Brandon Sheppard swept the Independence Day race weekend with a trio of World of Outlaws Morton Building Late Model Series victories.
The New Berlin, Illinois driver started the weekend with a win on Friday at Iowa’s Independence Motor Speedway. He followed that on Saturday with a win at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minnesota, then capped it off with a Tuesday night win at ABC Raceway in Ashland, Wisconsin.
On Friday night, Sheppard blasted around the outside of Chris Simpson on lap four, and then ran away to dominate the 50 lap feature at Independence Motor Speedway to collect the victory.
“Everything’s clicking right now, that’s what it takes to stay on a roll as long as we have been,” Sheppard said. “It’s just a lot of fun right now, especially with this month-and-a-half long trip we’ve got upcoming here, it’s definitely good to get the first win out of the way.”
Simpson finished in second, with Chase Junghans in third, Brent Larson in fourth and Tyler Bruening in fifth.
On Saturday night, Sheppard scored the win at Deer Creek Speedway after a brilliant move to take the lead and a stellar display of defense in the final laps to hold off a hard-charging Ricky Weiss.
After 33 laps of chasing and stalking leader Shane Clanton, Sheppard waited for the perfect moment to pull the trigger and take the lead. He found that moment on a lap 34 restart, driving his hard into turn one in the low groove underneath Clanton and drag racing him down the backstretch.
Clanton hung tough on the outside and held the spot through the start/finish line to lead lap 34 but couldn’t maintain the advantage past the second turn. Sheppard moved to the point, and held it the rest of the way to the victory.
“I finally found a little bit better line through turns one and two,” Sheppard said of his move on Clanton to take the lead. “A couple of restarts allowed me to slow down and get to the middle-bottom groove, and get enough momentum built up to get around him.”
But once Sheppard captured the lead, he soon came under fire from Weiss. By lap 43, he had closed on the leader, and on lap 47, Weiss moved to the inside of Sheppard, resulting in a door-to-door drag race down the backstretch. Weiss saw that chance go away when an untimely caution was thrown for a slowing Cade Dillard just ahead of them.
Weiss got one more shot at Sheppard on the restart, but ultimately came up just one as Sheppard held on for the win.
Jimmy Mars, Darrell Lanigan and Chase Junghans rounded out the top five.
On Tuesday, Sheppard held off both Clanton and Weiss to record the win at ABC Raceway. Mars finished in fourth, with Cade Dillard in fifth.
The World of Outlaws Morton Building Late Model Series returns to action on Friday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota. For more information, visit WorldofOutlaws.com.
WoO Morton Building Late Model Series
Independence Motor Speedway – Independence, IA
Race Results – July 5, 2019
1. 1-Brandon Sheppard
2. 32-Chris Simpson
3. 18-Chase Junghans
4. B1-Brent Larson
5. 16-Tyler Bruening
6. 28-Dennis Erb
7. 29-Darrell Lanigan
8. 25-Shane Clanton
9. 7-Ricky Weiss
10. 97-Cade Dillard
11. 99B-Boom Briggs
12. 6-Blake Spencer
13. 43-Jeremy Grady
14. 22B-Jonathan Brauns
15. 10-Paul Parker
16. 58-Dave Eckrich
17. 25s-Chad Simpson
18. 29D-Spencer Diercks
19. 87-John Emerson
20. 98-Jason Rauen
21. 17-Tim Simpson
WoO Morton Building Late Model Series
Deer Creek Speedway – Spring Valley, MN
Race Results – July 6, 2019
1. 1-Brandon Sheppard
2. 7-Ricky Weiss
3. 28m-Jimmy Mars
4. 29-Darrell Lanigan
5. 18-Chase Junghans
6. 25-Shane Clanton
7. 85-John Kaanta
8. 99B-Boom Briggs
9. B1-Brent Larson
10. 28-Dennis Erb
11. 25s-Chad Simpson
12. 11-Pat Doar
13. 97-Cade Dillard
14. 43-Jeremy Grady
15. 49-Jake Timm
16. 11r-Justin Reed
17. 10-Paul Parker
18. 6-Blake Spencer
19. 98-Jason Rauen
20. 16-Tyler Bruening
21. 58-A.J. Diemel
22. 3-Brett Swedberg
23. 6m-Jeff Massingill
24. 32-Chris Simpson
WoO Morton Building Late Model Series
ABC Raceway – Ashland, WI
Race Results – July 9, 2019
1. 1-Brandon Sheppard
2. 25-Shane Clanton
3. 7-Ricky Weiss
4. 28m-Jimmy Mars
5. 97-Cade Dillard
6. 18-Chase Junghans
7. B1-Brent Larson
8. 15-Nick Anvelink
9. 28-Dennis Erb
10. 27-Jake Redetzke
11. 6-Blake Spencer
12. 71-Rick Hanestad
13. 29-Darrell Lanigan
14. 99B-Boom Briggs
15. 15s-Donny Schatz
16. 11-Pat Doar
17. O-Mark Rose
18. 6m-Jeff Massingill
19. 79-Kevin Carlson
20. 19-Steve Larsen
21. 85-John Kaanta
22. 1e-Kevin Eder
23. 31-Travis Budisalovich
24. 71jr-Buddy Hanestad
25. 11d-Tim McMann
http://accesswdun.com/article/2019/7/812471/brandon-sheppard-sweeps-woo-lms-weekend-action