Clanton decimated the field all week at Volusia.
*Story composed from DirtonDirt.com video and various social media reports.
The World of Outlaws Late Models concluded what has been a long 2015 SpeedWeeks on Saturday night at the Volusia Speedway Park. A total of 45 Super Late Models were signed in for competition in an event that would pay $10,000 to the winner at the track located near Daytona Beach.
In the end, it was Shane Clanton who delivered a clean sweep of the WoO Late Models races and took four of the five total features held during the week as he had to track down Tim McCreadie and then fight off Jimmy Owens to capture another coveted Gator trophy.
Newport’s Jimmy Owens was fastest in Group A qualifying with a quick time of 15.623 seconds around the clay oval. He was followed in that session by Frank Heckenast, Jr., Tyler Bruening and Ricky Weiss.
Shane Clanton showed no signs of letting up during his recent hot streak as he set fast time in Group B and overall with a lap of 15.567 seconds. Eric Wells, Billy Moyer and Dale McDowell followed the three-time Volusia winner in that grouping.
Drivers were assigned to four different heat races after time-trials with the top-4 from each preliminary transferring to the feature and all others being sent to the Last Chance Showdowns. The top-2 finishers in each heat would go to a redraw for the purpose of setting the first four rows on the starting grid for the main event.
Tyler Bruening had to beat back a race-long challenge from Jimmy Owens to win heat race #1. Those two drivers would go to the redraw while Ricky Weiss and Kyle Bronson also moved on to the feature from that heat.
Kent Robinson powered away from the field to win heat race #2 after being moved onto the front row when Mark Dotson jumped the initial attempt at a start. He won over Frank Heckenast, Jr., Dotson and Jared Landers. Robinson and Heckenast went on the redraw.
As he had done all week, Clanton decimated the field by winning heat race #4 by more than four seconds ahead of Billy Moyer, Chub Frank and Steve Francis.
Eric Wells won heat race #4 over sixth starting Tim McCreadie, Scott Bloomquist and Walker Arthur.
The redraw placed McCreadie and Heckenast on the front row for the main event to be followed by Robinson, Owens, Wells, Clanton, Bruening and Moyer.
Chase Junghans, Dennis Erb, Jr., Chad Hollenbeck and Ivedent Lloyd, Jr. made the feature out of Last Chance Showdown #1 while Josh Richards, Kenny Pettyjohn, Darrell Lanigan and Jonathan Davenport came out of the night’s second LCS.
The waving of the green flag on the 50-lap feature sent McCreadie to the early lead from his inside front row starting spot with Heckenast, Robinson, Clanton and Owens giving chase in the early laps. The first several circuits saw the leaders run at a torrid pace on the lightning fast track. By lap ten, T-mac had already found himself in the midst of slower cars as Heckenast closed right to the rear spoiler of the New York driver’s ride.
On lap 15, however, the traffic that had allowed Heckenast catch up to McCreadie served to ruin his chances as the Illinois driver tagged the back of a car he was attempting to lap. That contact inflicted heavy damage to the left front of the #99 machine.
A lap 17 caution for the slowing car of Kenny Pettyjohn allowed the front runners to take a break from the near flat-out pace they had been running. On the ensuing restart, Clanton, Owens and Moyer moved around the wounded car of Heckenast.
Another yellow flag on lap 20 set up what would prove to be a fierce battle among the top-3 drivers as Owens and Clanton swapped positions multiple times while also applying heavy pressure to McCreadie.
After a couple more cautions, one of which saw the retirement of the fifth running Moyer, Clanton and Owens were set to pounce on McCreadie. When the #39 machine went high in turn 3 on lap 31, both of his pursuers jetted by. Owens challenged Clanton for the lead and even drew side-by-side with the Georgia driver, but was never able to take the top spot.
A lap 38 caution for a blown engine on the Josh Richards entry set up a dash to the finish. Clanton was able to pull away while Owens had to beat back a bid by Bloomquist to wrest away the runner-up position. Lanigan also made a late charge as he moved from 6th to 4th over the closing laps. But in the end, no one had anything for Clanton as he stormed away from the pack for the win.
Feature Finish: 1. Shane Clanton, 2. Jimmy Owens, 3. Scott Bloomquist, 4. Darrell Lanigan, 5. Steve Francis, 6. Tim McCreadie, 7. Kent Robinson, 8. Eric Wells, 9. Chase Junghans, 10. Boom Briggs, 11. Morgan Bagley, 12. Ricky Weiss, 13. Chub Frank, 14. Rick Eckert, 15. Brandon Sheppard, 16. Tyler Bruening, 17. Josh Richards, 18. Kenny Pettyjohn, 19. Chad Hollenbeck, 20. Dennis Erb, Jr., 21. Billy Moyer, 22. Kyle Bronson, 23. Jonathan Davenport, 24. Frank Heckenast, Jr. 25. Mark Dotson, 26. Walker Arthur, 27. Jared Landers, 28. Brandon Overton, 29. Ivedent Lloyd, Jr., 30. Dale McDowell
