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Josh Richards was pretty excited about the way he won Friday night’s 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main at Attica Raceway Park .
Flashing a veteran’s poise, the fast-rising 20-year-old superstar from Shinnston , W.Va. , patiently chased Chub Frank until finally grabbing the lead from his seasoned rival with a high-side pass on lap 44. He then marched away to register his second tour victory of 2008 behind the wheel of his Mark Richards Racing Enterprises/Seubert Calf Ranches Rocket No. 1.
“That was one of the most fun races I’ve ever run,” the smiling Richards said after capturing the first-ever WoO LMS event run at the high-banked, one-third-mile oval. “I just kept trying and trying to find a way to get by Chub, and finally I was able to get him.”
Richards, who started from the pole position but was overtaken by front-row mate Frank at the initial green flag, earned $10,150 for his eighth career triumph on the WoO LMS. He became the second repeat winner in 10 tour events this season, joining four-time victor Billy Moyer of Batesville , Ark.
The driver known as ‘Kid Rocket’ also completed a clean sweep of the night’s action. Earlier in the program he set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 14.587 seconds and won his heat race.
“It was just a great night,” said Richards, whose previous WoO LMS win this season came in the tour’s opener on Feb. 14 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville , Fla. “We worked hard all week – until midnight a couple nights – trying to get this car dialed in and ready to go.
“We’ve been experimenting the last couple weeks, and we decided to get back to just bone-stock, old stuff, and it worked out for us all night.”
Adding even more luster to his win was the fact that it came on his mother Tina’s birthday. She was not at the track, but she spoke to her son by cell phone minutes after he returned to the pit area following the checkered flag.
Frank, 46, settled for his second runner-up finish of the season, ending the race 2.113 seconds behind Richards after leading laps 1-43 in his Lester Buildings Rocket car.
Darrell Lanigan of Union , Ky. , placed third in his gottarace.com Rocket after holding off the late-race challenges of Moweaqua , Ill. ’s Shannon Babb. It was the best WoO LMS finish of the 2008 season for Lanigan, who has secured consecutive top-five finishes after going without one for the first eight events of the campaign.
Babb crossed the finish line fourth in NASCAR Sprint Cup star Clint Bowyer’s Traeger Grills Rocket, and Shane Clanton of Locust Grove , Ga. , repelled the dogged bids of Wooster , Ohio ’s Doug Drown to complete the top five in his RSD Enterprises Rocket.
The race was centered upon Richards’s pursuit of Frank, who appeared primed for his first victory of the season after climbing back in his favorite car. Frank drove the machine he calls ‘Old Faithful’ – the same 2006 Rocket he repaired after flipping it wildly on April 19 at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord , N.C.
Though the A-Main was slowed by only three caution flags – on laps seven (for a spin by Tyler Boggs of Warsaw, Ind.), 17 (for the disabled machine of York, Pa.’s Rick Eckert) and 18 (for an off-track excursion by Jeep VanWormer of Pinconning, Mich. – Frank wasn’t able to use the extended green-flag stretches to distance himself from Richards.
“My car felt really good the whole race,” said Richards. “I knew (Frank) couldn’t pull away, so I thought if I just maintained, there would be a chance that I could get by him.”
That opportunity came with the event winding down. After having several bids turned back by Frank, Richards was able to toss his car outside of the Pennsylvanian’s mount rounding turns three and four and he surged ahead to assume command as lap 44 was scored.
“He looked a little too tight to run the top, and my car was just balanced well,” analyzed Richards. “I don’t know if he was fading just a little to where he had to search (for a line), but when he moved down I snuck around the outside of him and got the lead.”
Frank was gracious in defeat, hailing the ever-improving Richards.
“We were probably a little softer on the left-rear tire (than Richards), and I’d say it probably gave up the last eight or 10 laps,” said Frank, whose previous second-place finish in WoO LMS action this season came on Feb. 16 at Volusia Speedway Park. “I tried to run as high as I could in (turns) three and four without getting against the cushion, but I got too tight to drive in there and run the top like he could – and when I tried to move down, I just didn’t have enough traction.
“Josh did a very good job,” he added. “He was very patient. He didn’t do anything that would’ve wrecked either one of us. He took his shots when he thought he had ‘em, and when he couldn’t clear me on those ‘sliders’ he got out of the gas and let me go.
“I think that was very good for him to see that patience sometimes is better than being aggressive.”
Echoing Frank’s thoughts, Richards viewed his triumph as a sign of increased maturity behind the wheel.
“The last couple years I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more patient and a lot more comfortable in certain conditions that I hadn’t been before,” said Richards, the 2005 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year. “It’s tough to be patient. You get close to the lead in one of these races and you just want to go for it, but I’ve learned that you just have to stay smooth.”
Finishing in positions 6-10 was Drown, who earned the $500 WoO LMS ‘Bonus Bucks’ prize for being the highest-finishing driver who hasn’t won a tour A-Main and wasn’t ranked among the top-12 in the points standings; 14th-starter Tim Dohm of Cross Lanes, W.Va. ; defending WoO LMS champion Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky.; 2006 tour titlist Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y.; and Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga.
Despite being unhappy with his quite eighth-place run, Francis was able to take over the WoO LMS points lead. He entered the event 10 points behind Moyer, who did not have plans to follow the tour this season and thus made Friday night’s program the first he’s missed in 2008.
Eckert, who was tied with Francis for second in the standings entering the Attica show, fell to sixth after a broken driveshaft left him with a 23rd-place finish.
A healthy field of 52 cars was signed in for the historic WoO LMS visit to Attica Raceway Park .
Heat winners were Richards, Lanigan, Donnie Moran of Dresden , Ohio , and Clanton. The B-Mains were captured by VanWormer and John Blankenship of Williamson , W.Va.
The WoO LMS concludes a Midwestern doubleheader on Sunday night (May 18) with the ‘ Land of Lincoln 40’ at Lincoln ( Ill. ) Speedway .
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
Results of WoO Late Model Series at Attica Raceway Park (Finishing Position/Start/Driver/Laps Completed/Money Won):
1. (1) Josh Richards/50 $10,150
2. (2) Chub Frank/50 $5,100
3. (3) Darrell Lanigan/50 $3,000
4. (6) Shannon Babb/50 $2,500
5. (4) Shane Clanton/50 $2,000
6. (9) Doug Drown/50 $2,200
7. (14) Tim Dohm/50 $1,400
8. (12) Steve Francis/50 $1,300
9. (7) Tim McCreadie/50 $1,200
10. (5) Clint Smith/50 $1,100
11. (23) Tim Fuller/50 $1,050
12. (8) Donnie Moran/50 $1,000
13. (11) Eddie Carrier Jr./50 $950
14. (15) Vic Coffey/50 $1,150
15. (18) John Blankenship/50 $850
16. (17) Jeep VanWormer/49 $800
17. (22) Jerry Bowersock/49 $770
18. (13) Wayne Maffett Jr./49 $750
19. (16) Danny Johnson/49 $730
20. (20) Brian Ruhlman/49 $700
21. (24) Joe Isabell/48 $700
22. (21) Tyler Boggs/47 $700
23. (10) Rick Eckert/16 $700
24. (19) Rocky Owens/16 $700
Time of Race: 24 Mins., 05.014 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 2.113 Secs.
Yellow Flags: 3 (Laps 7, 17, 18)
Lap Leaders: Frank (1-43); Richards (44-50)
Provisional Starters: Fuller, Isabell
Rookie of the Race: Vic Coffey ($250)
WoO LMS ‘Bonus Bucks’ Winner: Doug Drown ($500)
Integra Shocks Crew Chief of the Race ($50): Jimmy Frey (Richards)
Chick Hawk Racing Hot Lap Award (half-off tire warmers): Frank
Heat No. 1 (10 laps – Top 4 Transfer): Richards, Frank, Dodd, Maffett, Owens, VanWormer, Eitniear, Harper, Stiltner, Missler, Schlenk, Wirt, Fleming
Heat No. 2 (10 laps – Top 4 Transfer): Lanigan, Babb, Eckert, Dohm, Boggs, K. Hahn, Esbenshade, Shiels, Hummer, Eddleblute, Isabell, Fuller (DNS) Potts
Heat No. 3 (10 laps – Top 4 Transfer): Moran, C. Smith, Carrier, Coffey, Blankenship, Ruhlman, Haynes, Moore , Deisenroth, Kingseed, B. Hahn, Scott, Ross
Heat No. 4 (10 laps – Top 4 Transfer): Clanton, McCreadie, Francis, D. Johnson, Noonan, Bowersock, Marteney, Markham , Kester, Bores, Roelle, Perkins (DNS) Beardsley
B-Main No. 1 (12 laps – Top 3 Transfer): VanWormer, Owens, Boggs, Esbenshade, Schlenk, Missler, Isabell, K. Hahn, Shiels, Hummer, Wirt, Stiltner, Eddleblute, Harper, Eitniear (DNS) Fleming, Fuller, Potts
B-Main No. 2 (12 laps – Top 3 Transfer): Blankenship, Ruhlman, Bowersock, Noonan, Deisenroth, Haynes, Moore, Marteney, Kester, Kingseed, Ross, Scott, B. Hahn, Bores, Roelle, Perkins, Markham (DNS) Beardsley |
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