Darrell Lanigan
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By Terry Young
Darrel Lanigan drove his GOTTA RACE Rocket into the victory lane celebrations at Bob Wente's beautifully prepped 1/2 mile speedplant, TRI-CITY Speedway in Granite City, Illinois in the 50 lap A-Main event after taking the lead on lap 44. Lanigan who started the event from the outside front row slot led the opening 9 laps before being overtaken by Tim McCreadie on lap 10. Lanigan then moved back to the point on lap 11, until Earl Pearson overpowered him on lap 14 and led the next 27 markers.
Bloomquist who started in the eighth slot had slowly worked the traffic to his liking and by lap 20 had caught Pearson and was preparing to mount a challenge.
Lap 42 would see Bloomquist take over the point from Pearson, as the duo sliced, diced and slid each other in each turn over the next 2 laps with several unnoficial lead changes taking place.
Disaster would strike the Dunn-Benson team on lap 43. Pearson, fresh off the heels of an Xtreme victory the night before and appearing to be headed for victory lane again for the second night in a row got slightly crossed up coming off of turn 4 and contact was made between Pearson and Bloomquist, spiraling Pearson into the outside wall just under the flagstand and ending his night prematurely. Several fans showed their dissaproval of the incident by trying to water the track under the caution by virtue of throwing their cups onto the race track, in a move that appeared reminiscent of Talladega Super Speedway earlier this year!
Bloomquist was able to continue, but with damage to his left front, his car would not steer well and Lanigan was able to put the pass on Bloomquist on the restart and never loked back as he took the checkered flag ahead of Bloomquist, Steve Francis, Chub Frank, Billy Moyer, Dan Schlieper, Rick Eckert, Brian Birkhofer, Tim McCreadie and Bart Hartman roounding out the top 10 finishers.
34 cars hit the track for a qualifying effort and McCreadie topped the field with a lap of 20.340 on the big 1/2 mile facility.
The heat races transferred the top 4 from each to the A-Main with Mccreadie, Frank, Steve Shaver and Bart Hartman going from heat #1, fionishing ahead of Darren Miller, Rick Aukland, John Mason, Bert Cheatham and Reid Millard.
Heat two was topped by Lanigan over Eckert, Francis (in a back-up car from the tail after he hit the wall coming off of turn 2 in qualifying and damaged his mount beyond repair), local hot-shoe Randy Korte, Mike Balzano, Justin Allgaier, Clint Smith, Ray Cook and Kyle Steffens.
Third heat honors went to Earl Pearson ahead of Dale McDowell, Birkhofer, Matt Miller, Scott James, John Blankenship, Dennis Erb and Brian Collins.
The fourth and final heat went to Mr. Smooth Billy Moyer with a last lap pass over Bloomquist, Dan Schlieper, Shannon Babb, Josh Richards, Ed Dixon and Shane Clanton.
The dash to determine the starting order for the first two rows of the A was won by McCreadie over Lanigan, Pearson and Moyer.
Consi action seen Darren Miller claim the first of two semi feature events ahead of Balzano, Aukland, Smith, Allgaier, Mason, cheatham and Millard with young racing sensation Josh Richards taking the honors in the second ahead of Blankenship, Erb, Clanton, James and Dixon.
With Clint Smith, Justin Allgaier and Ed Dixon added as provisionals the field was set for the 50 lap A-main event.
WoO Late Models
Heat 1:
1. 39 Tim McCreadie
2. 1* Chub Frank
3. 0 Steve Shaver
4. 75 Bart Hartman
Heat 2:
1. 29 Darrell Lanigan
2. 24 Rick Eckert
3. 15 Steve Francis
4. 00 Randy Korte
Heat 3:
1. 1 Earl Pearson
2. 17M Dale McDowell
3. 15B Brian Birkhofer
4. 7 Matt Miller
Heat 4:
1. 21 Billy Moyer
2. 0 Scott Bloomquist
3. 9 Dan Schlieper
4. 18 Shannon Babb
Dash:
1. 39 Tim McCreadie
2. 29 Darrell Lanigan
3. 1 Earl Pearson
4. 21 Billy Moyer
Semi #1:
1. 32 Darren Miller
2. E1 Mike Balzano
3. 12 Rick Aukland
4. 44 Clint Smith
5. 1A Justin Allgaier
6. 72 John Mason
7. 75 Bert Cheatham
8. 14
Semi #2:
1. 1 Josh Richards
2. 23 John Blankenship
3. 28 Dennis Erb
4. 25 Shane Clanton
5. 83 Scott James
6. 50 Ed Dixon
Feature:
1. (2) Darrel Lanigan 50 laps
2. (8) Scott Bloomquist 50 Laps
3. (10) Steve Francis 50 Laps
4. (5) Chub Frank 50 Laps
5. (4) Billy Moyer 50 Laps
6. (12) Dan Schlieper 50 Laps
7. (6) Rick Eckert 50 Laps
8. (11) Brian Birkhofer 50 Laps
9. (1) Timmy McCreadie 50 Laps
10. (13) Bart Hartman 50 Laps
11. (17) Darren Miller 50 Laps
12. (20) John Blankenship 50 laps
13. (19) Mike Balzano 50 Laps
14. (7) Dale McDowell 50 Laps
15. (9) Steve Shaver 50 Laps
16. (18) Josh Richards 49 Laps
17. (24 Prov) Justin Allgaier 48 Laps
18. (3) Earl Pearson DNF
19. (15) Matt Miller DNF
20. (23 Prov) Clint Smith DNF
21. (21) Rick Aukland DNF
22. (14) Randy Korte DNF
23. (25 Prov) Ed Dixon DNF
24. (22) Dennis Erb DNF
25. (16) Shannon Babb DNF
Modifieds
Feature:
1. 48 Bobby Martintoni
2. 1W Ray Walsh
3. 7 Mark Miner
4. 17 Jim Shereck
5. 16 Rusty Griffaw
6. 16 Tommie Seets, Jr.
7. 68 Jerry DeGrendle
8. 23 Dylan Sharp
9. 18R Shawn Rayfield
10. 2 Todd Ferber
11. 20N Bob Newberry
12. 41 Steve Maisel
13. 23 Brian McCormick
14. 21M Steve Myers
15. 10 Todd McGraw
16. 44 Tim Hancock
17. 94 Ed Lenhardt
18. 7 Mark Gansmann
19. 166 Brian Worley
20. 8 Chad Naylor
