Brandon Sheppard took the lead on lap 33
The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series paid its first ever visit to Outagamie Speedway on Friday night. Brandon Sheppard earned the win in the national touring series event on the track located in Seymour, WI. The New Berlin, IL driver earned $10,000 for taking the checkered flag ahead of the pack in a race broadcast live by DirtVision.com.
Darrell Lanigan was fastest in Group A qualifying after he sailed around the third-mile clay oval in 14.322 seconds to beat out Brett Swedberg, Brandon Sheppard, Ashton Winger and Rodney Sanders.
The leader of Group B time-trials was Dennis Erb Jr. as he turned a lap of 14.754 seconds to better the efforts of Jason Rauen, Jimmy Mars, Nick Avenlink and Chase Junghans.
Darrell Lanigan took the first heat race of the night by besting Brandon Sheppard, Rodney Sanders and Justin Reed while it was Ashton Winger who scored the win in the second preliminary over Brett Swedberg, Scott Bloomquist and Cade Dillard.
Dennis Erb Jr. won the third heat of the evening ahead of Jimmy Mars, Jake Timm and Chase Junghans just before Jason Rauen took the fourth and final heat race by topping Nick Anvelink, Ricky Weiss and Troy Springborn.
Boom Briggs and Paul Parker won the two Last Chance Showdowns used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
The WoO Late Models redraw set the first four rows of the starting grid in the order of Dennis Erb Jr., Ashton Winger, Darrell Lanigan Jason Rauen, Brandon Sheppard, Brett Swedberg and Jimmy Mars.
At the start of the 50-lap feature it was Erb who bolted to the early lead ahead of Winger, Rauen, Lanigan and Sheppard. Winger went to the lead on the second circuit by passing Erb as Rauen watched from just behind.
Swedberg and Sheppard worked their way into the back of the top-5 by lap 4 while the battle between Winger, Erb and Rauen just ahead until a caution for Timm slowed the action.
Rauen surged to the lead on lap 5 while Swedberg and Sheppard moved around Erb to take third and fourth. In the meantime, Rauen and Winger began to slip away from the pack by the end of the tenth lap.
Winger and Rauen took turns leading as they worked through slower traffic before Winger appeared to seize the top spot on lap 14. However, contact between the top-2 cars as they battled among slower machines sent Winger for a spin to bring out a caution.
On the ensuing restart, Sheppard pulled all the way up to second and immediately began to harass Rauen for the race lead as those two cars pulled away from all other challengers.
The fight for the lead raged at the halfway mark and continued for multiple laps. Finally, Sheppard took the point away from Rauen on lap 33. Lanigan then moved in and began to challenge Rauen for second as the laps clicked away.
The tussle between Lanigan and Rauen would end with ten laps remaining when Rauen spun after contact.
Following the final restart of the feature, Sheppard drove on to claim his seventh World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature win of 2020.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Darrell Lanigan, 3. Nick Anvelink, 4. Ricky Weiss, 5. Rodney Sanders, 6. Brett Swedberg, 7. Cade Dillard, 8. Chase Junghans, 9. Scott Bloomquist, 10. Dennis Erb Jr., 11. Justin Ritchie, 12. Dustin Sorenson, 13. Chris Engels, 14. Justin Reed, 15. Ashton Winger, 16. Taylor Scheffler, 17. Boom Briggs, 18. Brent Larson, 19. Jared Siefert, 20. Jason Rauen, 21. Paul Parker, 22. Jimmy Mars, 23. Troy Springborn, 24. Jake Timm
