World of Outlaws Notebook
Notes: Thin crew helps T-Mac sharpen his focus
By Joshua Joiner
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Tim McCreadie had a single crew member for the Wild West Tour. (chrisburback.com)
On an extended trip like the recent Wild West Tour, some World of Outlaws Late Model Series teams choose to bring on additional crew members to help handle extra work on the road. That wasn't the case for former series champion Tim McCreadie. | Jordan Yaggy shows improvement
With crew member Johnny Cocco leaving the team just before the tour, the Watertown, N.Y.-based Sweeteners Plus team set out for the July 10 minitour opener at Hibbing (Minn.) Speedway with a skeleton crew of only McCreadie and truck driver Dave "Frogman" Griepsma.
As the nine-day stretch wrapped up Friday at River Cities, McCreadie was proud to not only make it through the trip but to also perform well.
"It's really just been me and him trying to do the impossible," said McCreadie, who recorded runner-up finishes at Hibbing and River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., and a third-place effort at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen, S.D. "We're racing against guys that have four or five pit guys. We're actually outrunning some of them and were as good as any of them. That's definitely something for us to be proud of.”
While Griepsma may not be a race car mechanic by trade the Sweeteners Plus employee was recently brought on to drive the team's hauler he stepped up to help McCreadie get through the trip. Even so, McCreadie still found himself wishing he had more help.
"He does help a lot and he's been great," McCreadie said. "But it's just like anything; it's nice as the driver not to have to do all the tire work and not to have to put gears in the car and things like that when I could be looking at the racetrack.
"In a way, it works out because I've gotten way more focused on how to make my car better because I don't have time to really talk to anybody or shoot around. I really only have time to concentrate on the car, so maybe it's better this way."
McCreadie was helped along the way by the generosity of other teams, including when the Rocket Chassis house car team helped him swap engines following the Wild West Tour opener at Hibbing.
"The good part of it is we broke a motor the other night, and that guy right there and his whole race team stayed and helped me change it," McCreadie said as he pointed over to Mark Richards and the Rocket Chassis crew in the pit spot next to his at River Cities. "Brady Smith has helped us this week and Tim Fuller's guys have helped us when we've been in a hurry to do things. Everybody in this pit area will help you out if they can. That's the good thing about Late Model racing.”
Clanton eyes turnaround
After disappointing results through the first three rounds of the Wild West Tour, a switch to his backup car proved to be just what Shane Clanton needed to turn his luck around in Friday's finale at River Cities.
Looking for his first series victory in over a year, Clanton won his heat race Friday night and ran among the leaders for the first half of the feature before settling into fourth at the finish.
"We changed cars today, just trying to change our luck a little bit," said Clanton, the Zebulon, Ga., driver who struggled through a disappointing first half of the season. "Our car was way better tonight than it's been being, so hopefully we can build on tonight and keep it going."
The solid run at River Cities not only provided a decent finish to an otherwise forgettable Wild West Tour, it also gave Clanton just his third top-five finish in a WoO LMS event this season and his first since Mid-April.
The long-time series regular will now look to use the momentum of the River Cities run as a jumpstart for what he hopes is a much more productive second half of the season.
"Any time you run good you feel better," said Clanton, who's currently seventh in the WoO points standings. "It gets everybody's hopes up that you're gonna start winning races. Hopefully we can get rolling and win a few soon.”
Race within a race
As he prepared to compete in Friday's event at River Cities, Bill Mooney of Selkirk, Manitoba, acknowledged that his chances of winning the night's WoO event were slim. But that didn't mean that Mooney, the Canadian driver who's a frequent competitor in track’s weekly WISSOTA Late Model division, was taking the event lightly.
Though his WISSOTA spec-engine put him at a significant horsepower disadvantage, Mooney still had plenty of reason to keep his competitive edge with his goals set on making the feature lineup and finishing highest among the track's regular competitors.
"Hopefully we all make the show, but it is kinda our own race within a race," Mooney, a five-time champion of WISSOTA's Canadian region, said before the start of Friday's program. "To expect to run up front with these guys is really unrealistic, but we'd like to make the show and maybe win that race against the other local guys."
Mooney didn't ultimately win the race among area's weekly racers hometown driver Dustin Strand was the only local driver ahead of him in 15th. But he accomplished his goal of making the feature and finishing 18th.
By making the main event, Mooney also accomplished another goal of promoting his sponsors in front of the large crowd attending the race.
"We got a car so we might as well come down here in the pits and be part of the show," Mooney said. "We have a couple local sponsors that enjoy having the car out on the track. They love to see the car out on the track when the stands are full at a big race like this.”
WoO odds and ends
Two of the richest races on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series are coming up with July 25-26’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) American Legion Speedway ($25,000-to-win) and with Aug. 1-2’s USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. ($50,000-to-win). … Jordan Yaggy of Rochester, Minn., was joined on the Wild West Tour by veteran Winona, Minn., driver Lance Matthees as they worked out of the same hauler. "We're more or less teammates anyway," said Matthees, who made all four features with a best finish of ninth at Deer Creek Speedway. "We get along great so it just made sense to kind of team up so we could both do this deal.” … Brady Smith of Solon Springs, Wis., couldn’t get in the mix the first three Wild West Tour races, but he finally got things turned around at River Cities, where he battled with Tim McCreadie for the lead early in the feature before topping Shane Clanton and Darrell Lanigan in a back-and-forth battle to finish third. "You just gotta keep digging when things are going bad like that," Smith said. "Your luck's not gonna change if you give up on it."
