Shane Clanton Claims Win No. Four

GRAND FORKS, ND- July 14, 2017- The World of Outlaws Craftsman® Late Model Series event at River Cities Speedway on Friday looked like it would end in similar fashion to the 2016 edition- a rainout. Although the two shows had the same beginning, this year had a different ending which resulted in Shane Clanton wheeling his way to his fourth Series win of the season.

“Mother nature threw us a curveball,” said Clanton. “We thought it was going to rain pretty hard and we’ve gotten stuck here in the pits before so everyone loaded up. Thanks to all of the fans for sticking it out and giving us a place to race. This is a cool place. It’s always racy so hats off to the guys that work on this track.”

Clanton defended the lead for all 50-laps from an exciting battle for second. Tyler Erb and Eric Wells ran door-to-door for majority of the feature. The no.91 almost gave up his top-three run on lap-20 when he nearly fell off of the track, as his right side tipped over the track ledge between turns three and four. Wells capitalized on Erb’s mistake, as he was finally able to make the pass for second.

Although he slowed, Erb didn’t miss a beat and began to chase back down the second position. All the while, Sheppard appeared on the scene wanting a piece of the action. The trio battled three-wide around the 3/10-mile bullring using every inch of the track trying to gain a little more momentum than the other.

Clanton was effortlessly working through lap traffic and continued widen his lead to 2.4 seconds by lap 30. Erb kicked his Rocket XR1 into another level and began digging for the race leader leaving Sheppard and Wells at his bumper. Clanton’s lead was cut down to only 1.015 before a caution fell for Chad Simpson with only three laps to go.

“I definitely didn’t want to see the caution,” said Erb. “I mean Shane did a great job. He got me there on the start and that’s what he had to do. I about turned over there in three and four and I had to fight to get back to second. Once we got to second there was about 10 to go and I really started pushing it. It just wasn’t meant to be tonight…We’ll just have to try again. I know we have about 20 more races so hopefully we can get a win by then.”

Sheppard made his way to the podium from a ninth position start.

“We just got behind there a little bit in qualifying and we’ve been messing around with some stuff on my car trying to get a little bit better,” said Sheppard. “We are putting in a lot of work on this thing and we just have to get where we can qualify up front and win a heat race again. We have a really awesome car every night in the feature we just have to work on our early program.”

During qualifying, 19 of the 33 Late Models entered at River Cities Speedway broke the existing track record which was set in 2014 by Rick Eckert with an 11.756 second lap time. Mike Marlar turned the best lap and now holds the new track record of 11.357.

“The racetrack was a lot better than I could have imaged it would be with all of the rain we got earlier,” said Sheppard. “It looked like it was going to be a little tough but they worked on it a little bit and they made it into an awesome racing surface.”

The next stop for the World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series is on Wednesday, July 26 at Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, IL before heading to the Prairie Dirt Classic for two days of action at Fairbury American Legion Speedway on July 28-29.

River Cities Speedway Results:

Feature: 1. 25- Shane Clanton[1]; 2. 91- Tyler Erb[2]; 3. 1- Brandon Sheppard[9]; 4. 157- Mike Marlar[8]; 5. 18- Eric Wells[3]; 6. 44- Chris Madden[7]; 7. 33x- Chad Mahder[5]; 8. 2c- Joey Coulter[11]; 9. 18c- Chase Junghans[18]; 10. 40B- Kyle Bronson[17]; 11. 7W- Ricky Weiss[10]; 12. 90- Lance Matthees[14]; 13. 28- Jimmy Mars[16]; 14. 9- Devin Moran[7]; 15. 1*- Chub Frank[4]; 16. 25s- Chad Simpson[13]; 17. 71- Dustin Strand[20]; 18. 99j- Frank Heckenast Jr[6]; 19. 14m- Morgan Bagley[23]; 20. 11- Pat Doar[19]; 21. 12s- Brad Seng[21]; 22. 58- A.J. Diemel[12]; 23. 15- Justin Duty[24]; 24. 7- Rick Eckert[15];

Last Chance Showdown 1: 1. 40B- Kyle Bronson[1]; 2. 11- Pat Doar[2]; 3. 12s- Brad Seng[3]; 4. 15- Justin Duty[4]; 5. 4- Shane Edginton[6]; 6. Z17- Zach Naastad[5]; 7. 7p- Joey Pederson[8]; 8. 1R- Travis Robertson[9]; 9. 2- Bill Mooney[7];

Last Chance Showdown 2: 1. 18c- Chase Junghans[2]; 2. 71- Dustin Strand[3]; 3. 9- Devin Moran[5]; 4. 77- Jordan Yaggy[1]; 5. 10- Mike Balcaen[6]; 6. 6m- Jeff Massingill[4]; 7. 1m- Nick Minske[7]; DNS. 14m- Morgan Bagley[8]

Heat 1: 1. 25- Shane Clanton[1]; 2. 33x- Chad Mahder[3]; 3. 1- Brandon Sheppard[4]; 4. 25s- Chad Simpson[2]; 5. 40B- Kyle Bronson[5]; 6. 12s- Brad Seng[7]; 7. Z17- Zach Naastad[6]; 8. 2- Bill Mooney[8]; 9. 1R- Travis Robertson[9]

Heat 2: 1. 91- Tyler Erb[2]; 2. 44- Chris Madden[1]; 3. 7W- Ricky Weiss[3]; 4. 90- Lance Matthees[4]; 5. 11- Pat Doar[7]; 6. 15- Justin Duty[5]; 7. 4- Shane Edginton[8]; 8. 7p- Joey Pederson[6]

Heat 3: 1. 157- Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 99j- Frank Heckenast Jr[2]; 3. 2c- Joey Coulter[3]; 4. 7- Rick Eckert[4]; 5. 77- Jordan Yaggy[6]; 6. 71- Dustin Strand[5]; 7. 9- Devin Moran[7]; 8. 1m- Nick Minske[8]

Heat 4: 1. 1*- Chub Frank[2]; 2. 18- Eric Wells[6]; 3. 58- A.J. Diemel[3]; 4. 28- Jimmy Mars[5]; 5. 18c- Chase Junghans[4]; 6. 6m- Jeff Massingill[7]; 7. 10- Mike Balcaen[8]; 8. 14m- Morgan Bagley[1]

Qualifying A: 1. 25- Shane Clanton, 11.485; 2. 44- Chris Madden, 11.516; 3. 25s- Chad Simpson, 11.638; 4. 91- Tyler Erb, 11.639; 5. 33x- Chad Mahder, 11.643; 6. 7W- Ricky Weiss, 11.652; 7. 1- Brandon Sheppard, 11.695; 8. 90- Lance Matthees, 11.76; 9. 40B- Kyle Bronson, 11.772; 10. 15- Justin Duty, 11.811; 11. Z17- Zach Naastad, 11.866; 12. 7p- Joey Pederson, 11.9; 13. 12s- Brad Seng, 11.92; 14. 11- Pat Doar, 11.998; 15. 2- Bill Mooney, 12.067; 16. 4- Shane Edginton, 12.071; 17. 1R- Travis Robertson, 12.217

Qualifying B: 1. 157- Mike Marlar, 11.321; 2. 14m- Morgan Bagley, 11.433; 3. 99j- Frank Heckenast Jr, 11.507; 4. 1*- Chub Frank, 11.522; 5. 2c- Joey Coulter, 11.522; 6. 58- A.J. Diemel, 11.571; 7. 7- Rick Eckert, 11.583; 8. 18c- Chase Junghans, 11.591; 9. 71- Dustin Strand, 11.599; 10. 28- Jimmy Mars, 11.658; 11. 77- Jordan Yaggy, 11.665; 12. 18- Eric Wells, 11.686; 13. 9- Devin Moran, 11.939; 14. 6m- Jeff Massingill, 12.225; 15. 1m- Nick Minske, 12.526; 16. 10- Mike Balcaen, 13.042

CONTINGENCY WINNERS: Craftsman/Sears ($200 Cash): Shane Clanton, Tyler Erb, Brandon Sheppard,Eric Wells, Chris Madden; Craftsman/Sears ($100 Cash): Chad Mahder; Comp Cams ($50 product certificate): Shane Clanton; MSD Ignition ($50 Cash): Shane Clanton; Quarter Master ($100 Product Certificate): Shane Clanton; Wrisco (Three Sheets of aluminum): Shane Clanton;  Penske Racing Shocks ($50 Product Certificate): Chris Madden; JE Pistons ($50 Cash): Chris Madden; VP Racing Fuels ($50 Cash): Ricky Weiss; Edelbrock ($50 Cash): Chase Junghans; Comp Cams ($50 Cash): Kyle Bronson; Extended Stay America ($50 Cash): Ricky Weiss; Cometic ($50 Cash): Lance Matthees; JRI Shocks ($50 Cash):Chub Frank; Superflow Dyno’s ($50 Cash): Chub Frank; Quartermaster ($25 Product Certificate): Chub Frank; JE Pistons (One set of piston rings): Frank Heckenast; Quartermaster ($50 Product Certificate): Pat Doar; Arizona Sport Shirts ($100 Product Certificate):Par Doar; JE Pistons (One set of piston rings): A.J. Diemel; MSD Ignition ($25 Cash): Shane Clanton; QA-1 ($50 Cash): Mike Marlar; Rookie Bonus: Devin Moran; Bonus Bucks: Chad Mahder

SEASON WINNERS: 
Brandon Sheppard- 9 (Whynot Motorsports Park on March 24, Farmer City Raceway on April 1, Fayetteville Motor Speedway on May 6, Wayne County Speedway on May 27, Senoia Raceway on June 3, Lernerville Speedway on June 25, Federated Auto Part Raceway at I-55 on July 1, Hibbing Raceway on July 13)
Shane Clanton- 4 (Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 24, Cherokee Speedway on May 6, Tazewell Speedway on June 3, River Cities Speedway on June 14)
Chris Madden– 3 (Screven Motorsports Complex on Feb. 18, Deer Creek Speedway on July 8, Ogilvie Raceway on July 12)
Brandon Overton- 2 (Smoky Mountain Speedway on May 13, Lernerville Speedway on June 24)
Rick Eckert– 1 (Screven Motorsports Complex on Feb. 17)
Don O’Neal- 1 (Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 25)
Timothy Culp- 1 (LoneStar Speedway on March 26)
Brian Shirley-1 (Farmer City Raceway on April 2)
Mike Marlar- 1 (Duck River Raceway Park on May 14)
Devin Moran-1 (Atomic Speedway on May 26)
Max Blair- 1 (McKean County Raceway on June 20)

Unofficial World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series Championship Standings: