Published: July 17, 2008 11:14 pm            

MELINDA ROBINSON: Lanigan climbs to first in WoO

Steve Francis has been having a rough go of it on the World of Outlaws circuit this past month.

Francis, the defending WoO points champ, slipped to fifth in the standings in this past week’s action on the Wild West Tour, a nine-race swing in 13 days. He’s 146 points back from leader Darrell Lanigan and just 16 back from fourth-place Rick Eckert.

Francis held the points lead earlier in the summer but last month’s Great Northern Tour wasn’t kind to the Kentucky Colonel. He slipped to fourth in the points while Lanigan, a fellow Kentuckian, enjoyed enough success to spring him into the lead.

Lanigan has continued the good run and extended his consecutive top-five streak to 15 with Wednesday night’s fourth-place finish in the Cowboy 50 at Gillette (Wyo.) Thunder Speedway. He continues to lead the points standings, 66 ahead of Josh Richards.

Francis’ Wild West Tour began on a sour note July 9 at Deer Creek (Minn.) Speedway. He sat on the pole and was in second on Lap 13 when the engine in his No. 19 went up in smoke and he finished 24th. Meanwhile, Brian Birkhofer cruised to the win. Heavy rains forced the cancellation of the July 10 race at North Central (Minn.) Speedway, which will not be made up.

Things got brighter on July 11 when Francis finished seventh at River Cities (N.D.) Speedway. Brady Smith drove to his first WoO win and first of back-to-back victories on the circuit. He also won the following day’s event at Estevan Motor Speedway in Saskatchewan. Francis finished third in the race, over two seconds behind second-place finisher Lanigan.

Tim Fuller also notched back-to-back wins on the tour, starting with Sunday’s race at Williston Basin (N.D.) Speedway. Francis raced to a 10th-place finish. He started the race 24th after trouble in his heat race.

Fuller also took Wednesday’s Cowboy 50 in which Francis started and finished 11th.

Three races remain on the Wild West Tour, beginning with Friday’s event at Brown

County (S.D.) Speedway. A race at Belleville (Kan.) High Banks follows on Sunday and the tour concludes Monday at Boone County (Neb.) Speedway.

Limited Lates

highlight PRP

This division was the main event Saturday night. Coal Grove’s John Melvin cruised to a win to start the night in a feature rescheduled from last weekend due to fog. He also took the Premiere Pre-Cast Products Extravaganza but that wasn’t it for the Limited Lates.

A five-lap shoot-out went on after, inverting the A-Main finish. Evyian Terry held off a hard-charging Melvin to win that one.

In Late Model action, Wheelersburg’s Josh Bocook took the checkers and held off second place finisher Jackie Boggs of Grayson, who charged up the field from 10th. Kenny Christy finished third, followed by Jason Montgomery and Rod Conley.

Doug Adkins won the Modified feature. Rick Hensley, Todd Robinson, Adam Jordan and Craig Christian rounded out the top five.

Billy Gullion held off Shane Pendleton for his second Bomber win at PRP this season.

Carrier Jr.

wins at Rocky Top

Eddie Carrier Jr. beat out competitors from five states to win the second annual Engines Inc. 50 at Rocky Top Raceway last Friday. He even came one-tenth of a second from breaking the track qualifying record.

Carrier took the lead on Lap 14 after making contact with pole sitter Josh McGuire and never looked back. McGuire finished second, followed by Boggs, Tim Dohm and Conley.

Robinson led flag-to-flag to win the Tomahawk Race Car Modified A-Main. Darren Muncy rolled in second followed by Christian, Randy Boggs and Dale Lyons.

In the Mod Lite A-Main, Tyler Reno pulled away from the field to take the checkers. Dennis Lampheir and Chris Stone rounded out the top three.

MELINDA ROBINSON can be reached at mrobinson@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2646.

        

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