CONCORD, NC – Nov. 19, 2007 – Shane Clanton will head into the off-season on a high note.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series regular made a successful invasion of Cleveland (Tenn.) Speedway on Saturday night, winning the track’s 19th annual ‘Gobbler 50’ event.
Clanton, 32, of Locust Grove, Ga., pocketed $5,000 for his first-ever victory in the traditional pre-Thanksgiving special, which ended the 2007 O’Reilly Southern All-Stars Series schedule.
The triumph provided a nice boost to Clanton, who didn’t want his disappointing near-misses of the previous two weeks to be his last memories of the 2007 campaign. He fell to a ninth-place finish in the WoO LMS season-ending ‘Outlaws World Finals’ A-Main on Nov. 3 at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway after making an impressive high-side charge to take the lead, and a flat tire knocked him out of the top spot early in the ‘Blue-Gray 100’ on Nov. 11 at Cherokee SuperSpeedway in Gaffney, S.C.
Clanton came out on Saturday night with his Custom-powered RSD Enterprises/SAE Parts Rocket No. 25 firing on all cylinders, grabbing the lead at the initial green flag from his outside-pole spot. But Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., made sure that Clanton worked hard for his money.
McDowell, a WoO LMS regular from 2004-2006, mounted a strong late-race bid to steal the win. He actually nosed ahead of Clanton on lap 48, but Clanton quickly regained command using the outside groove and held on for the remainder of the distance.
Clanton crossed the finish line with a narrow advantage over McDowell. Randy Weaver of Crossville, Tenn., finished third, followed by Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., who won two WoO LMS A-Mains in 2007, and Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., who captured this year’s UMP DIRTcar Racing-sanctioned ‘World 100’ at Eldora Speedway.
Placing seventh was defending ‘Gobbler 50’ champ Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., who finished third in the 2007 WoO LMS points standings. Smith also won a heat race earlier in the program.
The ‘Gobbler’ was likely the last start of the season for Clanton, who closes out a 2007 campaign that didn’t quite live up to his expectations. Coming off a career year that saw him finish second in the 2006 WoO LMS points standings, Clanton could only manage a fourth-place result in the tour’s final ’07 rankings.
Clanton gave himself barely a ‘satisfactory’ grade for his ’07 performance on the WoO LMS.
“It’s gotta be a B-minus – almost a ‘C,’ really,” Clanton said when asked to analyze his third season as a fulltime traveler on the WoO LMS. “Last year we had almost an A-plus season, so we’re a little disappointed.
“We just fell out of too many races. I guess it’s all part of racing, but we’ve had parts break this year that we just haven’t had break in the past. I don’t know if we didn’t check our stuff good enough or if it was because of the racetracks, but whatever caused it, it just wasn’t our year.”
Clanton actually got off to a decent start this year. With four top-10 finishes in the season’s first five events – highlighted by a runner-up placing on April 14 at Virginia Motor Speedway – he found himself sitting atop the points standings.
But Clanton’s stint in the points lead lasted exactly one race. He went without a top-10 finish for an uncharacteristic eight A-Mains in a row over the ensuing month, dropping him to eighth in the points standings.
“It was all good until we went to Lernerville (Speedway in Sarver, Pa., on April 17),” said Clanton, who experienced five DNFs in ’07. “We weren’t good for a few weeks after that, and that just killed us in the points.”
Clanton got back on track during the summer, winning twice – on June 16 at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kans., and July 20 at Virginia Motor Speedway – and running off a series-best streak of 17 consecutive top-10 finishes from May 18 to July 26. The surge got him back to fourth in the points standings, but he couldn’t climb any higher.
Clanton’s final WoO LMS stats showed two wins, 13 top-five and 30 top-10 finishes in 44 A-Mains. He also won four National Interstate Insurance Fast Time Awards (tied for second-most with Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark.), captured 13 heat races (tied for third-most) and earned $92,047 in purses.
“Winning at a new venue (for the WoO LMS) like Lakeside was pretty cool,” said Clanton, who fell 20 points shy of third-place Clint Smith in the final standings. “We should’ve won both races at Virginia (Motor), but at least we got one of them.
“We had a pretty good year, but just not the points year that we wanted. We were hoping to be in the battle for the championship again, but it just didn’t work out this year.”
Clanton, whose richest victory of ’07 was the unsanctioned ‘Magnolia State 100’ (worth $25,000) on Sept. 29 at Columbus (Miss.) Speedway, will pick up an additional $35,000 in points-fund cash during the WoO LMS ‘Night of Champions’ Awards Banquet on Dec. 6 at the International Plaza Resort and Spa in Orlando, Fla.
