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Kevin Kovac
ROSSBURG, Ohio (June 9) - Shane Clanton likes his new Rocket car.
He really, really likes it.
After driving to a solid third-place finish in Saturday night's 100-lap Dirt Late Model Dream XIV at Eldora Speedway, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series standout from Locust Grove, Ga., had nothing but praise for his RSD Enterprises machine.
"It's the best car we ever had here," Clanton said in the pit area of the legendary Buckeye State track after emerging as the highest-finishing WoO LMS regular in the talented 24-car A-Main field. "We worked two solid days on it this week to get it ready, and we put a new (Custom) motor in it when we got here.
"The combination worked real good, so we're pumped up to come back here for the World of Outlaws race next month (Subway 50 on July 25) and the World 100 (on Sept. 5-6) - and heck, we're pumped up for the rest of the (WoO) series. We've got a good car."
Clanton, 32, demonstrated just how tough he would be during Friday night's Dream qualifying program. He actually set fast time twice - yes, twice.
The driver known as 'Coconut' was entrenched atop the time-trial board as the first round of time trials wound down, but the entire session was wiped out because rain from the outer edge of a severe storm that blew through the area fell with 21 of the event's 123 entrants still left to qualify. Following a nearly two-hour delay and more hot laps to work in the surface, Clanton came out fastest (with a lap of 16.580 seconds) in the ensuing single round of time trials that was used to set Saturday's heat lineups.
Clanton started fifth in Saturday night's first 15-lap heat after drawing a five-car invert, but he won the prelim to earn the sixth starting spot in the UMP DIRTcar-sanctioned Dream 100. He proceeded to surge straight to the front when the feature began, taking the lead from 2006 WoO LMS champion Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., on lap four. But Clanton wasn't a match for 2004 WoO LMS titlist Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., who grabbed the lead on lap 24 and went on to capture the event's $100,000 top prize for the fifth time in his career.
Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa, was able to overtake Clanton for second on lap 62, but Clanton hung on to secure a career-best Dream finish of third.
"I was a little too free," said Clanton, who earned $10,000. "At the beginning of the race (the car) turned too good and had too much traction. It wasn't pushing not one bit, so I knew I was in trouble.
"I thought to myself, 'If I can get out (to a lead) as far as I can get and it goes green-to-checkered, maybe they won't catch us.' But that didn't happen.
"(Bloomquist) was a little tighter right in the middle (of the corners)," added Clanton. "He could drive it a little straighter through the turns. That was the difference."
Clanton claimed that he never allowed visions of the 100-grand check - the biggest single-event paycheck of the 2008 dirt Late Model season - to creep into his mind before the start of the race. But he did concede that a victory in the Dream would have prompted a post-race celebration unlike any other in his career.
"My car owner (Ronnie Dobbins) has never won here and it would have been my first win here, so it would've been thrilling," said Clanton, who wife and mother flew up from Georgia on Friday to attend the race. "I might've tried to do a backflip like Carl Edwards if I had won this race tonight."
Clanton will try to carry his Eldora momentum into the upcoming heart of the WoO LMS schedule. He returns to series action on Tues., June 17, at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway, which kicks off the seven-race 'Great Northern Tour' that continues on June 19 at Oshweken (Ont.) Speedway; June 21 at Quebec's Autodrome Drummond; June 22 at Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway; June 24 at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Speedway; June 25 at Big Diamond Raceway in Minersville, Pa.; and June 27-28 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. (the $40,000-to-win Firecracker 100).
Though Clanton sits seventh in the points standings - 98 points out of first - through 12 WoO LMS events, he feels like he's ready to make a charge.
"We got a lot of confidence coming here and running as good as we did," said Clanton. "There's a lot of races to go (on the WoO LMS), so if we run as good as we did tonight - heck, you never know. We might be leading the thing in another month."
FEATURE STARTERS: Every driver in the top 10 of the current WoO LMS points standings entered the Dream, but only four were fortunate enough to avoid bad luck and make the A-Main field.
Outlaw regulars who joined Clanton in the headliner were Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa. (finished ninth after starting 16th); John Blankenship of Williamson, W.Va. (won a heat race in impressive fashion but faded from the third starting spot in the A-Main to finis 18th); and 2007 Rookie of the Year Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y. (pulled off on lap 27 and finished 22nd in his first-ever Dream start).
DRIVER-TURNED-CAR OWNER: Defending WoO LMS champion Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., had high hopes for his first Eldora appearance with car owner Dale Beitler, whose Reliable Painting car was driven to victory in the 2007 Dream by Steve Casebolt of Richmond, Ind.
But Francis drew a late time-trial number and could only manage the 39th-fastest lap - thus missing the heat-race invert - and later saw his bid come to an end when his No. 19 blew a right-rear tire while challenging for the final transfer spot with two laps left in the third heat.
Francis, 40, missed the Dream's starting field for just the second time in its 14-year history. His previous DNQ came in 2005.
Nevertheless, Francis still had a horse in the race. He fielded his own Valvoline No. 39 for Tim McCreadie, who won the fifth heat race to earn the outside-pole starting position for the A-Main.
Francis found himself in the unusual spot of car owner, standing atop his trailer in street clothes as McCreadie went to the post. McCreadie led the race's first three laps but didn't have the correct setup for the track conditions and slipped to a fifth-place finish.
"I knew what he was feeling, what was happening to his car," said Francis. "We geared up for the speed to be way down from what it was, so we had Timmy a little messed up. We had him geared up for what the track was like for last year's World or Dream, but the racetrack was faster than that. We misjudged it a little bit."
HEARTBREAKER: Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., entered the weekend as the hottest driver on the WoO LMS, but he couldn't transfer his good luck to Eldora.
A former Dream 100 winner, Lanigan was running a solid second in the first heat when his Rocket No. 29 belched a huge puff of smoke. He limped into the pit area and was done for the day - only the fourth time he's missed a Dream starting field.
OVER THE EDGE: Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., was bidding for the final qualifying spot in the fifth heat when his 'slider' to overtake John Mason sent him up the hill and into the turn-two wall with the right-rear corner of his Clint Bowyer-owned Rocket. He held on to finish fifth despite the bodywork damage, but managed only a 14th-place finish in the B-Main.
The DNQ continued Babb's tough run of luck in the Dream. It marked the third straight year he's failed to qualify.
ALL BEAT UP: Coming off his career-first win at Eldora in the 'Johnny Appleseed Classic' on May 25, Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., carried plenty of momentum into the weekend. He proceeded to prove he was ready to be a contender by timing fifth-fastest on Friday.
But Richards's hopes went down the drain on the opening lap of the fifth heat. He clipped Brad Neat's car as it bounced off the wall between turns three and four, crushing the right-rear bodywork of his Rocket No. 1. Richards pitted for a hasty patch-up job and returned, but a couple more scrapes as he attempted to rally caused virtually the entire rear deck of his car to flap loose and his right-rear tire to go flat, forcing him out of action for the night on lap 11.
FRUSTRATING WEEKEND: Rick Eckert of York, Pa., and Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., had Dream experiences they'd prefer to forget.
A former Dream winner, Eckert was a non-qualifier for the second consecutive year. He never threatened to grab a transfer spot, finishing sixth in the second heat and 12th in the B-Main.
Smith, meanwhile, was off slightly as well, placing ninth in the sixth heat and then having his weekend end with an eighth-place finish in the C-Main.
INFO: For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
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