Darrell Lanigan celebrates in victory lane after scoring his 50th career World of Outlaws Late Model Series win Thursday night at Little Valley Speedway. Photo courtesy WoO LMS
Darrell Lanigan of Union, KY, showed the fast way around Little Valley Speedway in Little Valley, NY for the second consecutive year, leading all 50 laps of Thursday night’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main for his milestone 50th career win on the national tour.
But while Lanigan cruised alone out front for virtually the entire distance to score his series-leading ninth triumph of 2013, his final margin of victory was a slight 0.377 of a second. That’s because Dan Stone of Thompson, PA, made a gallant late-race charge, overtaking both Rick Eckert of York, PA, and Josh Richards of Shinnston, WV, over the final seven circuits and closing within a car length of Lanigan at the checkered flag.
Richards settled for third place after starting from the pole position, maintaining his comfortable lead in the WoO LMS points standings with 11 races remaining on the schedule. The two-time series champion ended the night with a 62-point advantage over Lanigan, who moved past Shane Clanton of Zebulon, GA, for second in the title battle.
Clanton stayed within two points of Lanigan in the standings by finishing fourth after rallying from a lap-six bounce over the inside berm in turn two that caused him to fall from fourth to eighth in the running order. Eckert settled for fifth after climbing as high as second early in the distance.
Lanigan, 43, almost precisely duplicated his run to victory in last year’s inaugural WoO LMS event at the paper-clip-shaped half-mile oval. He once again roared off the outside pole to pace the field from start to finish, earning himself a $10,650 payoff.
The defending WoO LMS champion even was back behind the wheel of the Rocket car he used for much of his record-breaking success on last year’s tour. The machine was knocked out of action in June by serious damage it sustained in a heat-race crash during the DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned Dream weekend at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, but Lanigan decided to fix it up because he hasn’t been totally satisfied with the performance of two new cars he has been campaigning this summer.
“We just finally made a couple weeks time and got it back together this week,” Lanigan said of the car, which needed new front and rear clips. “We rebuilt the whole car and got it back to new, and it’s definitely back to where it was. Sometimes you get a good car, a car you really like, and this is definitely one of the good ones.”
After beating the pole sitting Richards, 25, to the first turn to grab the lead at the initial green flag, Lanigan dominated most of the race, building an edge of as much as a half-straightaway. He was never seriously challenged, but Stone did threaten him.
Stone, 37, settled into fourth place early in the A-Main after starting sixth. He was still running in the position with 10 laps to go when he began tossing his Rocket car around the top side of Little Valley’s tight corners. He passed Eckert for third on lap 43, overtook Richards for second on lap 45 and erased Lanigan’s two-second lead before running out of time.
“I knew somebody was coming,” said Lanigan. “I looked at the board and knew it was a different car (than had been in the top three throughout the race). I just kind of figured (Stone) had a harder tire on, but I come to find out that he was just running a different groove. I guess he found that high groove before anybody else did. I didn’t even think about going up there. It seemed crumbly to me, but he definitely got up there and made it work.
“It’s kind of hard to tell where the guy is behind you and what he’s doing,” he continued, “but I knew if I just ran my line on the bottom it was gonna be hard to pass.”
Beating Stone to the finish line put Lanigan in the WoO LMS history book as the first driver to win 50 A-Mains.
“That’s a big accomplishment to get 50 wins,” said the preternaturally calm Lanigan. “That’s definitely a bunch of wins (with) the Outlaws.”
Stone, meanwhile, was happy with his second runner-up finish of 2013 on the WoO LMS after taking just a bit too long to get rolling.
“I didn’t get tired midway through the race, but I kind of got hypnotized or something running behind those guys and wasn’t running where I needed to be,” said Stone, who owns two career WoO LMS A-Main victories. “Once we caught that lapped traffic I tried (the outside lane) and I was like, ‘Ugh! I should’ve been here the whole time.’
“We really ran Lanigan down after getting to second. I can’t believe it. Maybe two more laps would’ve been enough, but 50 laps should be long enough so congratulations to him – man, he’s just good everywhere he goes.
“To be running up there,” he added, “we’re definitely happy. It’s a good night of pay for us.”
Tim McCreadie of Watertown, NY, finished sixth after battling closely with Clanton and Eckert during the race’s final circuits. Bub McCool of Vicksburg, MS advanced from the 20th starting spot to place seventh; WoO LMS rookie points leader Eric Wells of Hazard, KY, was eighth; Dutch Davies of Warren, PA, was the highest-finishing local driver in ninth; and Jason Dupont of Cyclone, PA, rounded out the top 10.
Just two caution flags slowed the event. Clint Smith of Senoia, GA, brought out the first yellow flag on lap 11 when he stopped with terminal mechanical trouble on, and Mike Knight of Ripley, NY, relinquished fourth place on lap 16 due to a parts failure.
Clanton topped the evening’s 28-car field in Ohlins Shocks Time Trials, earning his second fast-time honor of 2013 with a lap of 21.867 seconds.
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Heat winners were Clanton, Knight and Lanigan, and Coleby Frye of Dover, PA, captured the B-Main.
The WoO LMS will be idle for one day before returning to action on Saturday night (Aug. 24) in the fourth annual Raye Vest Memorial at Winchester (VA) Speedway.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit worldofoutlaws.com.
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Little Valley Speedway – Little Valley, NY
Race Results – Aug. 22, 2013
1. (2) Darrell Lanigan/50 $10,650
2. (6) Dan Stone/50 $5,000
3. (1) Josh Richards/50 $3,700
4. (4) Shane Clanton/50 $3,050
5. (3) Rick Eckert/50 $2,650
6. (11) Tim McCreadie/50 $2,400
7. (20) Bub McCool/50 $1,950
8. (7) Eric Wells/50 $2,100
9. (13) Dutch Davies/50 $1,700
10. (9) Jason Dupont/50 $1,200
11. (19) Coleby Frye/50 $1,050
12. (10) Tim Fuller/50 $1,550
13. (23) Chub Frank/50 $1,500
14. (22) Vic Coffey/50 $950
15. (17) Billy Decker/50 $850
16. (8) Morgan Bagley/49 $1,350
17. (12) Bump Hedman/49 $820
18. (18) Brent Rhebergen/49 $750
19. (16) Greg Oakes/35 $730
20. (21) Dick Barton/30 $700
21. (14) Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs/27 $700
22. (5) Mike Knight/16 $750
23. (15) Clint Smith/11 $1,250
24. (24) David Scott/6 $725
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