Contact: World Racing Group Kevin Kovac, World of Outlaws Late Model Series P.R. Director 704-254-7929 * [email protected][email protected]>
World of Outlaws Late Model Series At The World 100: Clanton's Triumph Certifies Him As A National Superstar
ROSSBURG, OH - Sept. 8, 2008 - Shane Clanton is now a bona fide national dirt Late Model superstar.
One command performance in front of over 20,000 fans at Eldora Speedway thrust him squarely into the spotlight.
While the Locust Grove, Ga., driver has gained wide acclaim in recent years for his success on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, he needed a signature crown-jewel event victory to certify his status at the top of the division. He got it on Saturday night when he captured the 38th annual UMP DIRTcar Racing-sanctioned World 100, which stands as the sport's most prestigious race.
Start printing up more t-shirts and putting his name in the pre-race headlines - at just 33 years of age, Clanton is going to be a prominent figure in dirt Late Model racing for a long time to come.
Clanton, of course, is a modest country boy and thus sidestepped post-race suggestions that he's now reached the elite level in his line of work. But he did assert that, in his seventh year as a dirt Late Model driver, he's found that elusive mix of elements necessary for serious success.
"It's gotta be a combination of what we do to the race car and us gelling as three crew guys working together," said Clanton, describing his emergence as a contender to win wherever he unloads with the help of mechanics Mark 'Head' Lloyd and Jonathan Owensby. "There's just some little things that we've changed over the course of the last couple years and we've gotten better all over the country.
"And this month has been shining pretty good for us."
Indeed, Clanton has been front-and-center on the WoO LMS in recent weeks. He's won two of the last five A-Mains on the tour - visiting Victory Lane on Aug. 21 at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., and Aug. 31 at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa. - and has moved up to third in the points standings entering this weekend's doubleheader at I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Mo. (Sat., Sept. 13) and La Salle (Ill.) Speedway (Sun., Sept. 14).
A WoO LMS regular since 2005, Clanton, who turned 33 on Aug. 29, credits his development to his extensive touring with the nation's premier dirt Late Model series.
"There's 10 good guys who can win this race and the Dream (Eldora's $100,000-to-win spectacular in June), and I race against those guys them 10 guys every single week," said Clanton, analyzing the caliber of competition on the WoO LMS. "Those guys (Outlaws regulars) have the most experience as far as Late Model drivers, and we race side-by-side, door-to-door.
"There's nothing (better than the WoO LMS) that can give you the confidence and the ability (to win races). If you can outrun them guys every night, you can win this race."
Clanton also hails his car owner Ronnie Dobbins, a low-key, 56-year-old Georgian who has been fielding dirt Late Models for nearly three decades. It's Dobbins who has backed Clanton's rise from a talented Southeastern Sportman racer to the upper echelon of dirt Late Model racing.
"I can't say enough for him," Clanton said of Dobbins, who decided on Saturday morning to not fly up for the World 100 but spoke by cell phone with Clanton during the Victory Lane ceremonies. "He gives me the best money can buy, without sparing a penny. Anything I ask him for, he says, 'Go ahead and buy it.' You can't ask for no better than that.
"He stands behind me when we're down. He says, 'Hey, if you just work on your race car, you'll get better.'"
Clanton said Dobbins has known him since he was "an itty-bitty thing" - a four-year-old hanging around his father Billy, a hard-nosed Southern driver who preceded Shane as a World 100 entrant. (Billy Clanton made one World 100 A-Main start, finishing 24th in 1978.) After Clanton began his own racing career by tearing up the Sportsman ranks and then entering the dirt Late Model division in 2002 with a self-funded effort, Dobbins offered him a deal he couldn't refuse.
"In 2002 he came to me and said, 'Hey, next year me and you are are gonna get together and go racing,'" recalled Clanton. "He said, 'I'll buy a trailer and buy some new cars and new motors and we'll go back out on the road if you want to do it.' I said, 'Heck, I'm here to race. I'll do whatever you want to do.'"
Clanton was victorious in his first two starts behind the wheel of Dobbins's RSD Enterprises No. 25 in January 2003. Two years later he found himself following the WoO LMS, making his living as a race car driver after quitting his regular job.
"He gave me the opportunity to go fulltime racing," Clanton said of Dobbins, "and here I am."
Yes, Clanton is in a pretty good place. He's on top of the 'world.'
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FEATURE STARTERS: The top-eight drivers in the WoO LMS points standings entered the World 100 and five of them cracked the A-Main starting lineup.
Outlaws who joined Clanton in the 100-lap headliner included Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill. (qualified through a B-Main and finished 10th after surviving a lap-82 tangle in turn two with former WoO LMS champ Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., and Scott James of Greendale, Ind.); Rick Eckert of York, Pa. (found his footing after transferring through a B-Main and moved forward from the 26th starting spot to finish one lap down in 13th place); defending WoO LMS titlist Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky. (finished a quiet 14th one year after leading much of the World 100 en route to a second-place finish); and points leader Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky. (finished 27th after pulling off before the halfway point).
Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., the 2006 WoO LMS champion who has one win and nine top-five finishes in 20 tour starts this season, finished a career-best fifth in the World 100. He qualified second-fastest on Friday night but had to use a fast-time provisional (and start 19th in the A-Main) after experiencing handling problems during his heat race.
SHORT NIGHT: Lanigan was hoping that 2008 would finally be his year in the World 100, but his pursuit of a checkered flag in the storied race will have to continue.
A World 100 A-Main starter for the 15th time after grabbing the third and final transfer spot in the fourth heat when fellow WoO LMS regular Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., slowed with mechanical trouble on the final lap, Lanigan was an early retiree and was credited with a 27th-place finish.
"I got hit on lap five and it knocked the (right side of the) spoiler off," said Lanigan. "I was so loose after that, there was no use staying out there once I got lapped."
HEARTBREAK: The 20-year-old Richards appeared headed for his fourth straight World 100 A-Main start after wrestling third place from Lanigan in a stirring battle filled with slide-jobs - until his Rocket No. 1 suddenly lost power as he came off turn four with the checkered flag waving.
"The car just shut down as I was going through the (fourth) corner on the last lap," said Richards, who in 2005 became the youngest A-Main starter in the history of the World 100. "It was fine until I got to turn four - then it just started popping and carrying on.
"When I started slowing down and guys went by me, I was just thinking, 'Oh, man, this isn't happening. I did all that work to get to third, and the car shuts off going through the last corner.'"
Richards limped across the finish line in fifth place, which still put him in good position to transfer through a B-Main. But he never got on the track for the last-chance race because his car refused to fire up when the call went out for the B-Main field to hit the track.
Richards and Co. ultimately discovered that the problem stemmed from a battery that went bad.
FRUSTRATING REPLAY: Chub Frank is wondering if the unique themed cars he's brought to the World 100 for the last two years are bad luck.
For the second straight year Frank was involved in a heat-race accident that ended his World 100 hopes prematurely. Confident after timing sixth-fastest among 175 cars in Friday night's time trials, Frank was attempting to race forward from the sixth starting spot on the third lap of Saturday's sixth heat race when he hit the stricken car driven by fellow WoO LMS regular Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., who bounced off the wall between turns one and two.
"Clint just caught the wall with the right-rear and it sucked his right-front in," said Frank, who won the World 100 in 2004. "When his right-front hit it pretty much stopped him, and then the ass-end of his car came out and I clipped him going by.
"I just caught him with my right-rear. It ripped the rear deck out and probably made the crash look pretty spectacular, but it didn't really hurt nothing. It was all tin. The suspension was fine."
Frank's sharp car, which featured an orange-camouflage graphics scheme to coincide with a 'Chub's Army: Salute to the Troops' theme, could not be repaired in time for him to continue racing in the prelim.
PAINFUL WRECK: Clint Smith's slap of the wall not only left him a non-qualifier for the World 100, but also with a broken bone in his right wrist.
"I got the right-rear in the fence and then the right-front caught and snatched the steering wheel out of my hand," said Smith. "I knew I hurt my wrist as soon as I came to a stop."
Smith had his injury checked out by Eldora's safety team inside the ambulance stationed in the pit area, but he refused to visit a hospital for further evaluation. He wrapped his hand with an Ace bandage and drove home to seek further medical attention.
On Monday afternoon x-rays found that Smith snapped a bone in his wrist. He was fitted with a cast that stretches to just below his elbow.
Smith, 43, said doctors estimate it will take 10 weeks for his wrist to fully heal, but he plans to continue racing to the best of his ability beginning with this weekend's WoO LMS trip to Missouri and Illinois.
More details of Smith's injury and his racing plans will be available in an upcoming WoO LMS press release.
NEXT UP: The WoO LMS returns to action this weekend with a doubleheader in the Midwest, visiting I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Mo., on Saturday night (Sept. 13) for the Pepsi Nationals (50 laps/$10,000 to win) and La Salle (Ill.) Speedway on Sunday night (Sept. 14) for the Best Western Illinois Fall Nationals (40 laps/$7,000 to win).
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com<http://www.worldofoutlaws.com/>.