The World of Outlaws Late Models Series made a return visit to the Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. to make up a race that had been rained out earlier in the season. The wait proved worthwhile for Darrell Lanigan as he scored the win and claimed the $10,000 first prize.
Shane Clanton started the night off in a fast way by posting the quickest time in Group A and overall qualifying with a lap of 12.668 seconds. Clint Smith led Group B time-trials with a time of 12.962 seconds.
Four heat races were contested to set the starting lineup for the feature race with the top-2 from each of those preliminaries going to a redraw to establish the first four rows in the main event.
Mike Marlar won the first heat with Morgan Bagley running second. Darrell Lanigan took the second heat with Rick Eckert coming home as the runner up. It was Clint Smith coming out of heat three as the victor with Ray Cook following while Tim McCreadie cruised to the win in heat four ahead of second running Tanner English.
The World of Outlaws redraw placed McCreadie on the pole with Eckert, Lanigan, Bagley, English, Cook, Smith and Marlar filling out the remainder of the first eight spots.
Riley Hickman and Steve Casebolt won the two Last Chance Showdowns to fill out the field.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, McCreadie immediately jumped to the early lead on the tight, bullring track with Eckert quickly seizing the second spot ahead of Lanigan, English and Bagley. But Lanigan wasted no time going to work on Eckert for the right to pursue the leader as the Club 29 house car applied heavy pressure to the Rocket house car.
The top-3 of McCreadie, Eckert and Lanigan broke away from the rest of the pack in the early going but slower traffic would prove to be an equalizer on the quarter-mile track in a feature that ran caution free. By lap 7, the leaders found themselves mired in a gaggle of cars running at the tail of the field. And it would be Lanigan who would take the greatest advantage of those lapped machines.
On lap 11, the ‘Bluegrass Bandit’ used the low side of the track to wrest the second spot away from Eckert. He then went after McCreadie as both drivers worked to find the best line through the maze of slower cars.
Meanwhile, drivers who started further back in the pack began to make their way forward. The 8th starting Marlar employed a higher line around both ends of the track to pick off his opponents one by one as the laps clicked away. At lap 19 the Winfield, Tenn. driver took the 4th spot away from English and by lap 26 he had moved around Eckert for 3rd. But that’s where his progression would end without a caution to allow him to close the gap on the leaders.
Veteran driver Chub Frank followed Marlar’s lead and worked his way through the competition from his 11th starting spot.
By lap 26, Lanigan’s pressure on McCreadie for the lead had become intense as he repeatedly worked to the low side of the track looking for an advantage. Finally, the WoO points leader was able to use the slower car of Chase Junghans as a pic on McCreadie. That allowed Lanigan to sweep into the lead.
But McCreadie was not about to give up. The New York native stayed glued to Lanigan’s rear spoiler and waited for his opportunity to retake the top position on the scoreboard. And with less than 10 laps to go, that opportunity presented itself when Lanigan found himself trapped behind a slower car. McCreadie went high and drew alongside briefly, but was unable to complete the pass.
At the finish it was Darrell Lanigan winning over Tim McCreadie, Mike Marlar, Rick Eckert, Ray Cook, Chub Frank, Morgan Bagley and Eric Wells.
“He’s been really good lately and making me get up on the wheel,” Lanigan said of McCreadie during his post-race interview. “We’re working really hard and I’m sure they are working hard too. I saw a car on my outside and I didn’t know if it was him or a lapped car so I knew I had to get going. I kind of sliced and diced through the traffic after that.”