{"id":20692,"date":"2014-01-17T15:02:48","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T15:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=20692"},"modified":"2014-01-17T15:03:31","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T15:03:31","slug":"standout-roster-of-title-hopefuls-ready-for-start-of-milestone-world-of-outlaws-late-model-series-campaign-feb-14-16-at-bubba-raceway-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/standout-roster-of-title-hopefuls-ready-for-start-of-milestone-world-of-outlaws-late-model-series-campaign-feb-14-16-at-bubba-raceway-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Standout Roster Of Title Hopefuls Ready For Start Of Milestone World of Outlaws Late Model Series Campaign Feb. 14-16 At Bubba Raceway Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bubba Army Dirt Late Model Winter Nationals Begins Celebration Of National Tour\u2019s 10th<\/sup>\u00a0Anniversary Season Under World Racing Group Banner<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"WoO_World_of_Outlaws_Logo_Dirt_Late_Models_Late_Model_RacingNewsNetwork_com\"OCALA, FL \u2013 Jan. 16, 2014 \u2013 The running of the third annual Bubba Army Dirt Late Model Winter Nationals on\u00a0Feb. 14-16\u00a0at Bubba Raceway Park will mark two significant milestones for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.<\/p>\n

For starters, a season-long celebration of the 10th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of the national tour\u2019s rebirth in 2004 will begin with the weekend tripleheader at the unique egg-shaped, three-eighths-mile oval. In addition, the opening night of the meet \u2013 a 40-lap, $8,000-to-win event on\u00a0Fri., Feb. 14\u00a0\u2013 is set to be the 400th WoO LMS A-Main contested since the circuit resumed action 10 years ago under the World Racing Group banner.<\/p>\n

Landmarks aside, the tour\u2019s visit to BRP will also kick off the chase for the prestigious WoO LMS championship. A typically star-studded roster of drivers is eyeing the $100,000 title in 2014, including:<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Josh Richards.<\/em>\u00a0The three-time and defending WoO LMS champion from Shinnston, W.Va., is geared up to pursue another points crown with his father Mark\u2019s Rocket Chassis house car team after making his triumphant return in 2013 following a season spent pursuing his NASCAR aspirations. There will be a couple new looks to Richards\u2019s effort in \u201914: veteran wrench-turner Randall Edwards has come on board to serve as his chief mechanic (\u201913 WoO LMS Crew Chief of the Year Matt Barnes won\u2019t travel as extensively with Richards this season) \u2013 and sometime during the season, Richards, who turns 26 on\u00a0March 22, plans to become a married man by tying the knot with Andrea Cleveland.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Darrell Lanigan.<\/em>\u00a0A two-time champion who led the tour in victories in \u201913 but finished second to Richards in the standings, Lanigan enters 2014 following an off-season that saw him make headline-grabbing news. The 43-year-old driver from Union, Ky., ended his longtime affiliation with Rocket Chassis to start a chassis-building partnership with veteran mechanic Ronnie Stuckey, who will assist in the development of the \u2018Club 29\u2019 machines that Lanigan hopes will allow him to continue his spectacular recent success on the WoO LMS. He\u2019s won 27 World of Outlaws A-Mains over the past two years \u2013 more than half of his alltime series-best total of 53 victories.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Shane Clanton.<\/em>\u00a0After enjoying arguably the strongest WoO LMS season of his career in 2013 (four wins and a third-place finish in the points standings), the 38-year-old from Zebulon, Ga., decided to leave the Kennedy Motorsports team in December and launch his own operation. He\u2019s confident of picking up right where he left off in \u201913 \u2013 with solid backing from his father-in-law, western Pennsylvania racer Ron Davies, and essentially the same Capital Race Cars he ran last year, he has the goods to contend.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Rick Eckert.<\/em>\u00a0It\u2019s steady-as-she-goes for the 48-year-old WoO LMS stalwart from York, Pa., who will look to improve upon a 2013 season during which he won just once but tallied six runner-up finishes en route to placing fourth in the points race. The 2011 series champion\u2019s self-owned effort has been bolstered for \u201914 with the recent addition of Horton Coal Company and Sorbera Family Chiropractic as sponsors.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Tim McCreadie.<\/em>\u00a0The 2006 WoO LMS titlist will fire off into 2014 with a renewed vigor after spending the off-season assembling new Rocket Chassis machines, putting him back exclusively in the West Virginia\u2019s company\u2019s camp for the first time since 2010. Watertown, N.Y.\u2019s McCreadie, who turns 40 on\u00a0April 12, drove Warrior Chassis cars to eight WoO LMS wins over the past two seasons (three in \u201912, five in \u201913) and a pair of top-five points finishes, but struggled with inconsistency.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Eric Wells.<\/em>\u00a0The 2013 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year hopes to take another step forward this season with his father David\u2019s Bloomquist Chassis equipment. Buoyed by the addition of Tommy Hicks, Scott Bloomquist\u2019s longtime crew chief, on a fulltime basis this season, the 25-year-old from Hazard, Ky., sits primed to improve upon a 2013 campaign that saw him win once and finish a solid sixth in the points standings.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Morgan Bagley.<\/em>\u00a0Coming off his first season of competition on a national tour, the 2013 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year runner-up returns to the circuit this year with Jay Bohannon assuming crew-chief duties alongside car chief Nick Hoover. The 27-year-old from Longview, Texas, steered Wayman McMillan\u2019s Rocket cars to just a single top-five finish on last year\u2019s WoO LMS but is expecting better results with one season of traveling under his belt.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Chub Frank.<\/em>\u00a0A WoO LMS regular for a decade, the veteran from Bear Lake, Pa., struggled to a ninth-place finish in the 2013 points standings and went winless on the circuit for a fourth consecutive season. Frank, who will celebrate his 52nd<\/sup>\u00a0birthday on\u00a0Jan. 22, hopes to put together a strong start in \u201914 to keep him traipsing down the road with the Outlaws for another season.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Bub McCool.<\/em>\u00a0The Mohawked driver from Vicksburg, Miss., reached Victory Lane once on last year\u2019s WoO LMS, but that was one of the few highlights of a frustrating sophomore season for the tour\u2019s 2012 Rookie of the Year. He managed just two other top-five finishes and fell to 10th<\/sup>\u00a0in the points standings. If he can put \u201913 behind him and build from his solid 2012 campaign (nine top-five finishes, seventh in points), McCool, 36, will remain one of the circuit\u2019s top draws.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Clint Smith.<\/em>\u00a0Save a handful of noteworthy runs, the 2013 season was a washout for the 48-year-old driver known as \u2018Cat Daddy.\u2019 He finished 11\u00a0th<\/sup>\u00a0in the standings, falling short of a points-fund-paying spot. But the Senoia, Ga., racer has renewed hope for 2014 thanks to his pairing with Florida\u2019s Todd Wood, who will provide the Rocket machines that Smith plans to make his primary ride on the WoO LMS.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Chase Junghans.<\/em>\u00a0A 21-year-old open-wheel Modified convert from Manhattan, Kan., who competed fulltime in the dirt Late Model division for the first time in 2013, Junghans has announced his intention to step up to a national level this season and pursue the WoO LMS Rookie of the Year award. He\u2019s already shown a glimpse of his talent this year, finishing third in Wednesday night\u2019s Winter Extreme event at Tucson (Ariz.) International Raceway.<\/p>\n

Advance-sale tickets for the Bubba Army Dirt Late Model Winter Nationals, which also include a 50-lap, $10,000-to-win event on\u00a0Sat., Feb. 15, and a 60-lap grand finale paying $12,000 to win on\u00a0Sun., Feb. 16, are available on-line at\u00a0www.bubbaracewaypark.com<\/a>\u00a0or by calling the track office at 352-622-9400.<\/p>\n

The season-opening burst of WoO LMS action in Florida also includes three nights of competition (Feb. 20-22) as part of the DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Summit Racing Equipment at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville. More information on the DIRTcar Nationals by Summit can be obtained by visiting\u00a0www.DirtCarNationals.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit\u00a0www.worldofoutlaws.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fans can also follow the WoO LMS on Twitter at\u00a0Twitter.com\/WoOLateModels\u00a0<\/a>and Facebook at\u00a0Facebook.com\/WorldofOutlaws\u00a0<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: American Racing Custom Wheels (Official Custom Wheel), Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), KMC (Official Custom Truck Wheel), STP (Official Fuel Treatment), Vicci (Official Uniform), VP Racing Fuel (Official Racing Fuel), DirtonDirt.com (Hard Charger Award) and McCarthy’s One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning (Raye Vest Memorial Pill Draw Award); in addition to contingency sponsors: Butlerbuilt, Cometic Gasket, Comp Cams, Dominator Race Products, Edelbrock, Eibach Springs, JE Pistons, JRI Shocks, Klotz Synthetic Lubricants, MSD Ignition, Ohlins Shocks, QuarterMaster, Roush Yates Performance Parts, Superflow Dynos, Wrisco Aluminum and XS Power Racing Batteries; along with manufacturer sponsors Capital Race Cars, Integra Shocks, GRT Chassis, Jake\u2019s Carts, Racing Electronics, Rocket Chassis, TNT Rescue, and Warrior Chassis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bubba Army Dirt Late Model Winter Nationals Begins Celebration Of National Tour\u2019s 10th\u00a0Anniversary Season Under World Racing Group Banner OCALA, FL \u2013 Jan. 16, 2014 […]<\/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":[17,22,3,71,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ocala-speedway","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-late-models","category-upcoming-events"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20692","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=20692"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20695,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20692\/revisions\/20695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}