Bad Mod Luck For T-Mac & Fuller
CONCORD, NC - Oct. 12, 2010 -
HEATING UP: Shane Clanton will carry plenty of momentum into the World of Outlaws Late Model Showdown this Wednesday night (Oct. 13) at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series regular from Fayetteville, Ga., gained some serious steam last weekend, finishing first and second in a pair of dirt Late Model events in his home state. Add those outings to his runner-up finish on Sept. 25 in the unsanctioned Magnolia State 100 at Columbus (Miss.) Speedway, and it’s clear that Clanton is primed and ready to chase the $10,000 winner’s check on the line in the 50-lap full-fender Showdown that kicks off Bank of America 500 week at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“We’ve worked real hard the last two months to find some stuff that works for us,” said Clanton, who has won three A-Mains on the 2010 WoO LMS and ranks fifth in the points standings. “We’re still working, but I feel real good about where we’re at right now. We’ve had an up-and-down year, but we’re coming on strong here at the end.”
Clanton, 35, hasn’t won a WoO LMS A-Main since July 3 at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway, sending him into Wednesday’s action riding a 17-race winless streak. But he’s gotten his groove back since the national tour’s last event on Sept. 18, capping his surge last weekend with a near-sweep of a Peach State doubleheader. He followed up a second-place finish in Saturday night’s Dixie Shootout at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga., with a powerful triumph on Sunday evening in the Rome Showdown at Rome (Ga.) Speedway.
The victory at Rome was special for Clanton, who lives less than two hours from the track and turned plenty of laps there at the start of his racing career.
“It means a lot win to win a race in Georgia,” said Clanton. “I grew up racing at Rome. It seemed like I could never finish a race there, but I raced there a lot.
“We had a bunch of people we know at both tracks (over the weekend), so that was fun. (Ronnie) Dobbins (Clanton’s car owner) was there on Saturday night, but, unfortunately, he didn’t come on Sunday because he had to get up early for work on Monday morning. I called him and let him know we won.”
With his confidence soaring, Clanton has a good feeling about his chances in Wednesday night’s Showdown at The Dirt Track.
“I’m optimistic because our car has been so good the last few weeks,” said Clanton, who is back to running the familiar yellow colors on his RSD Enterprises No. 25 after sporting a limited-edition red-and-black Georgia Bulldogs-themed scheme in September’s World 100 at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and the WoO LMS event at Missouri’s I-55 Raceway. “If we can keep doing what we’ve been doing, we should be right there with a shot to win.
“I love the racetrack,” he continued, speaking fondly of the state-of-the-art four-tenths-mile oval. “It’s fast, it’s big and it’s wide, so there’s always a groove somebody’s not in. You just go there and try to make a pass.”
Despite Clanton’s fondness for The Dirt Track, he hasn’t enjoyed much success there in WoO LMS competition. He’s scored just one top-five finish in 12 starts since 2007, placing a career-best fifth in the 2008 Showdown. Clanton also has four DNFs and failed to qualify for the 2008 Colossal 100.
“Probably the best I’ve run there was two years ago during the World Finals,” said Clanton, recalling the finale of the 2008 season-ending doubleheader at The Dirt Track. “I felt like we had a chance to win that one, but me and Earl (Pearson Jr.) got together (while battling for third on lap 37) and I went around (dropping to 18th in the finishing order).”
OPEN-WHEEL MISFORTUNE: WoO LMS stars Tim McCreadie and Tim Fuller returned to their DIRTcar big-block Modified roots last weekend to chase a $50,000 top prize in the division’s most prestigious event – Sunday afternoon’s SEF Small Engine Fuels 200, which culminated Super DIRT Week XXXIX at the famed New York State Fairgrounds one-mile oval in Syracuse, N.Y.
Unfortunately, luck – a prerequisite for success at the venerable track known as the ‘Moody Mile’ – wasn’t on either driver’s side.
Neither McCreadie nor Fuller was around at the finish of Sunday’s grueling 200-miler. Both racers from Watertown, N.Y., had promising runs dive-bombed by mechanical malfunctions.
McCreadie, 36, was the first to go down in the SEF 200. Driving a car from the same Sweeteners Plus Racing stable that fields his familiar No. 39 dirt Late Models, the 2006 WoO LMS champion was running 16th on a lap-75 restart when his machine’s left-front wheel flew off in turn two, leaving him disabled against the outside wall. He was towed off and scored 30th in the final rundown – his 10th DNF in 11 career SEF 200 starts. The only year he was around at the checkered flag of the event was in 2009 when he placed second.
“We just broke a (left-front) spindle,” said McCreadie, who started 14th and climbed into the top five before making a scheduled pit stop during the caution period that preceded his ill-fated restart. “I think we were fine. We had just passed arguably the fastest car here all week long on the restart like it was nothing. We were gonna pit again (for fuel), but I felt like we had a good enough car to race.
“That’s just the kind of luck we’ve had here...what are you gonna do?”
Fuller, who turns 43 on Oct. 28, lasted longer than McCreadie but left Syracuse in no better mood. He saw his day end on lap 142 when he backed into the outside wall in turn one, heavily damaging the J&S Racing No. 74 that he campaigns in selected big-block and 358-Modified events that fit outside his full-fender schedule.
“When I went into (turn) one the right-rear wheel was vibrating so I let off and then the wheel broke and sent me in the wall backward,” said Fuller, who was running in the top 10 and set to go the distance after making his pit stop on lap 77. “I didn’t hit it at full-song, but it still killed the car. I’m O.K. though – I knew I put that LaJoie seat in this year for a reason.”
Fuller, who started 15th, was credited with a 24th-place finish. It was the first time he failed to finish the SEF 200 since 2001 (40th place); his last eight event starts had featured finishes of first (2004), second (2007), third (2009) and fifth (2008) and no finish worse than 13th.
While Fuller also experienced a frustrating run in Saturday’s ‘Salute to the Troops’ 358-Modified 150 – he finished 24th after a dead battery shut off his car on lap 113 as he ran in the top five – McCreadie authored a performance that was the highlight of his week. He finished second to sometime-dirt Late Model driver Billy Decker of Unadilla, N.Y., earning $10,000 for his career-best outing in the small-block show.
The SEF 200 will be broadcast on SPEED on Sat., Oct. 30, at 8 p.m.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT: There have been 278 WoO LMS A-Mains contested to date since 2004 and Steve Francis has driven a Rocket Chassis car in every one of them.
But when the 2007 tour champion heads out on the track Wednesday night at Charlotte, he plans to be behind the wheel of his new car: a machine constructed by veteran chassis builder Barry Wright of Cowpens, S.C.
Ashland, Ky.’s Francis, who is fourth in the 2010 WoO LMS points standings but has managed only two victories, debuted the Barry Wright mount last weekend in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events at Dixie and Rome. Despite going into the shows with only a handful of tests laps under his belt, the ‘Kentucky Colonel’ flashed the potential of his car, finishing sixth at Dixie (he said he cut his right-rear tire too much for the track conditions, causing the rubber to “chunk up” and hamper his effort) and a third at Rome (he fell just short of nipping Chris Madden at the line for second).
“We’re still in a learning curve with the car,” said Francis, who still has a Rocket car in his stable. “There’s things on it that are quite a bit different from what we’re used to, so it’ll take some time to figure it out. But we’re happy with it.”
Francis decided to go with a nostalgic look on his new car, which sports the same yellow-and-red colors that his No. 15 sported in 1999 when he won both the World 100 and Dirt Track World Championship events in the same season.
STAYING BUSY: While WoO LMS points leader Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., opted to take last weekend off, his challenger for the 2010 title, defending champion Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., went racing at Dixie and Rome.
Richards, who trails Lanigan by a mere two points with all three remaining events at The Dirt Track (including the World Finals doubleheader on Nov. 4-6), made his first career starts at the two Georgia ovals driving the Ernie Davis-owned No. 25 in which he makes most of his non-Outlaw appearances. The 22-year-old sensation registered finishes of 11th at Dixie (after starting 21st) and sixth at Rome.
WoO LMS travelers Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., and rookie Jill George of Cedar Falls, Iowa, also competed in the Dixie/Rome events. Smith finished 22nd at Dixie and failed to qualify at Rome (he suffered a flat tire in his heat), while George was on the DNQ list for both shows.
COMING BACK: Wednesday night’s Showdown marks the first time Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., will tackle The Dirt Track at Charlotte since he suffered a painful facial injury during qualifying for last year’s Showdown, which was rained out on its original mid-October date and rescheduled as a lead-in to the World Finals several weeks later.
Frank absorbed a hard blow to the front of his helmet from an apparent flying clod of thick, hard-packed clay early in his Showdown heat race last year. Though stunned, he managed to pull his car to the infield and was quickly attended to by safety personnel. He was transported to a local hospital and treated for injuries that included fractures in his right cheek and orbital bone, but after visiting a specialist upon his return home it was determined that he did not need surgery.
The injuries forced Frank to sit out last year’s World Finals, snapping his consecutive-start WoO LMS A-Main start streak at 227 races.
Frank heads to The Dirt Track coming off a second-place finish in the first of last Saturday night’s unsanctioned twin 50-lap ‘Billy Bob’ features at Brushcreek Motorsports Complex in Peebles, Ohio. He finished 20th in the nightcap, however; a complete invert of the cars still running at the end of the first A-Main left him with the 20th starting spot and he was involved in an early-race crash that ultimately led him to retire from the event.
STAR-STUDDED FIELD: The army of Outlaw regulars – in points standings order: Lanigan, Richards, McCreadie, Francis, Clanton, Rick Eckert of York, Pa., 2010 Rookie of the Year Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., Fuller, Frank, Smith, Russell King of Bristolville, Ohio, and George – will lead the charge to The Dirt Track at Charlotte for Wednesday night’s Showdown.
Dozens more well-known racers are expected to challenge the Outlaws, including Chris Madden of Grey Court, S.C., Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., Brady Smith of Solon Springs, Wis., Jeff Smith of Dallas, N.C., Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., and Eddie Carrier Jr. of Salt Rock, W.Va.
Pit gates are scheduled to open at 1 p.m. and the grandstand gates will be unlocked at 5 p.m. A driver autograph session will take place under the main grandstand from 5 p.m. to 5:45 p.m., followed by WoO LMS hot laps at 6 p.m., time trials at 6:15 and racing at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children 12-and-under.
Ticket information on The Dirt Track At Charlotte’s World of Outlaws Late Model Showdown (Wed., Oct. 13) and the World Finals – the season-ending blockbuster weekend on Nov. 4-6 that also includes the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and, for the first time, the Super DIRTcar big-block Modified Series – can be obtained by logging on to www.charlottemotorspeedway.com or calling 1-800-455-FANS.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), STP (Official Fuel Treatment), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel), DirtonDirt.com (Hard Charger Award) and Chizmark Larson Insurance; in addition to contingency sponsors Eibach Springs, MSD Ignition, Ohlins Shocks, Pink Carburetors, Pro Power Engines, Quartermaster, Rocket Chassis, R2C Performance and Wrisco Aluminum.
CONCORD, NC - Oct. 12, 2010 -
HEATING UP: Shane Clanton will carry plenty of momentum into the World of Outlaws Late Model Showdown this Wednesday night (Oct. 13) at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series regular from Fayetteville, Ga., gained some serious steam last weekend, finishing first and second in a pair of dirt Late Model events in his home state. Add those outings to his runner-up finish on Sept. 25 in the unsanctioned Magnolia State 100 at Columbus (Miss.) Speedway, and it’s clear that Clanton is primed and ready to chase the $10,000 winner’s check on the line in the 50-lap full-fender Showdown that kicks off Bank of America 500 week at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“We’ve worked real hard the last two months to find some stuff that works for us,” said Clanton, who has won three A-Mains on the 2010 WoO LMS and ranks fifth in the points standings. “We’re still working, but I feel real good about where we’re at right now. We’ve had an up-and-down year, but we’re coming on strong here at the end.”
Clanton, 35, hasn’t won a WoO LMS A-Main since July 3 at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway, sending him into Wednesday’s action riding a 17-race winless streak. But he’s gotten his groove back since the national tour’s last event on Sept. 18, capping his surge last weekend with a near-sweep of a Peach State doubleheader. He followed up a second-place finish in Saturday night’s Dixie Shootout at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga., with a powerful triumph on Sunday evening in the Rome Showdown at Rome (Ga.) Speedway.
The victory at Rome was special for Clanton, who lives less than two hours from the track and turned plenty of laps there at the start of his racing career.
“It means a lot win to win a race in Georgia,” said Clanton. “I grew up racing at Rome. It seemed like I could never finish a race there, but I raced there a lot.
“We had a bunch of people we know at both tracks (over the weekend), so that was fun. (Ronnie) Dobbins (Clanton’s car owner) was there on Saturday night, but, unfortunately, he didn’t come on Sunday because he had to get up early for work on Monday morning. I called him and let him know we won.”
With his confidence soaring, Clanton has a good feeling about his chances in Wednesday night’s Showdown at The Dirt Track.
“I’m optimistic because our car has been so good the last few weeks,” said Clanton, who is back to running the familiar yellow colors on his RSD Enterprises No. 25 after sporting a limited-edition red-and-black Georgia Bulldogs-themed scheme in September’s World 100 at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and the WoO LMS event at Missouri’s I-55 Raceway. “If we can keep doing what we’ve been doing, we should be right there with a shot to win.
“I love the racetrack,” he continued, speaking fondly of the state-of-the-art four-tenths-mile oval. “It’s fast, it’s big and it’s wide, so there’s always a groove somebody’s not in. You just go there and try to make a pass.”
Despite Clanton’s fondness for The Dirt Track, he hasn’t enjoyed much success there in WoO LMS competition. He’s scored just one top-five finish in 12 starts since 2007, placing a career-best fifth in the 2008 Showdown. Clanton also has four DNFs and failed to qualify for the 2008 Colossal 100.
“Probably the best I’ve run there was two years ago during the World Finals,” said Clanton, recalling the finale of the 2008 season-ending doubleheader at The Dirt Track. “I felt like we had a chance to win that one, but me and Earl (Pearson Jr.) got together (while battling for third on lap 37) and I went around (dropping to 18th in the finishing order).”
OPEN-WHEEL MISFORTUNE: WoO LMS stars Tim McCreadie and Tim Fuller returned to their DIRTcar big-block Modified roots last weekend to chase a $50,000 top prize in the division’s most prestigious event – Sunday afternoon’s SEF Small Engine Fuels 200, which culminated Super DIRT Week XXXIX at the famed New York State Fairgrounds one-mile oval in Syracuse, N.Y.
Unfortunately, luck – a prerequisite for success at the venerable track known as the ‘Moody Mile’ – wasn’t on either driver’s side.
Neither McCreadie nor Fuller was around at the finish of Sunday’s grueling 200-miler. Both racers from Watertown, N.Y., had promising runs dive-bombed by mechanical malfunctions.
McCreadie, 36, was the first to go down in the SEF 200. Driving a car from the same Sweeteners Plus Racing stable that fields his familiar No. 39 dirt Late Models, the 2006 WoO LMS champion was running 16th on a lap-75 restart when his machine’s left-front wheel flew off in turn two, leaving him disabled against the outside wall. He was towed off and scored 30th in the final rundown – his 10th DNF in 11 career SEF 200 starts. The only year he was around at the checkered flag of the event was in 2009 when he placed second.
“We just broke a (left-front) spindle,” said McCreadie, who started 14th and climbed into the top five before making a scheduled pit stop during the caution period that preceded his ill-fated restart. “I think we were fine. We had just passed arguably the fastest car here all week long on the restart like it was nothing. We were gonna pit again (for fuel), but I felt like we had a good enough car to race.
“That’s just the kind of luck we’ve had here...what are you gonna do?”
Fuller, who turns 43 on Oct. 28, lasted longer than McCreadie but left Syracuse in no better mood. He saw his day end on lap 142 when he backed into the outside wall in turn one, heavily damaging the J&S Racing No. 74 that he campaigns in selected big-block and 358-Modified events that fit outside his full-fender schedule.
“When I went into (turn) one the right-rear wheel was vibrating so I let off and then the wheel broke and sent me in the wall backward,” said Fuller, who was running in the top 10 and set to go the distance after making his pit stop on lap 77. “I didn’t hit it at full-song, but it still killed the car. I’m O.K. though – I knew I put that LaJoie seat in this year for a reason.”
Fuller, who started 15th, was credited with a 24th-place finish. It was the first time he failed to finish the SEF 200 since 2001 (40th place); his last eight event starts had featured finishes of first (2004), second (2007), third (2009) and fifth (2008) and no finish worse than 13th.
While Fuller also experienced a frustrating run in Saturday’s ‘Salute to the Troops’ 358-Modified 150 – he finished 24th after a dead battery shut off his car on lap 113 as he ran in the top five – McCreadie authored a performance that was the highlight of his week. He finished second to sometime-dirt Late Model driver Billy Decker of Unadilla, N.Y., earning $10,000 for his career-best outing in the small-block show.
The SEF 200 will be broadcast on SPEED on Sat., Oct. 30, at 8 p.m.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT: There have been 278 WoO LMS A-Mains contested to date since 2004 and Steve Francis has driven a Rocket Chassis car in every one of them.
But when the 2007 tour champion heads out on the track Wednesday night at Charlotte, he plans to be behind the wheel of his new car: a machine constructed by veteran chassis builder Barry Wright of Cowpens, S.C.
Ashland, Ky.’s Francis, who is fourth in the 2010 WoO LMS points standings but has managed only two victories, debuted the Barry Wright mount last weekend in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events at Dixie and Rome. Despite going into the shows with only a handful of tests laps under his belt, the ‘Kentucky Colonel’ flashed the potential of his car, finishing sixth at Dixie (he said he cut his right-rear tire too much for the track conditions, causing the rubber to “chunk up” and hamper his effort) and a third at Rome (he fell just short of nipping Chris Madden at the line for second).
“We’re still in a learning curve with the car,” said Francis, who still has a Rocket car in his stable. “There’s things on it that are quite a bit different from what we’re used to, so it’ll take some time to figure it out. But we’re happy with it.”
Francis decided to go with a nostalgic look on his new car, which sports the same yellow-and-red colors that his No. 15 sported in 1999 when he won both the World 100 and Dirt Track World Championship events in the same season.
STAYING BUSY: While WoO LMS points leader Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., opted to take last weekend off, his challenger for the 2010 title, defending champion Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., went racing at Dixie and Rome.
Richards, who trails Lanigan by a mere two points with all three remaining events at The Dirt Track (including the World Finals doubleheader on Nov. 4-6), made his first career starts at the two Georgia ovals driving the Ernie Davis-owned No. 25 in which he makes most of his non-Outlaw appearances. The 22-year-old sensation registered finishes of 11th at Dixie (after starting 21st) and sixth at Rome.
WoO LMS travelers Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., and rookie Jill George of Cedar Falls, Iowa, also competed in the Dixie/Rome events. Smith finished 22nd at Dixie and failed to qualify at Rome (he suffered a flat tire in his heat), while George was on the DNQ list for both shows.
COMING BACK: Wednesday night’s Showdown marks the first time Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., will tackle The Dirt Track at Charlotte since he suffered a painful facial injury during qualifying for last year’s Showdown, which was rained out on its original mid-October date and rescheduled as a lead-in to the World Finals several weeks later.
Frank absorbed a hard blow to the front of his helmet from an apparent flying clod of thick, hard-packed clay early in his Showdown heat race last year. Though stunned, he managed to pull his car to the infield and was quickly attended to by safety personnel. He was transported to a local hospital and treated for injuries that included fractures in his right cheek and orbital bone, but after visiting a specialist upon his return home it was determined that he did not need surgery.
The injuries forced Frank to sit out last year’s World Finals, snapping his consecutive-start WoO LMS A-Main start streak at 227 races.
Frank heads to The Dirt Track coming off a second-place finish in the first of last Saturday night’s unsanctioned twin 50-lap ‘Billy Bob’ features at Brushcreek Motorsports Complex in Peebles, Ohio. He finished 20th in the nightcap, however; a complete invert of the cars still running at the end of the first A-Main left him with the 20th starting spot and he was involved in an early-race crash that ultimately led him to retire from the event.
STAR-STUDDED FIELD: The army of Outlaw regulars – in points standings order: Lanigan, Richards, McCreadie, Francis, Clanton, Rick Eckert of York, Pa., 2010 Rookie of the Year Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., Fuller, Frank, Smith, Russell King of Bristolville, Ohio, and George – will lead the charge to The Dirt Track at Charlotte for Wednesday night’s Showdown.
Dozens more well-known racers are expected to challenge the Outlaws, including Chris Madden of Grey Court, S.C., Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., Brady Smith of Solon Springs, Wis., Jeff Smith of Dallas, N.C., Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., and Eddie Carrier Jr. of Salt Rock, W.Va.
Pit gates are scheduled to open at 1 p.m. and the grandstand gates will be unlocked at 5 p.m. A driver autograph session will take place under the main grandstand from 5 p.m. to 5:45 p.m., followed by WoO LMS hot laps at 6 p.m., time trials at 6:15 and racing at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children 12-and-under.
Ticket information on The Dirt Track At Charlotte’s World of Outlaws Late Model Showdown (Wed., Oct. 13) and the World Finals – the season-ending blockbuster weekend on Nov. 4-6 that also includes the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and, for the first time, the Super DIRTcar big-block Modified Series – can be obtained by logging on to www.charlottemotorspeedway.com or calling 1-800-455-FANS.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), STP (Official Fuel Treatment), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel), DirtonDirt.com (Hard Charger Award) and Chizmark Larson Insurance; in addition to contingency sponsors Eibach Springs, MSD Ignition, Ohlins Shocks, Pink Carburetors, Pro Power Engines, Quartermaster, Rocket Chassis, R2C Performance and Wrisco Aluminum.
