CONCORD, N.C. — Audio and story by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Chris Seelman photo —
Brandon Sheppard started from the pole and never looked back early on Saturday morning, scoring his first career Bad Boy Buggies World Finals victory at the Dirt Track at Charlotte in a caution-laden event.
After earning the prime starting position by winning his heat race and redrawing the number one pill, the New Berlin, Ill. young gun held off Zebulon, Georgia’s Shane Clanton for the entire 30-lap A-main en route to a $12,000 payday in the Best Performance Racing No. B54 entry.
The feature was cut from its originally-scheduled distance of 50 laps after the racing program was delayed earlier in the evening by morning rains and then two separate incidents during the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series heats that required repairs to the protective fencing around the track, but that was no consequence to the 22-year-old Prairie State driver, who stepped into Charlotte’s victory lane for the first time.
“It means a lot to win this,” Sheppard said of his sixth career WoO LMS victory and second of the 2015 season. “A win here at Charlotte — it’s not a crown-jewel, but it should be. It’s an amazing feeling to win here in front of this crowd and at a facility this nice.”
The race winner admitted he was nervous in the closing laps, with Clanton pressing to make a final charge on the race’s closing seven-lap stint.
“My right-rear (tire) would get to working after we’d get five or 10 laps and I’d get really tight,” he explained. “The car would get to be a handful, especially in (slower) traffic, and I messed up one lap and jumped over the cushion down there in (turns) three and four and (Clanton) next to me (at the flagstand).”
“Right then I knew I was either gonna run second in this race or I was gonna haul that thing off into one and give it all she had to stay ahead of him. So that’s what I did — just drove it in there as hard as I could. Luckily, it stuck, and we made it to the finish line. Everything just fell our way. You gotta have a little luck in this game to be successful and we had that tonight.”
While Sheppard led from the outset, four caution flags and an additional red flag slowed the pace on a long night in the Tar Heel State. The opening lap saw Casey Roberts slow on the backstretch, while Jason Feger broke on lap seven to draw the second yellow. Lap 17 spelled trouble for Randy Weaver, when he spun in turn four, before a multi-car crash the next lap on the frontstretch collected Firecracker 100 winner Rick Eckert, Austin Smith and Chad Hollenbeck and brought the event under red flag conditions.
After resumption, the final caution flag came out on lap 23 when Brandon Overton slowed to a stop in turn four ahead of another crash in turn two, giving Clanton one last shot to steal the victory from Sheppard, but he could do nothing with the No. B54 and fell 0.634 seconds shy of his 11th victory of the 2015 season.
However, Clanton did have a reason to smile after the checkered flag — by starting the feature, he officially clinched his first World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship.
“I’ve won a lot of big races, but this tops all of them,” Clanton said of his career-defining achievement. “This has been an incredible season, the best one I’ve ever had for sure. This has always been a family affair, we’ve all been racing pretty much my entire life. My brother, Joey, won the ASA championship (in 2002) and that’s one of the premier championships outside of the NASCAR national series for pavement racers. For me, this is the same way on the dirt side — it’s probably as high as I’ll ever go in this sport, so it means everything to be able to get it done. This is an amazing night.”
Chris Madden finished third, followed by three-time WoO LMS champions Darrell Lanigan (in his first start for Sprint Cup star Clint Bowyer’s dirt late model team) and Josh Richards.
Mike Marlar, Jonathan Davenport, Chub Frank, Morgan Bagley and Steve Francis made up the balance of the top 10.
Of note, and to make matters even more special for Sheppard, the win came in a World Finals that he wasn’t even originally-scheduled to compete in. With his family-owned team concluding its season following the finale for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series — the $100,000 Dirt Track World Championship on Oct. 17 — Sheppard parlayed his friendship with BPR crew chief Randall Edwards into a seat for the two-day blowout event at Charlotte.
“It was kind of a last-minute deal,” Sheppard said of the details behind his teaming with regular team driver Matt Westfall and Best Performance team owner Eric Brock for the World Finals weekend. “I was originally gonna come crew for them, but Randall just said, ‘Well, why don’t you just come drive?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ I guess it was a good choice.”
“We just put it all together,” he added. “I went up there Monday (to the team’s shop in St. Henry’s) and put my seat in and everything just worked out.”
Heat race victories went to Madden, Lanigan, Frank, Sheppard, Richards and Clanton to kick off the night’s racing action. Overton, Hollenbeck and Feger won their respective Last Chance Showdowns to lead the transfers into the main event.
Gates open at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon for the third and final day of action at the Bad Boy Buggies World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte, with hot laps kicking off at 4 p.m. Tickets are still available by calling 1-800-455-FANS.
Audio with race winner Brandon Sheppard:
Results of World of Outlaws Late Model Series Bad Boy Buggies World Finals Night No. 1 at The Dirt Track at Charlotte (Finishing Position/Start/Driver/Laps Completed/Money Won):
1. (1) Brandon Sheppard/30 $12,050
2. (3) Shane Clanton/30 $5,550
3. (6) Chris Madden/30 $3,000
4. (2) Darrell Lanigan/30 $2,650
5. (4) Josh Richards/30 $2,650
6. (15) Mike Marlar/30 $1,700
7. (12) Jonathan Davenport/30 $1,500
8. (5) Chub Frank/30 $2,050
9. (18) Morgan Bagley/30 $1,900
10. (9) Steve Francis/30 $1,400
11. (16) Jimmy Owens/30 $1,250
12. (23) Chris Simpson/30 $1,800
13. (25) Tim McCreadie/30 $1,800
14. (8) Mason Zeigler/30 $1,150
15. (26) Chase Junghans/30 $1,600
16. (29) Jordan Yaggy/30 $300
17. (27) Boom Briggs/26 $1,550
18. (13) Frank Heckenast Jr./23 $1,550
19. (19) Brandon Overton/22 $1,550
20. (17) Rick Eckert/18 $1,650
21. (24) Scott Bloomquist/18 $1,100
22. (14) Austin Smith/18 $1,000
23. (20) Chad Hollenbeck/18 $1,000
24. (28) Eric Wells/18 $550
25. (7) Justin Labonte/17 $1,000
26. (11) Randy Weaver/17 $1,000
27. (21) Jason Feger/6 $1,000
28. (10) Chris Ferguson/1 $1,050
29. (22) Casey Roberts/0 $1,000
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 21-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: [email protected]
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