Jeep VanWormer scored the victory Friday night in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature at Winston Speedway. Photo courtesy WoO LMS Media
Jeep VanWormer of Pinconning, MI, gave his home-state fans a reason to cheer with a convincing victory in Friday night’s NAPA Auto Parts Winston 50 Presented by Keyser Manufacturing at Winston Speedway in Montague, MI.
After becoming the first – and still only – driver from Michigan to win a World of Outlaws Late Model Series event on Sept. 16, 2007, at LaSalle (IL) Speedway, VanWormer turned up the excitement level with his second career checkered flag. The $10,000 triumph came at a track that is a three-and-a-half-hour drive across the Wolverine State from his residence.
“It felt good to go out there and perform and actually do what I always want to do – win in your home state,” said VanWormer, who became the 14 th different winner in 35 events on this year’s WoO LMS. “It feels great to win in front of my home crowd. A lot of fans came out to support us.”
VanWormer, 38, steered his Dickens-powered Rocket car past 2011 WoO LMS champion Rick Eckert of York, PA, for the lead on lap 14 and never looked back. He beat another former World of Outlaws titlist, Josh Richards of Shinnston, WV, to the finish line by 2.120 seconds in one of the most memorable performances of his career.
Eckert, 47, who won last year’s WoO LMS event at Winston, settled for a third-place finish after starting from the outside pole and leading laps 1-13. Mike Spatola of Manhattan, IL, equaled his career-best WoO LMS finish with a solid fourth-place run and Tim McCreadie of Watertown, NY, advanced from the 14th starting spot to finish fifth.
A former DIRTcar Summer Nationals stalwart, VanWormer has cut back his racing schedule in recent years due to work commitments. Friday night’s event marked just his 13th start of the season – and first since July 23-24 at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway – but he showed no rustiness while smoothly negotiating the three-eighths-mile oval.
“We haven’t been racing a whole bunch,” said VanWormer, who emerged victorious in his first WoO LMS appearance of 2013. “Somebody made a comment to me today, ‘How am I ever gonna get good if I don’t race?’ Well, I’m not saying this happens (regularly), but we did well tonight. We had the right tires, the right car.”
VanWormer started third in the 50-lapper, but he immediately moved to second when the race began. He chased Eckert until making his winning pass by ducking to the inside exiting turn four and surging ahead as lap 14 was scored.
“We got into lapped traffic and there and (Eckert) kind of was running that middle and I just stayed down on the bottom,” said VanWormer, the fourth non-Outlaw regular to win on the tour in the last six events. “It just worked out that I had a good run coming off of four and got next to (the lapped) Rich Neiser there. I might have roughed him up a little bit, but it was for ten-grand.”
The A-Main’s two caution flags, on lap 16 (for a turn-one tangle involving Tim Fuller of Watertown, NY, and John McDonald of Muskegon, MI) and lap 33 (for a turn-two spin by Tom Sprague Jr. of Muskegon, MI), kept the pressure on VanWormer. But he handled both restarts with little problem.
Richards came closest to threatening VanWormer, pulling up to the leader’s rear bumper shortly after the lap-16 restart. But VanWormer gradually inched away over the ensuing circuits and again after the lap-33 caution period.
“I was keeping my tires warm – and the car was just so good honestly,” said VanWormer, whose only previous feature win this season also came at Winston in an American Late Model Series event on April 27. “We were just making smooth laps and not spinning our tires.”
Richards conceded that VanWormer was the class of Friday night’s field. The young superstar had to satisfy himself with a runner-up finish that pushed his lead in the WoO LMS standings to 58 points over Shane Clanton of Zebulon, GA, who finished seventh, and 72 points over defending champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, KY, who placed sixth.
“He was good,” Richards said of VanWormer. “On that (lap-16) restart we fired off that middle (groove) real well and stayed with him for a few laps. I couldn’t keep running there, though. Me and Eckert were talking after the race about how you could run four or five laps good there, and then the tires would get greasy and you couldn’t move around as much.
“Jeep was really good on the long greens. His car was just rolling through the corners so well.”
Bub McCool of Vicksburg, MI, finished eighth, steadily moving forward from the 19th starting spot. Brady Smith of Solon Springs, WI, slipped to a ninth-place finish after running in the top five for most of the race’s first half and Chub Frank of Bear Lake, PA, faded to 10th at the finish after starting from the pole position.
Twenty-six cars were entered in the event, which was run on a clear and refreshingly cool summer day.
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Heat winners were Frank, Eckert and Brady Smith, and McCool captured the B-Main.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
World Of Outlaws Late Model Series
Winston Speedway – Montague, MI
NAPA Auto Parts Winston 50 – Aug. 16, 2013
1. (3) Jeep VanWormer/50 $10,000
2. (5) Josh Richards/50 $5,650
3. (2) Rick Eckert/50 $3,700
4. (6) Mike Spatola/50 $3,050
5. (14) Tim McCreadie/50 $2,650
6. (8) Darrell Lanigan/50 $2,350
7. (9) Shane Clanton/50 $1,950
8. (19) Bub McCool/50 $1,950
9. (4) Brady Smith/50 $1,250
10. (1) Chub Frank/50 $1,650
11. (12) Tim Fuller/50 $1,600
12. (16) Eric Wells/50 $1,800
13. (20) Jason Feger/50 $950
14. (7) Clint Smith/50 $1,450
15. (17) Brandon Thirlby/50 $900
16. (11) Andrew Reaume/50 $800
17. (15) Rich Neiser/50 $820
18. (10) Morgan Bagley/50 $1,300
19. (22) Sammy Epling/49 $730
20. (23) John McDonald/48 $700
21. (18) Tom Sprague Jr./47 $700
22. (24) Andy Galguci/40 $700
23. (13) Dona Marcoullier/33 $700
24. (21) Ryan VanderVeen/10 $725
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