Concord, NC — By Kevin Kovac, WoO LMS P.R. Director

With the running of last Saturday night’s Firecracker 100 presented by GottaRace.com at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., the World of Outlaws Late Model Series completed the ‘Great Northern Tour,’ a grueling 10-day swing of races through Canada, upstate New York and Pennsylvania.

The northern excursion featured an unprecedented seven consecutive nights of WoO LMS action from June 21-27 (the tour had never before run more than four days in a row), a total of seven A-Mains (there was one rainout) – and, of course, a whole bunch of interesting stories, some of which are related here…

WHAT A WEEK: No driver had a better Great Northern Tour than Josh Richards, the 21-year-old sensation who caught fire during the swing.

Richards won four of the Tour’s seven A-Mains, scoring back-to-back victories twice (a Canadian double on June 18 at Ohsweken Speedway and June 21 at Cornwall Motor Speedway, and June 24 at Pennsy’s Big Diamond Raceway and June 25 at Lernerville) and never finishing worse than 11th (on June 23 at New York’s Canandaigua Speedway).

Ranked third in the WoO LMS points standings, 44 points behind leader Steve Francis, entering the Great Northern Tour, Richards ended it as the points leader by six markers over Francis. He knows what it will take to stay on top of the standings during the season’s second half.

“Everybody’s gotta do their part,” said Richards, “from the guy who’s maintaining the car and looking over everything to the guy who’s doing the tires on the car to me as far as doing the driving on the track. Everything just has to go together – and then you need some luck. If you don’t have luck, you just can’t win.”

SETTING A DATE: While Francis failed to capture a Great Northern Tour A-Main for the second consecutive year after riding a two-race win streak into the swing, he did fare much better than he had in ’08 (he called that frustrating trip his “worst ever”) and had his spirits raised by a nugget of personal off-track news he happily shared.

Just before the recent $100,000 Dirt Late Model Dream event at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, Francis became engaged to Amanda Ferrell, whose parents promote Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky. Francis said he and Ferrell are tentatively planning their wedding for a weekend just after next February’s racing activities in Florida.

SHINER: Shane Clanton sported a black right eye throughout the Great Northern Tour after an apparent clod of clay hit the front of his helmet on the 10th lap of the swing’s opening event on June 18 at Ohsweken.

Running fourth at the time, Clanton absorbed the hard blow and immediately spun off turn four. He was hit by Clint Smith and needed a few moments to collect himself after coming to rest.

“I wasn’t knocked out,” said Clanton, “but I was knocked silly.”

The incident was the start of an unspectacular trip for Clanton, whose lone top-five finish was a fifth in the held-over A-Main on June 25 at Lernerville. After beginning the tour 46 points out of the WoO LMS lead (in fourth place), he headed home ranked fifth and facing a hefty 112-point deficit.

BIG NIGHT: It was hard to top the electricity that was in the air on June 22 for the first-ever WoO LMS event at Can-Am Motorsport Park in LaFargeville, N.Y., which drew a standing-room-only crowd that locals called the track’s largest since the late ‘80s.

Many fans, of course, came to see local hero Tim McCreadie, the 2006 WoO LMS champion from nearby Watertown, N.Y. The crowd went wild when McCreadie and his father, DIRTcar big-block Modified legend ‘Barefoot’ Bob McCreadie, were the last drivers to walk off a bus that brought the entire starting field to the homestretch for pre-race introductions; Timmy started from the pole position, while Bob, who hasn’t raced since suffering a broken leg and other injuries in a 2005 motorcycle accident, was the event’s grand marshal and waved the green flag for the A-Main.

Alas, T-Mac couldn’t provide his faithful a storybook victory. He finished second to Rick Eckert, who praised the sweeping half-mile oval operated by brothers Billy and Charlie Caprara (who also made it clear that they want a return engagement for the WoO LMS in 2010).

“The racetrack’s beautiful,” said Eckert. “It’s a big, huge place. Man, there were so many lanes. I’d have bet big money at the start of the night that it would’ve rubbered, but that wasn’t the case. That track crew worked hard on the surface all day, watering it and watering it because it was windy, and all that work paid off.”

A VICTORY: Chub Frank got his first WoO LMS win of the 2009 season during the Great Northern Tour – well, in a manner of speaking.

The Bear Lake, Pa., standout didn’t actually snap a 13-month winless drought on the series – though he did show signs of breaking out, including a second-place finish on June 25 at Lernerville – but he did enjoy the thrill of victory. ‘Chubzilla’ was part of the winning team in the third annual Firecracker 100 Horseshoes Tournament on June 27 at Lernerville.

A participant in the horseshoes competition for the first time, Frank split the $200 first prize with Jack Ayers of Elkton, Md. Ayers was one of 12 fans who won the chance to pair up with a driver for the horseshoes tourney that highlighted the Saturday-afternoon activities during the Firecracker 100 weekend.

Frank and Ayers advanced through the brackets with wins over Russell King (with fan Travis Norman), Clint Smith (with Howie Lyon) and Brent Robinson (with Andy Hummel). They clinched the tournament title by defeating Steve Francis (with John Sorge) in the final, 23-15.

“I haven’t thrown horseshoes in like 15 years,” claimed Frank, who appeared to be a natural at the game.

Other drivers who participated in the horseshoes tournament included Lernerville champ Lynn Geisler (with fan Rich Friberg), whose reign as the only winner of the Firecracker competition came to an end when his team lost to Team Francis in the second round; Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs (with Tom Roth); Scott Bloomquist (with Kelly Miner); Brian Birkhofer (with Jeremy Speicher); Tim Fuller (with Chuck Werner); Rick Eckert (with Jim Hurtle); and Brady Smith (with Bill Leroy).

DESERVED HONOR: A special ceremony following the Firecracker 100 draw for positions on June 27 honored Walter Burson, the WoO LMS technical director from 2004 until his diagnosis with cancer forced him off the road earlier this season.

A well-known figure in dirt Late Model racing for decades, Burson became the second recipient of a WoO LMS Lifetime Achievement Award, joining car owner Raye Vest (2007). Series director Tim Christman and race director Bret Emrick, who previously worked with Burson on the STARS Renegade DirtCar Series, made the presentation to Burson, and members of all the regular WoO LMS teams joined Burson for a photo.

Making his first visit to a WoO LMS event since beginning cancer treatments four months ago, Burson was in good spirits while making the rounds of the pit area. He was also his usual rough, tough self.

Said Christman, “He told me, ‘You better not have any surprises planned – because if you do, I’m either gonna start crying and hug you or kick your ass.’”

OUTLAWS FOR A WEEK: Several regional drivers got a taste of life on the road with the WoO LMS by following the Great Northern Tour, including:

* Austin Hubbard. The 17-year-old from Seaford, Del., continued his breakout campaign, emerging as a serious contender virtually every night of the swing with noted mechanic Robby Allen overseeing his assault. A fifth-place finish at Cornwall was his top run, but he led the opener at Ohsweken until his car’s motor expired and he ran as high as third on June 25 at Lernerville before another broken powerplant eliminated him – the type of performances that give legs to his desire to chase the WoO LMS Rookie of the Year title in 2010.

* Gregg Satterlee. Another up-and-comer who is contemplating the possibility of making a play for the 2010 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year honor, the 24-year-old from Rochester Mills, Pa., showed some grit and determination on the Great Northern Tour. His involvement in Clanton’s crash at Ohsweken forced him to return home to make repairs, but he hooked back up with the tour at Cornwall (he would have missed the June 20 event at Quebec’s Autodrome Drummond had it not been rained out) and ran the remainder of the swing. A ninth-place run at Canandaigua was his top finish.

* Tony Knowles. Yet another driver with hopes of someday following the WoO LMS, the 21-year-old hauled north from Tyrone, Ga., to follow the Great Northern Tour for the second consecutive year. He entered every event except those at Lernerville, with a sixth-place run at Ohsweken the best of his three top-10 finishes.

* Dan Stone. A memorable WoO LMS winner in 2007 at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa., the Thompson, Pa., racer trekked to Canada with the series for the third consecutive year and continued on to enter all the remaining Great Northern Tour shows. A fifth-place finish at Ohsweken was his best outing.

* Matt Lux. Though some bad breaks prevented the 34-year-old from Franklin, N.Y., from registering a top-10 finish while entering every event on the swing, he missed just one A-Main (the opener at Ohsweken after a heat-race tangle) and didn’t finish worse than 15th. He topped his week off by scoring a lead-lap finish of 13th in the Firecracker 100.

* April Farmer. The 29-year-old from Livingston, Tenn., was a surprise participant in the entire swing, making the long trip in hopes of becoming the first-ever female to start a WoO LMS A-Main. She failed to crack a feature lineup, but she came close, most notably at Can-Am, where she seemed to be in control of the final transfer spot in the B-Main until a late caution flag caused her tires to seal up and left her a non-qualifier.

* Greg Oakes. Missing only the Big Diamond show, the upstart dirt Late Model driver from Franklinville, N.Y., said he used his vacation days from work expressly to follow the swing as a “learning experience.”

* Mike Knight. The 22-year-old from Ripley, N.Y., was snake-bit by mechanical breakdowns throughout the swing, which he decided to follow just two weeks before the Great Northern Tour was set to begin.

FINALLY A WINNER: What did capturing the Firecracker 100 mean to Jimmy Mars?

Well, the $30,950 in cash that he collected sure was nice, as was another crown-jewel victory for his resume. But there was something else…

“I don’t get the ‘Bonus Bucks’ anymore,” quipped Mars, feigning disappointment over his first career WoO LMS victory making him ineligible for the $500 bonus that goes to the highest-finishing driver in every event who hasn’t won a tour A-Main and isn’t ranked among the top 12 in the points standings. “That was a long-running joke. I thought they were gonna have to make an amendment on that (‘Bonus Bucks’) rule because I was collecting more $500 bonuses than anybody else.”

Mars’s close-but-no-cigar runs in WoO LMS competition ended with his Firecracker 100 triumph – which, by the way, earned him the ‘Bonus Bucks’ cash for the final time.

ETCETERA:

* Solon Springs, Wis.’s Brady Smith continued his solid first season as a WoO LMS regular, registering four top-five finishes (including his third runner-up placing of 2009, at Ohsweken) during a trip that saw him visit all but one track (Lernerville) for the first time in his career. His nine top-five finishes ranks behind only Francis (12), Richards (11) and Lanigan (10) in that category, and he’s sixth in the points standings despite failing to qualify for the season opener at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park.

* Darrell Lanigan experienced few engine malfunctions or flat tires while rolling to last year’s WoO LMS championship, but the 2009 season has been a different story. When he ceded the lead in the June 25 A-Main at Lernerville, it marked the second time this season that he’s dropped out of a race due to a motor failure while contending.

* Port Colbourne, Ont.’s Adam Ferri, who entered the three Canadian shows plus the midweek race at Canandaigua, had a forgettable experience at a French-Canadian gas station after the Autodrome Drummond event was rained out. A “lost in translation” moment caused Ferri to put over $300 worth of unleaded fuel in his hauler rather than the diesel it needed, forcing him to spend more than an hour draining the gasoline into a drum he obtained from a nearby resident before getting back on the road.

* WoO LMS Rookie of the Year contender Tyler Reddick’s father, Clarence, visited a Canadian hospital on June 19 after slicing his left hand while cutting bodywork in a Cornwall truckstop. He needed roughly a dozen staples to close the gaping wound, which he covered with thick bandages for the remainder of the swing.

* Bristolville, Ohio’s Russell King took over the WoO LMS Rookie of the Year points lead during the Tour and also moved to 10th in the overall points standings. The only rookie to qualify for the Firecracker 100 (he finished 16th after breaking an oil-pump pulley), he ended the swing with a 53-point lead over Jordan Bland in the rookie battle.

* Crew changes: Brandon Bilskie, who began the Great Northern Tour as Shane Clanton’s fulltime mechanic, ended it working out of Clint Smith’s hauler. Clanton, meanwhile, flew in his former crewman Jonathan Owensby for the Firecracker 100; Owensby started the 2009 season with Smith but has been off the racing circuit for much of the campaign.

* Money was flying around the Lernerville pits in advance of the Integra Shocks ‘Crew Chief Challenge’ that followed the Firecracker 100 qualifying-night action. Clint Smith organized two pools for the competition at $50-a-pop to pick a two-crewman team out of the hat; the holders of the winning Team Lanigan ticket picked up a cool $500 prize.

NEXT UP: The WoO LMS is idle until kicking off the five-race ‘Wild West Tour’ with the 30th annual ‘Gopher 50’ on July 8 at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. The swing also includes stop on July 9 at North Central Speedway in Brainerd, Minn.; July 10 at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D.; July 14 at Gillette (Wyo.) Thunder Speedway; and July 16 at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D.

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.

The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Crane Cams (Official Valvetrain), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Fusion Energy Boost (Official Energy Boost), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser) and VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors Champ Pans, Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tires, Integra Shocks, Jake’s Custom Golf Carts, Ohlins Shocks, Racing Electronics, Quarter Master and Wrisco Aluminum; Crane Cams Engine Builder's Challenge participants Cornett Racing Engines, Custom Race Engines and Pro Power Racing Engines; and Chassis Builder Challenge participants Rocket Chassis and Team Zero by Bloomquist.