Brandon Sheppard outran Josh Richards to score the opening night WoO LMS victory at Cedar Lake Speedway on Thursday. Photo courtesy WoO LMS Media
The greatest summer of Brandon Sheppard’s life grew even better on Thursday night at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, WI.
Building on the career-first DIRTcar Summer Nationals ‘Hell Tour’ title he clinched less than two weeks ago, Sheppard drove to a convincing $6,000 victory in the 40-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main that kicked off the 26th annual USA Nationals weekend.
Sheppard, 20, of New Berlin, IL, started from the pole position and controlled the entire distance. He hammered his family-owned Rocket car around the top side of the high-banked, three-eighths-mile oval to register his second career WoO LMS triumph without receiving a single serious challenge.
“We’ve been working hard a lot of years, me and my dad (veteran racer Steve Sheppard Jr.), to try and accomplish that Summer Nationals deal,” said Sheppard, who became the youngest champion in the history of the famed ‘Hell Tour.’ “To finally do it was really uplifting for me. It was almost like a weight lifted off my shoulders. There’s not as much pressure now. We can go out there and know we can run with them all the time.”
WoO LMS points leader Josh Richards of Shinnston, WV, crossed the finish line 2.051 seconds behind Sheppard in his Rocket Chassis house car after slipping by Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, IL, for the runner-up spot on lap 37. Babb settled for third place in his Victory Circle mount, Don O’Neal of Martinsville, IN, placed fourth in Larry Moring’s MasterSbilt car and World of Outlaws rookie Eric Wells of Hazard, KY, finished fifth after starting from the outside pole.
The night belonged to Sheppard, who two years ago made a stirring run into the top five in the USA Nationals 100 before breaking and last year entered the event in the Rocket Chassis house car that he drove for much of the 2012 season while Richards raced on the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Driving a 2007-vintage car that his team purchased two years ago from fellow Illinois driver Brian Shirley, Sheppard thrust himself onto the list of favorites to capture the $50,000 top prize on the line in Saturday night’s 100-lap USA Nationals finale.
“This is by far my favorite racetrack,” said Sheppard, who reached victory lane for the first time at the Badger State facility. “Since the day I came here, I’ve loved it. It’s super racing. It’s hammer-down, get-up-on-the-wheel, run-the-cushion – just like our Midwest tracks. I definitely get along with it pretty good, so we’re looking forward to tomorrow and Saturday.”
Sheppard dominated the preliminary event, leading by as much as a straightaway when not slowed by lapped traffic. Caution flags on laps 18 and 29 cleared slower cars out of the picture for B-Shepp and then he took care of the rest.
“I just knew that I had to stay up on the wheel and run every lap as hard as I could – just stay consistent and not mess up,” said Sheppard, whose previous WoO LMS victory came behind the wheel of the Rocket Chassis house car on Sept. 14, 2012, at Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, IL. “That’s what you gotta do when you’re running against this much competition.
“Now that we know that we can do it, there’s gonna be the same amount of competition tomorrow night and Saturday night – and maybe a couple more (drivers) – so we’re real confident.”
Richards, 25, was able to slice more than a half-second off Sheppard’s lead after finally grabbing second place from Babb on lap 37, but the two-time WoO LMS champion didn’t have enough time to catch his rising-star understudy.
“At end of the race I was way too tight to run the top so it forced me to work with the bottom,” said Richards, who started fifth. “I found a pretty good line there slow on the bottom and I felt like we were pretty good. I feel like if it was a 50-lapper we might have had something for him.
“But Brandon did a great job. If we couldn’t win, he’s the next person I’d like to see win. It’s good to see the young guys win. It’s good for the sport.”
The second-place finish pushed Richards’s WoO LMS points lead to 78 points over Shane Clanton of Zebulon, GA, who finished sixth after starting 13th. That gap will not change the rest of the weekend since the USA Nationals 100 offers only show-up points because it will not be run using the normal WoO LMS qualifying format.
Darrell Lanigan of Union, KY, finished seventh after starting 14th, falling 98 points behind Richards in the WoO LMS standings. Rick Eckert of York, PA, used a points provisional to start 25th in the A-Main but battled forward to finish eighth. WoO LMS rookie Morgan Bagley of Longview, Texas, settled for a ninth-place finish after starting sixth and Jason Feger of Bloomington, IL, rounded out the top 10 in his first WoO LMS start following the conclusion of the three-month suspension from WoO and DIRTcar UMP competition he served after a tire he used during April’s Illini 100 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway failed a laboratory test.
Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, GA, brought out the race’s first caution flag on lap 18 when – while running sixth – he stopped in turn two with flames visible under his hood. He said a pressure tube out of his Team Dillon car’s fuel-pressure gauge apparently vibrated and caused the back of the gauge to break, leading to an arc off the gauge light that sent fire into his cockpit. A flame was visible on McDowell’s leg when he climbed out of his car, but it was quickly extinguished and he wasn’t burned.
Later, on lap 29, Tim McCreadie of Watertown, NY, slowed in turn four with damage to the right-front suspension of his Sweeteners Plus car. It appeared that he got the worst of a Clanton/Feger scrape underneath him as all three drivers battled for a spot inside the top 10.
Fifty-two cars were entered in the program, which was run under almost perfect clear and seasonably warm conditions.
Ohlins Shocks Time Trials were split into ‘A’ and ‘B’ groups, with the first half competing for starting positions in heats 1-3 and the second half racing against the clock to align heats 4-6.
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Heat winners were Wells, Richards, O’Neal, Babb, Bagley and Sheppard. The B-Mains were captured by Pat Doar of New Richmond, WI, Ronny Lee Hollingsworth of Northport, AL, and Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
World Of Outlaws Late Models
Cedar Lake Speedway – New Richmond, WI
Race Results – Aug. 1, 2013
1. (1) Brandon Sheppard/40 $6,000
2. (5) Josh Richards/40 $3,150
3. (4) Shannon Babb/40 $2,050
4. (3) Don O’Neal/40 $2,250
5. (2) Eric Wells/40 $1,950
6. (13) Shane Clanton/40 $1,450
7. (14) Darrell Lanigan/40 $1,450
8. (25) Rick Eckert/40 $1,350
9. (6) Morgan Bagley/40 $1,250
10. (15) Jason Feger/40 $1,050
11. (8) A.J. Diemel/40 $950
12. (17) Bobby Pierce/40 $900
13. (23) Tim Fuller/40 $900
14. (16) Devin Moran/40 $800
15. (26) Chub Frank/39 $875
16. (22) Brian Shirley/33 $750
17. (11) Tim McCreadie/28 $850
18. (29) Bub McCool/28 $160
19. (9) Chris Simpson/27 $640
20. (24) Tim Isenberg/25 $620
21. (10) Jonathan Davenport/19 $600
22. (7) Dale McDowell/18 $600
23. (28) Dennis Erb Jr./16 $600
24. (20) Ronny Lee Hollingsworth/15 $600
25. (27) Kevin Weaver/14 $600
26. (12) Gregg Satterlee/13 $625
27. (18) Kent Robinson/11 $600
28. (21) Brian Birkhofer/5 $600
29. (19) Pat Doar/3 $600
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