Lanigan Triumphs in WOO’s First Visit To Little Valley
by Dave Sully
(Little Valley, NY) It doesn’t matter where he races or whether he’s seen a
track before or not, Darrell Lanigan, from Union, Kentucky, seems to have
adopted the Al Davis mantra, “Just win baby,” as he chalked up his
incredible fourteenth World of Outlaws Late Model win of the season at
Little Valley Speedway on Wednesday, August 29th, before an overflow crowd.
It was the Series’ first visit to the fast half mile and Lanigan took to it
like the proverbial “Duck takes to water,” as he grabbed the lead from the
outside pole, outgunning polesitter Clint Smith, from Senoia, Georgia, on
the long front straightaway. From there, it was a matter of hitting his
marks and making sure no one crept up on him in the fifty lap A Main.
The only one who seemed to have anything for Lanigan was Shinnston, West
Virginia’s Josh Richards, fresh from the NASCAR Nationwide Series, who was
tied with Lanigan for the career WOO win lead, with 39 each entering the
event. Richards, who started fourth, engaged Smith in a prolonged battle for
second before claiming the position on lap nine. From there, he seemed to be
making up ground through the turns, but Lanigan was clearly faster on the
straightaways. The margin got closer around lap 15, after Lanigan entered
lap traffic, but after a caution on lap 17, when Chub Frank slowed on the
front stretch, Lanigan pulled away again on the restart.
Richards took up the chase again, narrowing the gap in the turns for several
laps before Lanigan pulled away again. With Lanigan in his own zone,
attention shifted to the battle for third between local favorite and former
WOO traveler, Ron Davies, from nearby Warren, Pennsylvania, who made a
spirited challenge for the position with Smith. Though he got inside Smith a
couple of times, Smith was able to fend off the advances.
At the line, it was Lanigan by close to a straightaway, followed by
Richards, Smith, Davies, and second heat winner Vic Coffey, from Caledonia,
New York to round out the top five. Lanigan pocketed a total of $10, 650 for
his victory.
Lanigan commented, “The carburetor stumbled a little bit in the corners and
kind of screwed me up, but man, that thing would run down the straightaways.
It’s just an unbelievable motor. The tires went away a little bit at the
end. I was really good on restarts, and I’d fade a little bit, but I think
he (Richards) had the same tires, and he was fading also.”
For his part, Richards noted, “It was good. We were a little softer on tires
than Darrel was, left rear and right front. That last restart, it just gave
up a little bit. Darrel’s good. It would have been hard to pass him. For a
while there, I thought we had a pretty good shot at it. It started getting
freer into the corner. Darrell did a good job. Track position was huge. I
feel like, if we could have gotten the lead, we could have held it, but it
was just one of those things. It was a good night for us to come up here and
run second.”
Smith was very happy with third, considering the problems he had earlier in
the day. He explained, “It’s been a long night. We broke out a brand new
race car. I had some issues earlier with my headers. We had to come in and
scramble to get a few things tightened up and fixed. “New Car Blues,” we
call it. Fortunately we qualified pretty good, and then we got time to fix
it between the qualifying and the heat race. That gave us the advantage to
get to second in our heat. We drew the pole and then the two best cars here
got by us. We all travel together and it looks good for Rocket chassis for
us to run one, two three.”
On his bout with Davies, he added, “On one restart Ronnie came near killin’
me, but he was trying to impress the hometown crowd. That was on a restart
and everybody was trying to get a spot. That’s racin.’”
Jason Knowles, from Painted Post, scored his first ever BRP 360 Late Model
Feature, leading every lap to win the 20 lap Dart Challenge event. His
biggest concern was with defending track champion Jeremy Wonderling, who
claimed second on lap 12, and then tested him on a lap 17 restart. Though
Wonderling seemed a tad quicker in the turns, Knowles pulled Wonderling on
the straightaways en-route to the win.
Knowles observed, “This is our first win here. The last couple races, we’ve
been real consistent, just had a couple things go wrong. Actually, tonight I
thought it was going to go all wrong too. We had a water pump gasket blow
out, and it was blowing out again during the feature. It wasn’t lining up
right, but it ended up being okay.”
On the challenge from Wonderling, he noted, “I saw his number on the
scoreboard. He’s one of the toughest customers here, along with about five
others. To pull it off with all the heavy hitters here, that’s pretty
exciting. My dad (Larry) won here a couple of times and I’ve been here for
quite a few years trying. I could just never get it. We’ve really had to
strive here. Hopefully, there’s more to come.”
The E-Mod Feature was highlighted by a battle between veterans Randy Hall
and Brent Rhebergen, who went into their championship night separated by
just three points, with Hall on top. After a spirited battle, which saw them
swap the lead at least twice on an early restart, Hall took the lead for
good. The race was marred by a violent flip by the No. 33 of Jaben Hill, who
swerved to avoid a wreck in turn one, caught a rut, and went airborne. He
was not hurt in the scary-looking incident.
At the line it was Hall with the win and the title, followed by Rhebergen,
Justin Carlson, Ron Davies, and Rich Michael Jr.
NOTES: Local favorite David Scott, once author of nine straight feature wins
at Little Valley, missed qualifying by one spot when Greg Satterlee got by
him with inside two laps to go in the last chance qualifier, much to the
disappointment of his many fans……Little Valley Late Model point leader Jason
Dupont was running well in the top ten, when he was forced to retire with
mechanical issues. It didn’t hurt his chances for the LVS title, as show -up
points only were awarded to local drivers in attendance.....Twenty-nine Late
Models were on hand for the event, with 24 taking the green………Mindful of the
work day on Thursday for fans, drivers, and teams, track officials moved the
show along smartly, with a time limit on the support classes. It had to be
invoked in the E-Mod Feature after the roll-over on lap seven, which
necessitated shortening that feature to 15 laps from the scheduled 20. The
show was completed at a tidy 10:20PM………Little Valley’s final program will be
September 15th, with the popular Super Late Model/358 Modfied Doubleheader.
The Super Late Models, the 360 Late Models and the Street Stocks will close
out their championships, as well.
RESULTS:
WOO: (50 laps) Darrell Lanigan, Josh Richards, Clint Smith, Ron
Davies, Vic Coffey, Shane Clanton, Bub McCool, Jimmy Mars, Rick Eckert, Mike
Knight, Tim Fuller, Kent Robinson, Bob Close, John Lobb, Jason Dupont, Dick
Barton, Bump Hedman, Dan Stone, Boom Briggs, Brian Reese, Gregg Satterlee,
Tim McCreadie, Chub Frank, and Pat Doar. Heat winners were Richards, Coffey,
and Davies. B Main winner was Lobb. DNQ- David Scott, Brent Rhebergen,Terry
Porter, Greg Oakes, Scott Gurdak.
BRP 360 Late Models: (20 laps)
Jason Knowles, Jeremy Wonderling, Jim Johnson, John Waters, Bob Close, Bob
Babbitt, Mike Wonderling, Dave Dubois, Billy Van Pelt, Brian Knowles, Mikey
Wonderling, Steve LeBarron, Jared Hill, DJ Krug, Ron Wilkins, Quinn
Sutherland, Steve Watson, Bob Stilson, Brian Hoffman, Bruce Miller, Larry
Knowles, John Rivers, Neil Patterson, Alan Wais, Dusty Waters, and Barry
Payne. DNS- Wally Wade. Heat winners were John Waters, Miller, and Jason
Knowles.
E-Mods: (15 laps) Randy Hall, Brent Rhebergen, Justin Carlson, Ron
Davies, Rich Michael Jr., Steve Dixon, Carl McKinney, Ken Zimmer, Kirk
Bradley, Tim Peterson, Chad Silleman, Kyle Bedell, Jeff Johnson, John
Boardman, Josh John, Carl Ballinger, Darren Tarabori, Eric Pangrazio, Nathan
Hill, Jaben Hill, Mike Eschrich, Mike McGee, Tim Walden, Dan Sasso, Dan
Davies, and Vic Vena. Heat winners were Ron Davies, Dixon, and Zimmer.
|
