Sunday, March 27, 2011

Makin’ Laps On A Rainy Day In Georgia

Heavy rain prevented a car from hitting the dirt surface of Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga., on Saturday night, but that didn’t stop several World of Outlaws Late Model Series drivers and crewmen from getting some racing in.

During a portion of the period between a soaking late-afternoon shower and the strong storm that arrived at 7:45 p.m. to postpone Screven’s WoO LMS program to Nov. 1 or 2, Screven promoter Redd Griffin invited the national tour’s teams to pass some of the drying-out time by running Sprint Karts on his facility’s brand-new ‘fun’ track. Outlaws quickly flocked to the small paved oval that Griffin recently built outside turns three and four of his three-eighths-mile speedway to provide another entertainment option during his events.

Griffin waived the $5-per-ride pricetag for the World of Outlaws gang, allowing them to become the first to battle it out in the seven Sprint Car-like caged karts that he purchased a couple weeks ago in Butler, Pa., and hauled back to Georgia. And battle it out they did, pushing and shoving around the circular track as an ever-growing number of bystanders looked on through the catch fence of Griffin’s “little superspeedway.”

One of the racing groups that hit the track included WoO LMS drivers Josh Richards, Shane Clanton, Austin Hubbard and Brent Robinson and crewmen Randall Edwards (Darrell Lanigan’s crew chief) and Nick Hover (Hubbard’s mechanic). Their nearly 10-minute-long run – part of which is shown in the video clip below – saw Hubbard inflict the most damage; his rough-housing right turns sent both Richards and Clanton spinning and his inside dive threw infield dirt on Hover. 


Richards, meanwhile, ran into some trouble on the final lap of his Sprint Kart stint when his wallet popped out of his pocket and flew out of the cockpit of his car, sending his ID, credit cards and other paraphernalia scattering across the third and fourth turns of the track. He had to walk onto the track to pick up his personal items and search out his wallet…check out the video below for that scene.  



Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A Reason For Lanigan Autosports To Let Loose. . .Well, Except The Driver


One member of the Lanigan Autosports team was pumping his fist and forcefully shaking hands in Victory Lane after last Saturday night’s inaugural ‘Cash Cow 100’ at Columbus (Miss.) Speedway.

It wasn’t Darrell Lanigan, who made a memorable drive forward from the 19th starting spot to bag a triumph worth over $20,000.

Lanigan with Edwards (l) and D.J. Callon (Foto-1.net)
While Lanigan, 40, was his usual stoic self after climbing out of his black No. 29 – he climbed on the machine’s roof to acknowledge the fans but flashed no intense emotion other than a satisfied smile – his chief mechanic was pumped up. Randall Edwards, who has been Lanigan’s right-hand man for much of the past decade, veritably floated from the pit area off the backstretch to the post-race celebration on the front straightaway and showed all the unbridled excitement that his cool-as-an-autumn-evening boss keeps under wraps.

Edwards, 37, had plenty of reasons to be happy, starting with the fact that, as a native of Alexandria, La., Columbus is a track from his home region. He also was very proud of Lanigan, who not only roared back from his frustrating start to the 2011 season (the ’08 WoO LMS champ had to miss the opener on Feb. 17 at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park due to an overnight hospital stay for problems associated with a cyst at the base of his tailbone) but also recovered from a subpar qualifying effort the previous night.

“This is big for Darrell,” Edwards said while basking in the victory in the pit area afterward. “We’ve been here (to Columbus) three or four times and we’ve pretty much struggled. These little bullrings ain’t Darrell’s cup of tea, but I’ll you what, he’s come a long way for sure. He drove his butt off tonight.”

What’s more, the checkered flag marked the long-awaited first 100-lap win on the WoO LMS for Lanigan and Edwards. Edwards, who has served as Lanigan’s crew chief every season since 2001 except ’06 (he left to work for Louisiana’s Garrett Durrett) and ’08 (he spent a year with Earl Pearson Jr.), has watched Lanigan come tantalizingly close to victory in century-grind tour events at least a half-dozen times over the past two years.

Lanigan, of course, has a three-season streak of runner-up finishes in the Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.; he led the first 69 laps of the ’08 edition (without Edwards), paced laps 13-93 in ’09 and ran out of time to catch winner Shane Clanton last year. He also experienced 100-lap heartbreaks in 2009 in the Lone Star 100 at Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas (finished second after a flat forced him to pit while leading on lap 40) and the Colossal 100 at The Dirt Track at Charlotte (after a flat tire put him to the rear early), and in 2010 he relinquished his race-long lead in the Commonwealth 100 at Virginia Motor Speedway due to a popped right-rear tire with just nine laps remaining and dropped out of the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., while running third on lap 75 when his overheating engine finally seized up (he had led laps 20-31).

“It’s about time we won one of these 100-lappers,” bottom-lined Edwards during the post-race euphoria. “I think we were due.”

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Pumped Up For The ‘Cash Cow 100’


Shane Clanton can’t wait to get to Columbus (Miss.) Speedway for this weekend’s inaugural ‘Cash Cow 100.’

That’s a pronounced turnaround from the vibe he gave off just one month ago following the season-opening World of Outlaws Late Model Series events at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. I saw him briskly walking through the quiet souvenir area behind the grandstands after picking up his paycheck for the finale of the DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH, grumbling, “I’m just gonna forget about this week” as he passed by en route to his waiting hauler and a six-hour ride home to Fayetteville, Ga.

Clanton and Green (mrmracing.net photo)
The DIRTcar Nationals were a bitter disappointment for Clanton, who began the week with high hopes when he unloaded a brand-new Capital Race Cars machine that he constructed over the winter with former dirt Late Model standout Marshall Green. He couldn’t get the car running up to his satisfaction in the three DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned events that kicked off the DCN, so he reluctantly switched back to his older Rocket Chassis mount and struggled to finishes of ninth (after using a provisional spot) and 23rd in the WoO LMS 50-lappers.

Despite the unspectacular debut, Clanton maintained that the Capital car remained his focus for the 2011 season. He said he just needed some track time to figure it out.

Oh, how correct Clanton seems to have been. After testing the Capital car on March 3 at Boyd’s Raceway in Ringgold, Ga., and in an open practice session last Friday night (March 11) at Cleveland (Tenn.) Speedway, Clanton drove the vehicle to a convincing $10,000 triumph in last Saturday evening’s ‘Shamrock 60’ at Cleveland.

“I think it was more just being able to practice and make the right adjustments,” an upbeat Clanton said by phone on Tuesday. “We didn’t get a chance to test before going to Florida and it showed. Any time you got a new race car, ride heights and other little things mean something. We found that what we had down in Florida wasn’t what we really wanted, so we came home, changed some stuff, practiced a little and we’re a little better now.

“The main thing today is finding a balance with our cars. It’s not just a setup for this type racetrack or that type racetrack anymore. Everything we look for now has to do with balance – does it steer good and is it tight enough? If you’re loose, the back end’s gonna come around. If the front end’s wanting to push up the racetrack, than you’re tight. You just try to find a happy medium in between, and if you get that you’ve got a balanced car. That’s basically what we had at Cleveland.”

Clanton’s triumph not only erased any lingering memories of Florida but also provided him a unique sense of pride. After all, he worked right alongside Green throughout the construction of the Capital Race Car.

“Anytime you win it’s real satisfying,” said Clanton. “But anything you do on your own, win you win with it the magnitude of the satisfaction is just multiplied. It’s been a long time since I built a race car I won with. We had a lot of success in Limiteds (Limited Late Models) with the first car I built for myself (more than a decade ago), and hopefully we’ll have the same success in this.”

Clanton's new Capital Race Car (mrmracing.net photo)
Now Clanton takes a car that’s no longer unproven back into the WoO LMS wars this weekend – at a demanding one-third-mile, high-banked track where he happens to excel. He’s been superb in the track’s prestigious late-season event, the Magnolia State 100, over the last four years, winning it in 2007 and 2009, finishing second in 2010 (with a damaged car) and leading 86 laps of the 2008 edition before a flat tire with six circuits remaining relegated him to an eighth-place finish. He also finished third in the last WoO LMS show there, in March 2007.

“Oh yeah, I’m excited about Columbus,” Clanton smiled as thoughts of the $20,000 ‘Cash Cow 100’ top prize danced in his head. “I’ve been pretty good there the last few years and I think we can be right up front again with this car.”

Monday, March 14, 2011

Track Prep...By A World of Outlaws Winner


Columbus (Miss.) Speedway promoter Johnny Stokes will have a special connection with more than a dozen drivers participating in his track’s inaugural World of Outlaws Late Model Series ‘Cash Cow 100’ this weekend (March 18-19).

Columbus (Miss.) Speedway promoter Johnny Stokes
Like that group of racers, the 57-year-old Stokes has a World of Outlaws checkered flag on his resume.

A former dirt Late Model standout who has become well known for his track-preparation expertise since taking over operation of his hometown speedway 11 years ago, Stokes is the only promoter of a track on the current 2011 WoO LMS schedule who has won a tour A-Main.

The big WoO moment for Stokes came on July 8, 1988, at Enid (Okla.) Speedway, during the inaugural WoO LMS season organized by late WoO Sprint Car Series founder Ted Johnson. He won the 10th event in the history of the tour, which ran one more season under Johnson before going silent until its resumption in 2004 under the World Racing Group banner.

“I remember that race well,” said Stokes. “It ranks right up there as one of the biggest wins I ever had.”

Stokes had established himself as one of Mississippi’s top dirt Late Model racers when the WoO LMS was launched in 1988 as an extension of Johnson’s decade-old WoO Sprint Car Series. He spent the ’88 campaign driving the GRT house car and entered more than 60 events, including several WoO shows.

When Stokes took to the three-eighths-mile track in Enid, Okla., for WoO LMS competition, he was fast right out of the box, setting fast time in qualifying.

“I drew ‘4’ for the (feature) invert,” recalled Stokes. “I started alongside (Billy) Moyer (the eventual WoO LMS champion in ’88, ’89 and ’05) in the second row, and I passed him and got to second pretty quick.

“I battled with Willy Kraft for a little while before getting by him for the lead. Then we led the rest of the way (in the 30-lap event).”

Kraft finished second to Stokes, and taking third was Moyer, who won nine of the 17 features that comprised the first WoO LMS season. “It was a pretty big deal to outrun Moyer,” Stokes said of the Batesville, Ark., legend.

Almost 23 years after finishing in a tie for 12th place (with Virginia’s Rodney Franklin and Pennsylvania’s Gary Stuhler) in the 1988 WoO LMS point standings, Stokes will be the man who prepares the surface of the high-banked, one-third-mile Columbus oval this weekend. He was toiling hard at the track today, finishing up work on a new frontstretch wall and doing some preliminary speedway conditioning for the $20,000-to-win ‘Cash Cow 100’ activities.

POSTSCRIPT: Moyer, who owns a record 37 career WoO LMS wins (including 1988-89 and the ‘modern era’ of 2004-present), is one of at least 13 former Outlaw A-Main winners planning to compete in the ‘Cash Cow 100’ weekend. Others expected to join him are Josh Richards (28 wins), Steve Francis (28), Rick Eckert (21), Darrell Lanigan (19), Chub Frank (16), Tim McCreadie (16), Shane Clanton (14), Tim Fuller (12), Clint Smith (11), Earl Pearson Jr. (five), Austin Hubbard (two) and Dan Schlieper (1).

Friday, March 11, 2011

Trials & Tribulations of a Rookie

John Lobb knew his pursuit of the 2011 World of Outlaws Late Model Series Rookie of the Year award would be a challenge. He just didn’t expect it to be so trying, so soon.

As if failing to qualify for a single feature – including the pair of season-opening WoO LMS events – during last month’s DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., wasn’t disappointing enough for Lobb, the 41-year-old first-time traveler ran into major trouble on the final leg of his long trip home to Frewsburg, N.Y. In the early morning hours of Feb. 22 his team’s hauler and trailer were seriously damaged in an icy highway accident.

Around 3 a.m. Lobb was sleeping in a back bunk as his car owner John Kennedy’s father drove the rig north on Interstate 79 near Grove City, Pa. (not far from Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa.). Lobb was awakened abruptly, however, when the hauler began sliding out of control after Kennedy hit a patch of black ice. The Freightliner truck and race car trailer both flipped over – tossing Lobb around in the process – before the single-vehicle crash ended with the hauler on its wheels and the trailer lying on its side in the middle of the highway.

“We were driving into a snowstorm but it was still raining where we were,” said Lobb, who was just over two hours away from his residence at the time of the wreck. “There was some black ice, though, and when John’s dad hit it the trailer came around and hit the truck. We were just along for the ride at that point.”

Fortunately, neither Lobb nor Kennedy – the only people in the truck – were injured. The Kennedy Motorsports transporter, however, did not emerge from the ordeal in good shape. They were able to nurse the damaged hauler back to Lobb’s shop but it was determined that it needed to be replaced; the trailer was emptied of its contents (dirt Late Model driver Mike Knight returned to the scene with his rig to help Lobb transport the equipment back to New York) and was taken to a yard in Mercer, Pa., where it remains.

“The race cars (two Rockets in the trailer) were O.K., but we destroyed a lot of other (racing) equipment in the crash,” said Lobb. “We found a lot of broken shocks, our spare rearend broke and we lost a lot of little things and tools. I think some of the smaller things might still be in the median (of the highway).”

The disaster won’t stop Lobb and his Kennedy Motorsports operation from continuing on with their plans to follow the WoO LMS this season. Going through the insurance-collection process has taken plenty of time, but Kennedy was able to purchase a used toter home and stacker trailer locally from Rueben Schwartz, who owns dirt Late Models driven by Dennis Lunger, and Lobb is scheduled to pick it up on Monday. Lobb will then hastily stock the new trailer, load up his race cars and, hopefully by Wednesday, head out for the next WoO LMS event, the ‘Cash Cow 100’ scheduled for March 18-19 at Columbus (Miss.) Speedway.

“This definitely isn’t the way we wanted to start out the year,” said Lobb, a veteran racer at tracks in the western Pennsylvania area who is tackling the WoO LMS after landing a well-funded ride late last season with John Kennedy, Lobb’s crew chief during the ‘90s before relocating to his current home in Phoenix, Ariz. “We already figured it would take us six months to really have everything organized to do this deal. Now it’ll be even tougher for us, but we’re not giving up.”