{"id":14285,"date":"2012-10-05T15:16:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T15:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=14285"},"modified":"2012-10-05T15:16:51","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T15:16:51","slug":"eckert-cruises-to-napa-auto-parts-super-dirt-week-victory-at-rolling-wheels-raceway-park-for-second-straight-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/eckert-cruises-to-napa-auto-parts-super-dirt-week-victory-at-rolling-wheels-raceway-park-for-second-straight-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Eckert Cruises To NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week Victory At Rolling Wheels Raceway Park For Second Straight Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keystone State Star Sweeps World of Outlaws Late Model Series Program In Convincing Fashion<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"ELBRIDGE, NY \u2013 Oct. 4, 2012 \u2013 Rick Eckert has figured out Rolling Wheels Raceway Park.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old star from York, Pa., was untouchable in Thursday night\u2019s 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main, cruising to victory at the five-eighths-mile oval during NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

Eckert steered his Team Zero by Bloomquist car past Bub McCool of Vicksburg, Miss., for the lead on lap 11 and never looked back. He had a straightaway-plus advantage wiped out by a lap-35 caution flag but still triumphed by a commanding margin, pulling away over the final circuits to defeat a late-charging Shane Clanton of Fayetteville, Ga., by 5.529 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love this place,\u201d said Eckert, whose four career WoO LMS starts at Rolling Wheels include two wins (2011 and \u201912) and two runner-up finishes (\u201905 and \u201910). \u201cIt\u2019s turned into my favorite racetrack in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Runaway WoO LMS points leader Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., had an relative off night, finishing third despite starting from the pole position. He was outgunned for the lead at the initial green flag by McCool and fell back as far as fourth before passing McCool for third on lap 40.<\/p>\n

Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y., who has frequented Rolling Wheels throughout his career to compete in DIRTcar Northeast Modified events, battled forward from the sixth starting spot to place fourth. McCool, who led laps 1-10 and ran second until lap 39, settled for a fifth-place finish in a car that sported a fresh Halloween-themed wrap.<\/p>\n

Eckert earned $11,150 for his sweep of the night\u2019s program. He set fast time \u2013 his fifth of 2012 to tie Lanigan for the top spot in that category \u2013 won a heat race and dominated the feature.<\/p>\n

The triumph was Eckert\u2019s fourth of 2012 and the 28th<\/sup> of his career on the WoO LMS, pulling him into a tie with Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., for third on the national tour\u2019s win list since 2004.<\/p>\n

Eckert, who started third, was in a league of his own once he overtook McCool for the lead. He passed Lanigan for second on a lap-four restart and spent six circuits measuring McCool before surging by the 2012 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Bub talked about tires before the race and I told him what I was putting on,\u201d said Eckert. \u201cHe went softer \u2013 and this place likes one tire, and one tire only, and if you don\u2019t have it on you\u2019re in trouble, so I wasn\u2019t panicking when he was leading (early).<\/p>\n

\u201cI finally moved up in (turns) three and four and about run over (McCool) off of four. I was like, \u2018The next lap when we get here, it\u2019ll be good.\u2019 Then (the ensuing circuit) I drove around him down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eckert praised the performance of his Jay Dickens-powered machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy car was maneuverable,\u201d said Eckert. \u201cI could go anywhere I wanted to go. We caught on to something when we got to Berlin, Michigan (on Sept. 21-22), and since then (the setup) lets me drive (the car) just as hard as I can drive it. I had to drive the wheels off it tonight because when you ease up on it, it ain\u2019t very good.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy guy (crewman Bob Miller) was telling me I had a big lead, but I couldn\u2019t slow up. If I slowed up I got worse, so I just ran as hard as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was actually quite simple for Eckert, who feels utterly comfortable circling Rolling Wheels.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur car and my driving style sort of fit this place,\u201d said Eckert. \u201cIt\u2019s big \u2013 and I grew up on big racetracks \u2013 and you gotta drive straight. I drive straighter than the average guy \u2013 too straight for most places, and it gets me in trouble \u2013 but here it makes up for it for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clanton, 37, advanced from the seventh starting spot to finish second in the Kennedy Motorsports Capital Race Car, but he never drew close to Eckert. The Peach State racer vaulted from fourth to second shortly after a lap-35 restart \u2013 passing both Lanigan and McCool \u2013 but couldn\u2019t challenge the eventual winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there was any catching him,\u201d Clanton said of Eckert. \u201cHis car was a little more balanced than what ours was. We got to second and just maintained, and then we got to lapped traffic and he was just more maneuverable. He could pass cars faster than I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanigan, 42, was surprisingly never a threat to push his single-season record win total to 16, but he left Rolling Wheels with a 204-point lead in the WoO LMS standings that puts him on the verge of clinching his second career championship. Eckert still is mathematically alive, but Lanigan can claim the title by merely earning a minimum of 82 points \u2013 the amount given to the fifth B-Main non-transfer \u2013 in each of the season\u2019s three remaining events.<\/p>\n

Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., finished a quiet-but-steady sixth after starting fourth. Pat Doar of New Richmond, Wis., briefly reached fifth place but settled for seventh. Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., finished eighth, Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., slipped from the fifth starting slot to a ninth-place finish and Coleby Frye of Dover, Pa., earned recognition as the highest-finishing non-Outlaw by rounding out the top 10.<\/p>\n

Three caution flags slowed the event. Alan Fink of Brewerton, N.Y., and Sean Beardsley of Central Square, N.Y., spun between turns one and two on the second lap; Rick \u2018Boom\u2019 Briggs of Bear Lake, Pa., was sent twirling between turns three and four on lap four; and Bryan Driver of Pennington, N.J., spun on the homestretch on lap 35.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five cars were signed in for the program. The only driver unable to start the A-Main was Ricky Elliott of Seaford, Del., whose machine was sidelined for the night by an apparent burnt piston during hot laps.<\/p>\n

Eckert earned fast-time recognition with a lap of 18.632 seconds.<\/p>\n

Heat winners were Eckert, Fuller and Lanigan. No B-Main was run.<\/p>\n

The WoO LMS will be back in action on Wed., Oct. 10, in the Circle K World of Outlaws Late Model Showdown at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C.<\/p>\n

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fans can also follow the WoO LMS on Twitter at Twitter.com\/WoOLateModels <\/a>and Facebook at Facebook.com\/WorldofOutlaws <\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keystone State Star Sweeps World of Outlaws Late Model Series Program In Convincing Fashion ELBRIDGE, NY \u2013 Oct. 4, 2012 \u2013 Rick Eckert has figured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-super-dirtcar-series"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14285"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14288,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285\/revisions\/14288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}