By Phillip Prichard, MSA:
The Dirt Track at Charlotte hosted the World of Outlaws Finals in Concord, NC on the first weekend of November.
Jonathan Davenport topped off his dream 2015 season with a convincing victory in Sunday’s 50-lap Bad Boy Buggies World of Outlaws World Finals finale.
The 32-year-old superstar passed Darrell Lanigan for the lead on lap 31 and never looked back in the season-ending World of Outlaws Late Model Series event, which was postponed one day by wet weather.
The $12,000 triumph was the 22nd overall victory of a historic 2015 campaign for Davenport, whose five crown-jewel wins helped push his earnings for the year over the $600,000 mark.
Darrel Lanigan was second in his new No 15. Chris Madden settled for third place after starting from the outside pole. Jimmy Owens who has won the World Finals finale in five of the past six years, finished fourth and Lanigan’s Clint Bowyer Racing teammate, Don O’Neal climbed forward from the 12th starting spot to place fifth.
Joey Saldana led all 30 laps of 30-lap sprint car feature. He was never seriously challenged in picking up his third World of Outlaws win this season and the 94th of his career. It also was Saldana’s fifth win at the Dirt Track at Charlotte, second-most among sprint car drivers behind Donny Schatz’ eight victories.
Shane Stewart finished second, 2.698 seconds behind Saldana. Completing the top five were Daryn Pittman, Stevie Smith, and Dale Blaney.
Canadian Tim Kerr won his first Super DIRTcar Series big-block modified feature. Kerr led the final 10 laps in the 40-lap A-Main. He finished 2.347 seconds ahead of Matt Sheppard, and won $8,000.
Sheppard, clinched his fourth point’s championship with his runner-up finish. Larry Wight finished third, followed by Danny Johnson and Australian Pete Britten.
On Friday night, Brandon Sheppard made his guest appearance driving for the Ohio-based Best Performance Motorsports team 54 a memorable one.
Taking advantage of the pole starting spot he drew after winning a heat race, Sheppard grabbed the lead at the initial green flag and never looked back enroute to a rich $12,000 victory.
The feature’s scheduled 50-lap distance was cut by track officials due to the length of the racing program, which was stretched well past midnight by a delayed start due to morning rain and two crashes in the accompanying WoO Sprint Car division that forced breaks in the action so track crews could repair damaged catch fencing in turns two and four.
Sheppard kept Shane Clanton at bay throughout the middle portion of the blockbuster doubleheader weekend’s first Dirt Late Model headliner to triumph by 0.634 of a second over the 40-year-old star, who officially clinched the 2015 WoO points championship by simply starting the evening’s feature.
Chris Madden finished a solid third, nearly two seconds behind the victor at the checkered flag after he started sixth. Outside-polesitter Darrell Lanigan slipped to a fourth-place finish in his first start driving for NASCAR Sprint Car standout Clint Bowyer’s Georgia Boot-sponsored operation and Josh Richards completed the top five after slipping from fourth to ninth on the race’s opening circuit because he bicycled between turns one and two and lost ground.
A wild night two of the Bad Boy Buggies World Finals turned into a big night for Dusty Zomer who picked up his first ever World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series victory.
Zomer started Friday night’s feature in sixth and battled early into the top three. After leader Trey Starks pulled in with a bent tie-rod and Joey Saldana, who took over the lead, lost it to a broken top-wing sideboard.
Zomer joins Greg Wilson and Stewart Friesen as a first time winner this season. He was also the 22nd different driver to stand in victory lane this season and seventh different driver to win during World Finals weekend in the last four years.
Rounding out the top five were: 2nd. 27-Greg Hodnett; 3rd. 51S-Stevie Smith; 4th. 49-Brad Sweet; and 5th. 17W-Bryan Clauson.
For the second consecutive season Danny Johnson put his Chris Genarrelli-owned Big Block Modified in Victory Lane. The ageless veteran campaigner used a nifty pass on an early restart to assume the lead and eventually the $8,000 win.
Rounding out the top five were 2nd. (99L) Larry Wight; 3rd. (91) Billy Decker; 4th. (9H) Matt Sheppard; and 5th. (66h) Duane Howard.
An attention getting moment in the B-Main of the Late Model series was Dennis “Rambo” Franklin going air borne between Turns 1 and 2.
The WoO LMS will kick off its 2016 season with back-to-back trips to Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, GA and Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, FL, but for the first time, the two tracks will share the same weekend. Screven will open the WoO LMS campaign with a pair of events on Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13 ahead of a visit to Bubba Raceway Park on Sunday, Feb. 14.