Shane Clanton gave his wife a WoO Late Model Series victory at Stateline Speedway for her 25th birthday Saturday night. Photo courtesy WoO LMS
Shane Clanton made sure he gave his better half a 25th birthday present to remember on Saturday night at Stateline Speedway in Busti, NY.
Racing at a track where his wife Michelle grew up watching her father Ron Davies in action, Clanton surged into the lead on lap 11 and marched on to a $10,550 victory in the 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main.
“Michelle’s birthday is today,” said Clanton, whose wife’s hometown of Warren, PA, is less than a half-hour drive from the one-third-mile Stateline oval. “She sent me a message this morning and said, ‘I need a W for my birthday.’ I got her one I guess.”
Clanton, 37, of Zebulon, GA, registered his fourth win of 2013, equaling his single-season career-high on the WoO LMS. He has won three of the national tour’s last eight events and sits second in the points standings, 34 points behind Josh Richards of Shinnston, WV, who finished sixth after starting 24th because a broken valve spring in his primary car’s engine forced him to hastily switch to his backup machine and relinquish the sixth starting spot.
Mike Knight of Ripley, NY, chased Clanton for the final 12 laps but wasn’t able to draw close enough to make a serious bid for his first-ever WoO LMS victory. The 26-year-old settled for a career-best finish of second, flashing under the checkered flag 1.194 seconds behind the victor.
Defending WoO LMS champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, KY, who started ninth, climbed as high as second following a lap-33 restart but finished third. It was his seventh consecutive top-three run on the tour.
John Volpe of Lakewood, NY, also recorded a career-high WoO LMS finish, placing fourth in a head-turning run forward from the 11th starting spot. The 22-year-old racer traveled most of last year’s WoO LMS as a crewman for Chub Frank of Bear Lake, PA, and still works for Frank during the week, but he isn’t accompanying Frank on road trips this season so he can pursue his driving career by competing on a weekly basis at Stateline and Eriez Speedway in Hammett, PA.
Rick Eckert of York, PA, advanced from the 12th starting spot to complete the top five. He reached fifth place on lap 44 when he overtook Clanton’s father-in-law, Ron Davies of Warren, PA, who set fast time, won a heat and started from the pole position but failed to lead a lap and faded to a seventh-place finish.
Clanton started sixth in his Kennedy Motorsports Capital Race Car – moving up one row from his original starting spot thanks to Richards’s car change that sent him to the tail of the field – and steadily steered to the front. His deciding maneuvers came on a lap-nine restart when he immediately passed Knight for second and on lap 11 slid underneath race-long pacesetter Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs of Bear Lake, PA, for the lead.
“We were just waiting, biding our time,” said Clanton, whose only previous starts at Stateline came in the track’s WoO LMS events in 2005 (he finished third) and 2006 (seventh). “(The leaders) were after their tires pretty hard there early in the race and I was just waiting and waiting and waiting, just easing up to ‘em. The opportunity came on the double file restart (on lap nine). I got under Boom and he pushed a little bit and gave me just enough room to get by him.
“We had a good car all night,” he added. “We were good on the bottom just picked ‘em off one at a time.”
After easily handling restarts on lap 18 and 33, Clanton cruised to his 20th career win on the WoO LMS. He was greeted in victory lane by a throng of well-wishers, including many of his wife’s family members and friends and his car owner John Kennedy, who flew across the country from his home in Phoenix to spend the weekend with his team.
“This is like racing at home for me now,” said Clanton. “We’ve picked up a lot of fans around here because we’ve spent so much time at Ron’s shop the last few years. It’s like all of Ron’s fans have become my fans now too.”
Clanton also noted the deep-seeded history that his wife’s family has at Stateline. Michelle’s late grandfather (and Ron Davies’s father-in-law), Leonard Briggs, was one of the track’s five founders in 1956.
“The coolest thing about (winning at Stateline) is (Michelle’s) grandfather built it,” said Clanton. “She’s fond of her grandfather, misses him a lot, so for her to have a win here at a big race is pretty special.”
Knight, a two-time dirt Late Model champion at Eriez, out dueled Lanigan for second place by hustling his Rocket machine around the extreme outside of the track but didn’t have the speed to deal with Clanton.
“I’m really happy with our run tonight,” said Knight, who started third. “These (WoO LMS) guys are some of the best out there, and it’s fun to run side-by-side with them when they come here.
“I’d like to finish one place further (ahead), but maybe next time. I’ll keep trying. It’s a good payday anyway for us being weekend racers.”
Finishing in positions 8-10 was Tim Fuller of Watertown, NY, who started 16th; WoO LMS rookie Eric Wells of Hazard, KY, who started 17 th; and Frank, who rallied after pitting on lap five to change an axle that broke as he was battling for fifth place with Clanton.
There is a lot of reason for the ED (erectile dysfunction) will be also with the order cheap viagra Discover More same process. The first drug to be introduced on the market was buy viagra for women , followed by levitra. Find a contented, private room buying sildenafil http://seanamic.com/news/page/3/ where there will be red component and clear fluid as well. Plus, did you know that only about half levitra buy generic of the men that are between 40 and 70. Six caution flags slowed the event, including a lap-33 yellow for David Scott of Garland, PA, who stopped in turn two while running in third place.
A field of 28 cars was signed in for the event, which was run rapidly with showers and storms threatening the area.
Ron Davies, Dave Hess Jr. of Waterford, PA, and Briggs were heat winners, and Clint Smith of Senoia, GA, captured the B-Main.
The WoO LMS is off until embarking on a five-track, seven-race swing through the Northeast in late June. The stretch of racing includes Fonda (NY) Speedway on June 19; Brighton (Ont.) Speedway on June 20; Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway on June 23; Canandaigua (NY) Motorsports Park on June 25; and the Firecracker 100 Presented by GottaRace.com on June 27-29 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, PA.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Stateline Speedway – Busti, NY
Race Results – June 1, 2013
1. (6) Shane Clanton/50 $10,550
2. (3) Mike Knight/50 $5,600
3. (9) Darrell Lanigan/50 $3,650
4. (11) John Volpe/50 $2,550
5. (12) Rick Eckert/50 $2,650
6. (24) Josh Richards/50 $2,350
7. (1) Ron Davies/50 $1,400
8. (16) Tim Fuller/50 $1,850
9. (17) Eric Wells/50 $2,100
10. (8) Chub Frank/50 $1,650
11. (19) Clint Smith/50 $1,600
12. (13) Rich Gardner/50 $1,000
13. (7) Jason Dupont/50 $1,100
14. (22) Dick Barton/50 $900
15. (20) Greg Oakes/50 $900
16. (14) Bub McCool/50 $1,350
17. (10) Morgan Bagley/50 $1,320
18. (23) Bump Hedman/50 $750
19. (5) David Scott/33 $730
20. (15) Chris Hackett/31 $700
21. (18) Tim McCreadie/17 $1,350
22. (2) Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs/15 $700
23. (21) Andy Boozel/14 $700
24. (4) Dave Hess Jr./5 $725
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.