray Cook/21 $750
19. (15) Jay Brinkley/21 $730
20. (22) David Seibers/12 $700
21. (11) Scott Bloomquist/6 $700
22. (20) Mark Fields/4 $700
23. (24) Scott Cook/2 $775
24. (21) Steve Casebolt Jr./2 $700
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