Contact: Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series PR Director
kkovac@dirtcar.com | 704-254-7929

World of Outlaws Late Model Series News & Notes: Wrapping Up The Firecracker 100 Presented by GottaRace.com

SARVER, PA – June 28, 2010 –

JOY & PAIN: Shane Clanton’s frustrating pursuit of victory in the Firecracker 100 presented by GottaRace.com ended on Saturday night at Lernerville Speedway.

Darrell Lanigan’s, meanwhile, rolled on for another year.

Clanton and Lanigan – both of whom were major players in two of the first three Firecrackers 100s – decided the fourth edition of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series mega-event amongst themselves. Locust Grove, Ga.’s Clanton reached the finish line first for a triumph worth $30,500, leaving Lanigan to lament his third consecutive runner-up finish in the race.

The 34-year-old Clanton’s win came after he experienced heartbreaking outcomes in both 2007 and 2008. He might have had the fastest car in each 100. In ’07 he appeared primed to sail by eventual winner Scott Bloomquist to take the lead on lap 88, but Bloomquist’s sixth-sense decision to move to the top of the track in turn three the very lap Clanton was making his run broken Clanton’s momentum and he finished sixth. One year later Clanton was battling for third place early in the distance with Josh Richards when the two drivers tangled and spun out of contention, causing some tense moments between the two.

Lanigan, 40, saw his Firecracker 100 misery continue in a different fashion. After controlling most of the 2008 and 2009 installments – he led laps 1-69 in ’08 (before Brian Birkhofer swept by for the win) and 13-93 in ’09 (before being overtaken for the big money by Jimmy Mars) – he didn’t pace a single circuit on Saturday. It appeared Lanigan might be turning his storyline upside-down when he reached second place on lap 82, but he couldn’t get close enough to Clanton to even attempt a late-race pass.

Clanton’s day wasn’t entirely perfect, however. What should have been a smile-filled trip home to the Peach State for Clanton and Co. took a rough turn on Sunday morning when his hauler was involved in an accident on Interstate 75 near Cleveland, Tenn. He said his rig was traveling at about 40 mph when it rear-ended a car at the top of a hill.

“We didn’t even feel it much in the truck,” Clanton said of the crash, which delayed his return to his shop by several hours. “It tore up the front bumper of the truck pretty good. We’ll get it fixed at S&S (in Nebraska) when we go out west (for four races from July 7-10).”

CHASE CONTINUES: Josh Richards was nearly perfect in the pair of 30-lap WoO LMS preliminary A-Mains that kicked off the Firecracker 100 weekend – he was victorious on Thursday night and finished second on Friday evening – but he was never a factor in the extra-distance finale.

The 22-year-old Richards started and finished seventh, racing quietly at the back end of the top 10 for the entire race. He said his car was superb on Hoosier LM-20-compound tires in the prelims, but bolting on a harder LM-30 right-rear for the 100 changed the machine’s handling characteristics too much for him to contend. As a result, he remained without a victory in a 100-lap event – the one missing link on his impressive resume.

“I guess we’ve been pretty good in the 50-lappers and 30-lappers, but we just gotta get a handle on these 100 lappers,” said Richards, who matched his best career finish in the Firecracker 100 (2007). “Once we get a balance, I think we’ll be O.K. We’ll just keep trying to figure it out and win one of these things.”

CLOSE CALLS: Tim McCreadie survived a pair of potentially disastrous run-ins to finish a career-best fourth in the Firecracker 100.

The first came on lap 19 when Scott Bloomquist moved inside him to challenge for second. The left side of McCreadie’s car met the right-front corner of Bloomquist’s machine on the homestretch, causing Bloomquist to wobble and lose a couple spots before slowing to bring out a caution flag on lap 21. McCreadie marched on to take the lead from Brady Smith on lap 20, while Bloomquist pitted on the 21st circuit and could only rally to eighth at the finish.

“I thought he was gonna give me a little room,” McCreadie said of the incident, “and we just met in the middle.”

Later, with less than 40 laps remaining, McCreadie held a short lead on Clanton when he ran into Bub McCool in turn three while trying to lap the Mississippi driver. The encounter smashed in the right-front door of McCreadie’s Sweeteners Plus car.

“That was nobody’s fault but my own,” said McCreadie, who noted that his subsequent fall from the lead to fourth at the checkered flag was a product of his setup going away, not the damage his car sustained when he hit McCool. “He was running a line and I didn’t realize he was diamonding the corner. When he did that, I was already so far in deep I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m gonna hit him and spin out.’ So I kinda throttled up and hit him. I went over and apologized to him (after the race).”

MIRROR-IMAGES: Brady Smith, who started from the pole and led laps 1-20 of the Firecracker 100, and 2007 WoO LMS champion Steve Francis were hampered by virtually identical mechanical problems – stuck carburetors.

Smith’s trouble began just after the first caution flag, on lap 18, and contributed to his tumble to 10th in the final finishing order. Francis began to experience the same headache a few circuits later and managed only a ninth-place finish.

“I hate to keep talking about excuses, but after that first caution I couldn’t get the carburetor to idle back down,” said Smith. “It was stuck at about 4000 RPM, and I couldn’t do anything to get it to stop. I could barely get it out of high gear coming into the pit area after the race.”

“My carburetor hung open at about 4000 RPM,” said Francis, who swapped tales of his woes with Smith following the 100. “With the track being so slick it made it so hard to drive. I was kind of along for the ride.”

AIR TIME: The Firecracker 100 extravaganza was a real learning experience for rookie sensation Austin Hubbard, whose weekend started on a rough note when he spun in turns three and four while leading a heat race on Thursday and ended with a quiet 12th-place finish in the 100-lapper.

But off the track, Hubbard took a turn as a television star. The 18-year-old with an effervescent personality was enlisted by the SPEED television crew covering the race to lead the audience through the pre- and post-race activities that are a huge part of the Firecracker experience. He was filmed standing on stage with the band NOMAD and interviewing fans on Friday night, and on Saturday he was miked up for the Firecracker 100 Horseshoes Tournament and his role as a judge in the Ms. Firecracker pageant.

Hubbard’s unique segment will be part of SPEED’s two-and-a-half-hour broadcast of the Firecracker 100, which is scheduled to air on Sat., July 17, at 4 p.m. ET.

SUPER SUB: Coleby Frye’s primary focus this year is his job as a fulltime mechanic for Hubbard’s Beitler Motorsports effort, but the 25-year-old from Dover, Pa., hasn’t entirely put his own driving aspirations on the backburner.

Of course, while Frye won two features in his family’s dirt Late Model earlier this month (an Appalachian Mountain Speedweek event at Pennsy’s Bedford Speedway and a show at Susquehanna Speedway in Newberrytown, Pa.), he never expected to have an opportunity to enter two WoO LMS races during the Great Northern Tour. But with the blessing of his boss Dale Beitler, Frye ran the June 20 event at Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway in Clint Smith’s backup car and accepted an offer to run Vic Coffey’s Sweeteners Plus No. 32c on Friday and Saturday at Lernerville.

Frye turned heads at Cornwall, setting fast time and finishing ninth in the A-Main. But he found the going more difficult at Lernerville, where he was a late addition to Friday night’s field after Coffey determined he wasn’t able to compete due to an off-track knee injury he suffered the previous evening. Frye failed to qualify for Friday’s preliminary A-Main and was a DNQ on Saturday as well after Coffey decided to return to the cockpit but also field a second car for Frye.

THROWIN’ SHOES: The Firecracker 100 Horseshoes Tournament – an annual Saturday-afternoon attraction during the big weekend that this year paired 16 drivers with fans for some friendly competition – boiled down to a clash of pitchin’ titans – two-time tourney champ Lynn Geisler and 2009 winner Chub Frank.

Frank (with teammate Ross Miner of Mill Run, Pa.) defeated Geisler (with partner Drew Koteles of Finleyville, Pa.) in a dramatic championship match, coming from behind to win, 23-21. Frank and Miner split $200 for their efforts.

Round 1 tournament winners were Geisler over Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs (with Rick Penn of Natrona Heights, Pa.); Frank over Russell King (w/Scott Pingie of Smethport, Pa.); Jared Miley (Dave Dytka of Scott Twp., Pa.) over Steve Francis (w/Julie Burley of New Lexington, Pa.); Dave Hess Jr. (w/Bob Beatty of Allegheny Twp., Pa.) over Steve Shaver (w/Jim Hartle of Petrolia, Pa.); Rick Eckert (w/Cory Pyle of Butler, Pa.) over Clint Smith (w/Chuck Warner of Jamestown, N.Y.); Scott Bloomquist (w/Curtis Pavlik of Fawn Twp., Pa.) over Shane Clanton (w/Andy Hummill of Holsopple, Pa.); Tim Fuller (w/Barb Winter of Lancaster, Pa.) over Tim McCreadie (w/Tom Contrael of Ford City, Pa.); and Brent Robinson (w/Bryan Horvath of Imperial, Pa.) over Austin Hubbard (w/Timmy Wilhelm of Barton, Md.).

Victors in the quarterfinals were Team Geisler over Team Miley, Team Frank over Team Eckert, Team Robinson over Team Fuller and Team Bloomquist over Team Hess. Geisler defeated Bloomquist and Frank took out Robinson in the semi-finals to set up the championship showdown.

MORE FUN: The Firecracker 100 weekend also included:

* The inaugural Ms. Firecracker pageant on Saturday afternoon. Laiken Anderson was announced as the winner following the evening’s Uncle Sam 30 and will serve as Lernerville Speedway’s trophy queen until next year’s Firecracker 100.

* Inaugural awards for the Best Campsite Display (Julie Burley of New Lexington, Ohio) and Best Tailgate Party (J.R. McGinley of Fairmount City, Pa.).

* The LaCrosse Extreme Tough Challenge, a test of strength (participants must hold two a pair of concrete-filled LaCrosse boots with their arms outstretched) won by Dan McKruit, 50, of Cabot, Pa. He received a $100 LaCrosse gift certificate for his effort.

NEXT UP: The WoO LMS heads to Tennessee for a Volunteer State doubleheader on Fri., July 2, at Wartburg Speedway and Sat., July 3, at Tazewell Speedway. Both tracks will host the national tour for the first time.

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.