Working Man 50; Lanigan Rolls To Victory Lane; King Charges Through Field For Uncle Sam 30 Win

Pat Miller Photo

There are simply no adjectives left to describe the season Darrell Lanigan has enjoyed in 2014. 

The Union, Ky driver turn in a performance at Lernerville Speedway in the "Working Man 50" Friday night was about as perfect as it gets.

Lanigan set quick time, won his heat, redrew the pole, and put the competition behind him for good in the 50 lap feature en route to his fourteenth World of Outlaw Late Model victory this season. 

"At the start there we moved around a bit when we were racing with Marlar, but this car was great everywhere I wanted it to go tonight and it's been that way all year long " said Lanigan following the action. 

Gary Heeman photo

Though Lanigan brought the field to green, the fastest car early on was Mike Marlar who made his way by Lanigan on lap four.  Marlar, who worked the top side impressively all evening long, led the early portion of the feature while behind him, Lanigan had his hands full with a hard charging Rick Eckert.

As the leaders approached lapped traffic, Lanigan began reeling in Marlar and it wasn't too much longer before the two were engaged in a door handle to door handle battle for the lead which Lanigan won with a lap 17 pass.

Marlar would get a golden chance to retake the top spot shortly after when the yellow flag flew for Chub Frank which restacked the field. And on the ensuing restart, Marlar threw the kitchen sink at Lanigan having gone around Eckert to reclaim the second spot. However, Marlar would get no closer as he faded down the stretch to a sixth place finish.

With Lanigan in firm control, the battle waged on between Eckert, Shane Clanton, Eric Wells, Tim McCreadie and Jared Miley who'd worked his way from the 11th starting spot to fifth by the halfway point.

Following Frank's second caution for a flat tire on lap 24, Lanigan went back to work and made it look easy, rolling his homemade Club 29 car right through the middle of the track with precision and decisiveness when it came to dealing with lapped traffic.  He checked out to a three second advantage as the laps wound down.

Pat Miller photo

Eckert held the second spot firmly for the remainder of the night but could not catch Lanigan who was simply too strong.  The pack behind them was being invaded by one Tim Fuller who'd slowly moved forward from his 13th starting spot to take the third spot away from Eric Wells on a restart with 14 laps to go. 

Miley had his hopes for a top five dashed when he jumped the cushion in turns three and four with a handful of laps remaining. The local standout had worked his way to fourth and acquitted himself very well among the drivers from the area. Miley would end up 13th.

But the night belonged to Lanigan, who took home his third checkered flag in four tries in World of Outlaw action at Lernerville in 2014 having won the Firecracker 100, and a preliminary night feature during the three day event in June. 

Top 10: 
1. Darrell Lanigan
2. Rick Eckert
3. Tim Fuller
4. Eric Wells
5. Tim McCreadie
6. Mike Marlar
7. Frank Heckenast Jr
8. Shane Clanton
9. Clint Smith
10. Vic Coffey

Gary Heeman photo

Former World of Outlaw rookie of the year Russ King took home his second victory in as many years in the held over "Uncle Sam 30" , and he came from the back to do so. 

King, who finished 12th in the previous feature, took home $3,000 for the effort in besting the 14 car, 30 lap race.

Doug Drown and Tony Musolino brought the field to the green flag and went in opposite directions from the get go with Drown staking himself to a comfortable early lead while Musolino faded towards the back. Behind them, Kenny Schaltenbrand began his assault using his trademark low groove which had considerable bite left in it. 

Schaltenbrand whittled away Drown's multi second lead to a mere few tenths and was in position to pass for the lead as lapped traffic approached. But Schaltenbrand spun on the front straight away after contact with Todd Bachman just as he was getting in position to take Drown.  

Meanwhile, King was flying through the field as a three way battle for he lead erupted between himself, Drown and a hard charging Garrett Krummert. Coming out of turn four, they spread themselves three wide with King on the outside as he put his rocket chassis in front to stay just past the starting line.  

A restart with nine laps to go gave Krummert and new challenger Vic Coffey new life, but neither could catch King, or even come close. King put the matter to rest by stretching out a five second lead once in clean air and never looked back.

Top 10:
1. Russ King
2. Vic Coffey
3. Garrett Krummert
4. Doug Drown
5. Colton Flinner
6. Chris Casner
7. Dan Angellichio
8. John Flinner
9. Herman Bertolini
10. Tony Musolino


You can view photographer Patrick Miller's photo album from the Working Man 50 here:
World Of Outlaw LM "Working Man 50" Photo Page