Darrell Lanigan earned his first WoO win of 2020
The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series took to the track at Red River Valley Speedway for the first of two events this weekend. At the end of the evening, former series champion Darrell Lanigan came away from the West Fargo, ND track with the winner’s trophy. The Union, KY driver earned $10,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by DirtVision.com.
Ricky Weiss was fastest in Group A qualifying with a lap of 15.036 seconds around the clay oval to better the efforts of Darrell Lanigan, Boom Briggs and Ashton Winger.
Brandon Sheppard topped Group B time-trials with a lap of 15.677 to beat out Cade Dillard, Dennis Erb Jr. and Chase Junghans
Ricky Weiss led the way in the first heat race of the night by outrunning Boom Briggs, Dave Mass and Shawn Mayer while Darrell Lanigan took the checkered flag in the second preliminary ahead of Ashton Winger, Scott Bloomquist and Donny Schatz.
Brandon Sheppard was the victor in the third heat over Dennis Erb Jr., Jordan Yaggy and Ryan Corbett just before Cade Dillard topped Chase Junghans, Mitch McGrath and Brent Larson.
Brody Troftgruben and Morgan Ward won the Last Chance Showdowns used to set the remainder of the field for the main event.
The WoO Late Models redraw set the starting lineup in the first four rows as Ricky Weiss, Darrell Lanigan, Cade Dillard, Brandon Sheppard, Dennis Erb Jr., Ashton Winger, Chase Junghans and Boom Briggs.
At the start of the 50-lap feature Weiss jumped to the early lead with Lanigan, Dillard, Sheppard and Erb in his wake. Erb made an early move as he took fourth away from the red hot Sheppard on lap 3 while Weiss worked to slip away from his pursuers.
Erb continued his climb as he passed by Dillard to assume the third spot on lap 8 and then by Lanigan to briefly take hold of the runner-up position on lap 11. However, Erb’s time in second would be short lived as Lanigan regained the spot on lap 13. Then a slip by Erb allowed Dillard and Sheppard to also pass the No 28 machine to claim third and fourth.
By lap 17, Lanigan had closed in on Weiss and began to apply pressure. Two laps later the ‘Bluegrass Bandit’ took the lead away from Weiss and quickly began to pull away.
Sheppard passed Dillard for third on lap 23 as Junghans also joined the fay by making his presence known in the top-5.
Over the caution-free second half of the race Lanigan was able to maintain a relatively comfortable advantage as he picked his way through slower cars.
Junghans moved up another position to fourth on lap 33 as Sheppard began to close in on the second running Weiss. Finally, Sheppard was able to grab that spot just before the cars took the white flag.
But Lanigan went largely unchallenged over the closing laps to secure the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Darrell Lanigan, 2. Brandon Sheppard, 3. Ricky Weiss, 4. Chase Junghans, 5. Ashton Winger, 6. Cade Dillard, 7. Dennis Erb Jr., 8. Dave Mass, 9. Scott Bloomquist, 10. Donny Schatz, 11. Boom Briggs, 12. Shawn Meyer, 13. Mitch McGrath, 14. Ryan Corbert, 15. Chad Mahder, 16. Jeffrey Massengill, 17. Brody Troftgruben, 18. Blair Nothdurft, 19. Jordan Yaggy, 20. Casey Meyer, 21. Morgan Ward, 22. Dan Dowling, 23. Brent Larson, 24. Scott Ward
