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Eldora Speedway...
Blankenship
reaches mountaintop of dirt Late Model racing
West Virginia
Driver Climbs Most Cherished Stage With Eldora’s World 100 Victory
(courtesy Kevin Kovac)
ROSSBURG, OH (Sept. 7) -- Welcome to the elite, John Blankenship.
The 32-year-old driver from Williamson, W.Va., reached the mountaintop
of dirt Late Model racing on Saturday night, racing forward from the
12th starting spot to capture the 43rd annual DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned
World 100 at Eldora Speedway.
Blankenship passed Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., for the lead on
lap 53 and never looked back. He secured the biggest win of his
decade-long racing career – a star-making triumph worth $46,000 – by
reaching the checkered flag 1.757 seconds ahead of Union, Ky.’s Darrell
Lanigan of Union, Ky., whose late bid to finally put the World 100 on
his resume fell short.
A low-key racer who has come of age as a championship contender this
season on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Blankenship kept an
even keel during his Victory Lane celebration with his father/car owner
Don and crew. He had a hard time grasping the significance of what he
had accomplished in front of a massive crowd that ranked as one of the
largest in the history of the historic high-banked, half-mile oval.
“It’s unbelievable,” Blankenship said with reverence after becoming the
27th driver – and first from the state of West Virginia – to win dirt
Late Model racing’s most prestigious event. “I can’t describe being up
here (on the winner’s stage).
“I’m not a real emotional type of guy. I’ve been let down so many times
by expectations being so high (at Eldora), when it finally happens it’s
almost just surreal. It’ll soak in about Wednesday and then I’ll be
really elated and probably go party some.”
As Blankenship cruised out front and Lanigan vainly attempted to run
him down, the most compelling late-race battle was for third place.
Three-time World 100 winner Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., came
out on top of the three-car tussle, grabbing third from Phillips on lap
94 and then turning back a furious outside assault from 16-year-old
Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., to register his 16th top-five finish in
24 career World 100 starts.
Pierce, who started from the outside pole and led laps 8-13, settled
for a fourth-place finish in his spectacular first-ever World 100
appearance. The rising young star drew some of the loudest cheers from
the crowd as he went toe-to-toe with veteran drivers throughout the
race.
World of Outlaws Late Model Series points leader Josh Richards of
Shinnston, W.Va., completed the top five, reaching fifth with two laps
remaining to conclude a steady march forward from the 20th starting
spot.
Phillips, who started from the pole position and led laps 1-7 and
15-52, slipped to a sixth-place finish in his eighth career World 100
start but first since 2006.
No one broke through traffic in the 100-lapper quicker that
Blankenship. He was only ninth when the race’s first caution flag flew
on lap 21 for a flat right-rear tire on the car driven by Brandon
Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., but he reached fifth on lap 36, took
third from Pierce on lap 44, passed Lanigan for second on lap 48 and
sailed into the lead with a smooth slide underneath Phillips on lap 53.
“We’ve had a good car here all week and hit on a little something last
night,” Blankenship said of his Rocket machine. “I felt real good about
a long (green-flag) run, so I was real surprised I took the lead as
early as I did.”
With the race running without interruption following a second and final
caution flag on lap 56 for the slowing car of Chatham, Ill.’s Brian
Shirley, Blankenship set a torrid pace. He built a near straightaway
advantage by lap 70, giving him more than enough cushion to absorb
Lanigan’s late-race charge.
Lanigan, 43, wrestled second place from Phillips on lap 77 and managed
to cut Blankenship’s nearly two-second lead in half within 10 circuits.
But Blankenship found the rhythm he needed to keep Lanigan from drawing
any closer.
“I was really nervous about the whole race,” said Blankenship, whose
three previous World 100 A-Main starts resulted in progressively better
finishes of 21st (2009), 11th (’10) and fifth (’11). “I thought they
were breathing down my neck the whole time, so I was driving pretty
hard and didn’t know how long my stuff was gonna stay under me.
“Evey time I tried to be a little more patient I would get a push and I
couldn’t even run down the lapped cars. I decided to just start driving
it in like I was when I was trying to catch the leader and actually the
car handled a lot better.”
Lanigan had a perfect view of Blankenship’s impeccable mount while
chasing the leader late in the distance. Try as he might, the alltime
winningest WoO LMS driver couldn’t catch Blankenship.
With the loss, Lanigan surpassed Freddy Smith as the driver who has
made the most career World 100 A-Main starts (20) without reaching
Victory Lane. He recorded his second runner-up finish and eighth
overall top-five run in the event, but that was little consolation to
the hyper-competitive racer.
“It’s just disappointing to come up here and be that close,” said
Lanigan, whose previous second-place finish came in 1999. “I already
got a couple ideas of what we should’ve done, but it’s too late now. We
were just a little bit off.
“(Blankenship) kind of surprised me to be that good down there in the
middle. He could run that middle to the bottom. I tried it and felt
good there, but he was just a little bit better. I reeled him in and
got within six, seven car lengths, but then I couldn’t close up no
more.”
Lanigan could only look on from afar – or, more precisely, the
post-race inspection area in the pit area – as Blankenship celebrated
on the winner’s stage.
“We’ve had an up-and-down season and really slipped the last four or
five weeks,” said Blankenship, who briefly led the Lucas Oil Late Model
Dirt Series points standings in the middle of the summer before falling
back. “This is just a really big booster to us.
“You definitely have doubts,” he continued, “especially when you come
out here (to Eldora) and can’t even run last in a B-Main – that’s
happened before too. It’s just a really competitive sport, and that’s
actually why I love it so much. You can be the fastest car one week and
the slowest car the next. It makes wins like this even more special.”
Finishing in positions 7-10 were Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville,
Fla., who ran as high as fourth for a short period after the lap-56
restart; Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga.; Jared Landers of
Batesville, Ark.; and Eddie Carrier Jr. of Salt Rock, W.Va.
Winners of Saturday night’s six 15-lap heats were J.R. Hotovy of
Hartford, Mich., Shirley, Davenport, Lanigan, Pierce and Phillips. The
20-lap B-Mains were captured by teenager Tyler Reddick of DuQuoin,
Ill., and Bloomquist.
Two five-lap ‘Scrambles’ for drivers failing to earn transfer positions
in the B-Mains were also contested, with Randy Weaver of Crossville,
Tenn., and Morgan Bagley of Longview, Texas, earning $1,000 each for
their victories.
HEAT 1 - 1. 13-Jr Hotovy [2]; 2. 17M-Dale Mcdowell [1]; 3. 99JR-Frank
Heckenast Jr [4]; 4. 11-Tyler Reddick [3]; 5. 25F-Jason Feger [6]; 6.
6-Dustin Neat [9]; 7. 32-Chris Simpson [11]; 8. 48-Chad Ruhlman [14];
9. 81-Randy Korte [13]; 10. 49-Brian Ruhlman [10]; 11. 77K-Steve Kester
[16]; 12. 58X-Gary Christian [17]; 13. B12-Kevin Weaver [8]; 14.
15-Steve Francis [5]; 15. 36-Matt Irey [18]; 16. 2-Justin Chance [15];
17. 28-Dennis Erb Jr [DNF]; 18. 21H-Robby Hensley [DNF]; 19. 31-Nick
Latham [DNS];
HEAT 2 - 1. 3S-Brian Shirley [4]; 2. 44-Earl Pearson, Jr [9]; 3.
20C-Duane Chamberlain [11]; 4. 1V-Vic Hill [1]; 5. 116-Randy Weaver
[10]; 6. 7R-Kent Robinson [16]; 7. 18K-Brandon Kinzer [14]; 8. 3-Matt
Miller [2]; 9. 19-Chad Smith [7]; 10. 17-Shannon Thornsberry [8]; 11.
11S-Ryan Sutter [13]; 12. 5B-Mike Marlar [DNF]; 13. 1-Josh Richards
[DNF]; 14. 11N-Brad Neat [DNF]; 15. 2R-Joe Ramey [DNS]; 16. 25-Chad
Simpson [DNS]; 17. 45H-Don Hammer [DNS]; 18. 91N-Jeremy Nichols [DNS];
HEAT 3 - 1. 49D-Jonathan Davenport [3]; 2. 28C-Eddie Carrier Jr [2]; 3.
57J-Bub Mccool [1]; 4. B5-Brandon Sheppard [7]; 5. 58-Ray Guss Jr [6];
6. 1WC-Wayne Chinn [9]; 7. 9T-Tim Isenberg [11]; 8. 21-Billy Moyer [4];
9. 1DJ-Doug Drown [14]; 10. 46-Tim Rivers [13]; 11. 33-Don Gordon [17];
12. 21M-Jason Montgomery [DNF]; 13. 72-John Mason [DNF]; 14. 55-Jeep
Vanwormer [DNF]; 15. 11W-Jeff Watson [DNF]; 16. 69M-John Mayes Jr
[DNF]; 17. 71C-R J Conley [DQ]; 18. 1Z-Doug Zartler [DNS]; 19. 83-Scott
James [DNS];
HEAT 4 - 1. 29-Darrell Lanigan [3]; 2. 44M-Chris Madden [12]; 3.
5-Jared Landers [4]; 4. 18-Shannon Babb [8]; 5. 0-Scott Bloomquist [7];
6. 360-Michael Asberry [14]; 7. 17W-Brett Wyatt [11]; 8. 66-Jody
Knowles [16]; 9. 48X-Steve Lance Jr [13]; 10. 16R-Justin Ratliff [10];
11. 81JR-Jason Riggs [20]; 12. 15A-Phil Ausra [15]; 13. 25S-Jason Smith
[17]; 14. 79U-Shane Unger [18]; 15. 97-Michael Chilton [DNF]; 16.
25Z-Mason Zeigler [DNF]; 17. 71-Don Oneal [DNF]; 18. 25C-Shane Clanton
[DNF]; 19. 99M-Devin Moran [DNF]; 20. 9I-Steve Isenberg [DNS];
HEAT 5 - 1. 32P-Bobby Pierce [3]; 2. 28M-Jimmy Mars [1]; 3. 1J-Jeff
Babcock [2]; 4. 20-Jimmy Owens [7]; 5. 15H-Jon Henry [4]; 6. 99-Donnie
Moran [8]; 7. 39-Tim Mccreadie [5]; 8. 22S-Gregg Satterlee [6]; 9.
15J-Greg Johnson [12]; 10. 1*-Chub Frank [10]; 11. 23V-Ryan Vanderveen
[9]; 12. 89-Mike Spatola [14]; 13. 1N-Casey Noonan [15]; 14. 23B-Jay
Brunson [DNF]; 15. 03-Jim Gingery [DNF]; 16. 98-Mason Combs [DNF]; 17.
3G-Brian Gray [DNF]; 18. 4GH-Jeff Sloan [DNF]; 19. 34-Ky Harper [DNF];
HEAT 6 - 1. 75P-Terry Phillips [9]; 2. 23-John Blankenship [5]; 3.
95J-Jerry Bowersock [3]; 4. 14M-Morgan Bagley [2]; 5. D8-Dustin
Linville [10]; 6. 15B-Brian Birkhofer [11]; 7. 88-Andrew Reaume [15];
8. 101-Casey Roberts [1]; 9. 11D-Brian Diveley [12]; 10. 0D-Brad Dyer
[13]; 11. 20H-Jacob Hawkins [DNF]; 12. 33M-Tim Manville [DNF]; 13.
48L-Tim Lance [DNF]; 14. 28W-Jeff Wolfenbarger [DNF]; 15. 86C-Scott
Clifford [DNF]; 16. 93-Jay Johnson [DNF]; 17. 7W-Ricky Weiss [DQ]; 18.
14C-Henry Cooper [DNS];
B-FEATURE 1 - 1. 11-Tyler Reddick [1]; 2. 32-Chris Simpson [7]; 3.
1V-Vic Hill [2]; 4. B5-Brandon Sheppard [3]; 5. 7R-Kent Robinson [8];
6. 116-Randy Weaver [5]; 7. 9T-Tim Isenberg [12]; 8. 18K-Brandon Kinzer
[11]; 9. 11N-Brad Neat [24]; 10. 81-Randy Korte [13]; 11. 58X-Gary
Christian [20]; 12. 48-Chad Ruhlman [10]; 13. 58-Ray Guss Jr [6]; 14.
19-Chad Smith [17]; 15. 77K-Steve Kester [19]; 16. 21-Billy Moyer [15];
17. 1DJ-Doug Drown [18]; 18. 49-Brian Ruhlman [16]; 19. 11S-Ryan Sutter
[23]; 20. 46-Tim Rivers [DNF]; 21. 33-Don Gordon [DNF]; 22. 3-Matt
Miller [DNF]; 23. 6-Dustin Neat [DNF]; 24. 1WC-Wayne Chinn [DNF];
B-FEATURE 2 - 1. 0-Scott Bloomquist [4]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens [2]; 3.
15B-Brian Birkhofer [9]; 4. 18-Shannon Babb [1]; 5. 22S-Gregg Satterlee
[14]; 6. 14M-Morgan Bagley [3]; 7. 15J-Greg Johnson [17]; 8. 88-Andrew
Reaume [12]; 9. D8-Dustin Linville [6]; 10. 89-Mike Spatola [24]; 11.
39-Tim Mccreadie [11]; 12. 101-Casey Roberts [15]; 13. 16R-Justin
Ratliff [19]; 14. 48X-Steve Lance Jr [DNF]; 15. 81JR-Jason Riggs [DNF];
16. 66-Jody Knowles [DNF]; 17. 0D-Brad Dyer [DNF]; 18. 15H-Jon Henry
[DNF]; 19. 1*-Chub Frank [DNF]; 20. 360-Michael Asberry [DNF]; 21.
23V-Ryan Vanderveen [DNF]; 22. 99-Donnie Moran [DNF]; 23. 17W-Brett
Wyatt [DNF]; 24. 11D-Brian Diveley [DNF];
B SCRAMBLE 1 - 1. 116-Randy Weaver [1]; 2. 11N-Brad Neat [4]; 3.
18K-Brandon Kinzer [3]; 4. 9T-Tim Isenberg [2]; 5. 58-Ray Guss Jr [8];
6. 21-Billy Moyer [11]; 7. 48-Chad Ruhlman [7]; 8. 58X-Gary Christian
[6]; 9. 49-Brian Ruhlman [13]; 10. 81-Randy Korte [5]; 11. 1DJ-Doug
Drown [12]; 12. 77K-Steve Kester [10]; 13. 46-Tim Rivers [15]; 14.
19-Chad Smith [9]; 15. 11S-Ryan Sutter [14]; 16. 33-Don Gordon [16];
17. 1WC-Wayne Chinn [DNS]; 18. 3-Matt Miller [DNS]; 19. 6-Dustin Neat
[DNS];
B SCRAMBLE 2 - 1. 14M-Morgan Bagley [1]; 2. 15J-Greg Johnson [2]; 3.
88-Andrew Reaume [3]; 4. D8-Dustin Linville [4]; 5. 89-Mike Spatola
[5]; 6. 39-Tim Mccreadie [6]; 7. 16R-Justin Ratliff [8]; 8. 48X-Steve
Lance Jr [9]; 9. 81JR-Jason Riggs [10]; 10. 66-Jody Knowles [11]; 11.
0D-Brad Dyer [12]; 12. 1*-Chub Frank [DNS]; 13. 11D-Brian Diveley
[DNS]; 14. 15H-Jon Henry [DNS]; 15. 17W-Brett Wyatt [DNS]; 16. 23V-Ryan
Vanderveen [DNS]; 17. 99-Donnie Moran [DNS]; 18. 101-Casey Roberts
[DNS]; 19. 360-Michael Asberry [DNS];
A FEATURE - 1. 23-John Blankenship [12]; 2. 29-Darrell Lanigan [3]; 3.
0-Scott Bloomquist [22]; 4. 32P-Bobby Pierce [2]; 5. 1-Josh Richards
[20]; 6. 75P-Terry Phillips [1]; 7. 44-Earl Pearson, Jr [8]; 8.
49D-Jonathan Davenport [4]; 9. 5-Jared Landers [16]; 10. 28C-Eddie
Carrier Jr [9]; 11. 57J-Bub Mccool [15]; 12. 32-Chris Simpson [23]; 13.
44M-Chris Madden [10]; 14. 22S-Gregg Satterlee [DNF]; 15. B5-Brandon
Sheppard [DNF]; 16. 20C-Duane Chamberlain [DNF]; 17. 1V-Vic Hill [DNF];
18. 3S-Brian Shirley [DNF]; 19. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr [DNF]; 20.
28M-Jimmy Mars [DNF]; 21. 25F-Jason Feger [DNF]; 22. 1J-Jeff Babcock
[DNF]; 23. 15B-Brian Birkhofer [DNF]; 24. 20-Jimmy Owens [DNF]; 25.
11-Tyler Reddick [DNF]; 26. 17M-Dale Mcdowell [DNF]; 27. 25C-Shane
Clanton [DNF]; 28. 13-Jr Hotovy [DNF]; 29. 7R-Kent Robinson [DNF]; 30.
55-Jeep Vanwormer [DNF]; 31. 95J-Jerry Bowersock [DNF]; 32. 18-Shannon
Babb [DNF];
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