MASON CITY, Iowa - Shane Clanton was stronger than stone Friday night, dominating the World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series 50-lap feature at Iowa’s Mason City Motor Speedway.
The Zebulon, Georgia speedster not only solidified his fifth win of the season, but also tied Rick Eckert for fourth all time in career wins (35) in the series.
“Oh man, that car was good,” Clanton said. “It’s pretty special right now. It was a good win here that eluded me the last time I was here (in 2004). I went a little hard on the tire [then], but tonight we ran a little softer than everyone else, and it was pretty good.”
Clanton, the series defending champion, rose to the top of the track as the green flag waved-on the 24-car field. Within a half of a lap, he reeled-in Eckert with his No. 25 Weldbank Energy/ Coopers Meat Packers Capital car. The long 1/2-mile oval lent enough room for Clanton to separate himself from the pack lap-by-lap. By lap nine in a caution-free feature, Clanton was 2.402 seconds away.
As Eckert began to fade, other drivers took advantage. Eric Wells, who captured his first podium finish the night before, replaced Eckert for the second position. Chad Simpson, following behind Wells, followed suit. By lap 15, the podium was spaced by more than one-second between the trio of drivers.
The only immediate challenge for Clanton came with 37 laps to go when he approached the back of the field. Clanton’s lead was diminished by .400 seconds for the lap. However, Clanton quickly rebuilt his lead to a 1.2 second margin. The gap widened 16 laps later to 3.913 seconds.
“Yeah, 50 laps here is kind of grueling just trying to hit your marks,” Clanton said. “We had to do what we did (passing lapped traffic). Nothing was going to slow us down.”
While Clanton pulled away, Josh Richards charged to the front after starting ninth in the feature. Richards early in the race battled for fifth position with Tyler Erb, who is second in the rookie of the year standings. From there, Richards had little opposition to his strong push to the front.
Richards passed Eckert for fourth when a lapped car prevented Eckert from slamming the door on his advances. Richards proceeded to gain ground on Wells, who he passed a few laps later. With 10 laps remaining, Richards made the move on Simpson for second place.
“It’s a lot of fun racing right here in Iowa,” said Simpson, who was awarded the fast time award in qualifying. “We had a good car. We’re getting closer. The tire game hurts us a little when we come to these deals because we run on hard tires around here all the time. But, I guess we’re guessing pretty good so far (on our setup).”
With fewer than five laps remaining, Richards ran out of time. From a 3.116 lead, Richards managed to only close the gap between him and Clanton to 2.017 seconds. It marked Richards’ 18th top five finish of the season.
“Shane and those guys did a great job,” Richards said. “We got stuck on the outside from our heat race, lost position and had to start ninth. We were just green flag the whole way, and it just took so long to run everybody down. I think we were better than he was at the end, but we were just strung out way too far.”
For more information on the World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series, visit WoOLMS.com.
World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series
Mason City Motor Speedway – Mason City, Iowa
Race Reports – July 8, 2016
1. 25- Shane Clanton
2. 1- Josh Richards
3. 25s- Chad Simpson
4. 7- Rick Eckert
5. 21JR- Billy Moyer, Jr.
6. 91- Tyler Erb
7. 18- Eric Wells
8. 16B- Tyler Bruening
9. 99JR- Frank Heckenast, Jr.
10. 14M- Morgan Bagley
15. 1*- Chub Frank
16. 32- Chris Simpson
17. 28M- Jimmy Mars
18. 76- Brandon Overton
19. 29- Spencer Diercks
20. 77- Jordan Yaggy
21. 11- Austin Smith
22. 20- Rodney Sanders
23. 2c- Joey Coulter
24. 98- Jason Rauen
