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Kevin Kovac
CONCORD, N.C. (May 7) - If last Saturday night's World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Missouri's Lebanon I-44 Speedway revealed anything, it's this:
Here comes Shannon Babb.
With his first WoO LMS victory of the 2008 season, Babb served notice that his deal driving for NASCAR Sprint Cup star Clint Bowyer's new dirt Late Model team is coming together very nicely.
"I think we're finally getting all our ducks in a row," said Babb, who accepted Bowyer's ride offer in late December and has been working alongside crewmen Tommy Grecco and Jay Hunt to essentially build a big-time dirt Late Model operation from scratch. "It's been a lot of hard work in a short amount of time, but we're getting everything close, real close, to being in line. That's what makes a real successful team."
Babb, 34, of Moweaqua, Ill., and his mechanics pulled through the Lebanon I-44 pit gate riding in Bowyer's brand-spanking-new hauler and trailer for the first time - they had been using a rig borrowed from J&J Steel's Johnny Johnson while Bowyer's was being built - and unloaded a new Traiger Grills Rocket car that had literally been finished the previous night.
Making just his fourth career start behind the wheel of a Rocket Chassis machine, Babb authored a flawless performance to reach Victory Lane.
"We had a whole new piece that I had a lot of confidence in," said Babb. "I can't tell (Rocket's Mark and Josh Richards) thanks enough for all their help tonight. They're trying to help me get running better, and they gave us all their setups and everything else you can imagine. We listened to them and the car just drove like a dream."
After adding a seventh-place finish on Sunday night at Monett (Mo.) Speedway - he closed strong by picking up four spots over the final 13 circuits of the 40-lap A-Main - Babb ended the doubleheader tied for sixth in the points standings with Josh Richards.
UNDER A BLANKET: Thanks to the flat tire that forced WoO LMS points leader Billy Moyer to the pit area late in Sunday night's A-Main at Monett, the tour's points standings tightened considerably.
Through nine events on a 2008 schedule that currently boasts 47 dates, seven drivers are separated by a mere 38 points. Moyer leads the standings by 10 points over defending champion Steve Francis and Rick Eckert, followed by Darrell Lanigan (-24), Chub Frank (-34) and the deadlocked Babb and Richards (-38).
TOUGH WEEKEND: The 20-year-old Richards tumbled from second to a tie for sixth in the points standings after two frustrating evenings in the Show-Me State.
Saturday night at Lebanon I-44 was especially rough for Richards. He slapped the homestretch wall hard early in his heat race, forcing him to limp into the pit area with a heavily damaged car that his crew worked to repair right until the start of the A-Main's pace laps.
Richards's appearance on the starting grid was delayed because his team discovered a problem with the car's driveshaft as they were finishing repair work, prompting the hasty installation of a new one. He managed to salvage a 13th-place finish in the 40-lap A-Main despite racing with his car's tow-in bent about four inches.
'Kid Rocket' appeared primed to get back on track at Monett after setting fast time and winning a heat, but he fell to fifth early in the event with a setup that was slightly off and later suffered a flat right-rear tire with just five laps remaining. He finished a dismal 20th.
Notably, Richards's use of a provisional at Lebanon I-44 marked the first time he had failed to qualify for a WoO LMS event through a heat or B-Main since April 16, 2006, at Virginia Motor Speedway.
NO-NAME CAR: Brian Birkhofer's flag-to-flag win at Monett brought him a double-dose of satisfaction.
For starters, Birky got himself back in Victory Lane on the WoO LMS after a year's absence. He was one of seven drivers who won at least one WoO LMS A-Main in each of the tour's first three 'modern-era' seasons (2004-2006), but he failed to hit paydirt in 17 feature starts in 2007.
The Muscatine, Iowa, star also felt the personal accomplishment of winning for the first time with a car that he designed with fellow racer Jimmy Mars and Mars's brother Chris.
"Jimmy and I have been talking the last few years that we wanted to build cars," said Birkhofer. "At the end of last year Chris said, 'You go half with me and Jimmy on the tubing bender and we'll do it.' I had a pretty decent year money-wise, so I invested with them guys and Bailey Industrial helped us out on the equipment.
"We've been working our tail off on it. Chris, Jimmy, myself - we put a lot of hours in over the winter to build these cars.
"I kinda want to concentrate on this (racing) a few more years," added Birkhofer, 36. "But I don't really want to travel up-and-down the road anymore when I'm 45, so I'd like to maybe get my kid behind the wheel and build race cars.
"We don't want to be a big player in the chassis business. We just want to have something that we're proud of and we can sell."
Eventually, the Birkhofer/Mars machines will even have an official name.
"Right now we call it the 'Three Fs' - but I can't tell you what that means," quipped Birkhofer. "We haven't figured out a name yet. We just want to work on 'em and get 'em better.
"We'll be sitting around b.s.'ing one night and it'll come to us, but right now it's just another race car.
DISAPPOINTING OUTINGS: Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., entered the weekend hoping to make WoO LMS history.
With a victory at one of the tracks in his backyard, he would have joined his legendary late father Larry Phillips to become the first father-and-son tandem to win WoO LMS events in the six-plus seasons (1988-89, 2004-present) of the tour's existence. Larry won the first-ever WoO LMS event of the tour's first incarnation, on April 22, 1988, at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa.
But the 41-year-old Phillips struggled in both events. He finished 19th at Lebanon I-44 after retiring early because he car wasn't handling well on a track surface that kept more bite in it than he had anticipated, and he placed 21st after another early drop-out at Monett.
MAGIC BUMP: Can contact from another car make a driver's machine suddenly go faster?
It did in the case of Chub Frank, who credited his late-race surge at Monett to a hit he absorbed in his Rocket car's left-rear corner from Vic Coffey. After surviving the contact that left Coffey spun out in turn one on lap 27, Frank burst forward from the 13th spot to finish fifth.
"I actually don't know what happened," said Frank. "I was just wallowing around out there, and then Vic Coffey got into my left-rear and something happened.
"I guess the hit bent something and freed the car. We gotta look at it and see what it was, but I know that the car really felt good at the end of the race."
STILL STRUGGLING: WoO LMS regular Brian Shirley's miserable early-season luck continued at Lebanon I-44.
Holding high hopes for the Saturday event after finishing second in last year's WoO LMS show there, the Chatham, Ill., was running fifth on lap 12 of the A-Main when he slowed with a flat right-rear tire. It was the fourth flat tire of the night for the snakebit Shirley, who also returned to the pits with deflating shoes after hot laps, time trials and his heat race.
Shirley was even more frustrated with his performance on Sunday at Monett. He was second-fastest in time trials and started third in the A-Main, but he fell backward when the initial green flag flew and managed just a 15th-place finish in his Petroff Towing mount.
ETCETERA…
* Clint Smith wasn't happy about finishing fifth at Lebanon I-44 after leaving his car "too loose" for the A-Main, but he took some solace in his sterling qualifying effort earlier in the night.
"I'm pretty proud about setting a new track record," said Smith. "I'm not known for my qualifying, so I only have a few of them."
* Last year Darrell Lanigan scored his first top-five finish in the 18th WoO LMS A-Main of the season.
The Union, Ky., driver won't have to wait that long again in '08 after breaking into the top five for the first time on Sunday at Monett, finishing a solid fourth in the season's ninth event. He already has seven top-10 finishes this year - tied with Steve Francis and Rick Eckert for the tour lead in that category.
* Francis wasn't happy with his performance in the weekend events, which included a quiet sixth-place finish at Lebanon I-44 and an 11th at Monett (after he slid off the track during his heat and used a provisional to start the A-Main).
So what did Francis do after Monett's checkered flag? When he noticed that Darren Miller had gotten permission from promoter Randy Mooneyham to do some post-race testing, Francis kept his driver's suit on and joined Miller on the track to try some things out.
* Tim Fuller hopes his third-place run at Monett - his first top-five of the season and only his second top-10 - gets him headed in the right direction.
The 2007 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year entered both races in his backup car after blowing the motor in his primary machine in a Thursday-night show at Virginia Motor Speedway.
* Both Vic Coffey and John Blankenship sported new bodies and graphics on their cars for the weekend events.
Coffey appeared headed to a top-10 finish at Lebanon I-44 until a broken left-front control arm forced the Rookie of the Year contender out of action while running seventh on 26.
* Coffey, Eckert and Shane Clanton enjoyed some straight-line competition on Friday night, stopping at Gateway International Raceway outside St. Louis to watch qualifying for the weekend's NHRA national event.
NEXT UP: The WoO LMS returns to action with a three-race swing through the Midwest that stops at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park on May 16; Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway on May 17; and Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway on May 18.
INFO: For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
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