Richard Dominates Knoxville Until Problems Set In
KNOXVILLE, Iowa -Josh Richards dominated the first 3/4 of the the World of Outlaws (WoO) Late Model fifty lapper before problems relegated him to a 16th place finish.
Richards was the man in control of this 25-mile race from the outset. He sailed through three caution flags without difficulty and had the 24-car field covered for most of the distance. He sat on the front row and was in charge right away as fellow front-row starter Darrell Lanigan of Union (KY) trailed. Richards had pulled to a 10-car advantage by the time the first yellow flag appeared for WoO points leader, Clint Smith who had stopped on the track near the pit entrance.
When the race resumed, fourth running Brian Shirley jumped the berm in turn two. He lost so many spots that he just called it quits and drove to his pit.
It was Shannon Babb who came up second on the restart with Lanigan falling to third. With ten laps in the books Billy Moyer and Tim Fuller formed the top five runners.
With the green flag flying, Richards began to put some distance between himself and the rest of the field. He pulled out to a 20 car-length lead and had his Rocket chassis and had a near-chute advantage when he hit lap traffic just after the twentieth circuit.
Lap 26 saw the yellow again being displayed, this time for Brian Birkhofer who had stopped in turn three. Birkhofer, who was running 8th at the time had had an incident with Kelly Boen in the previous turn and had sustained enough damage to exit the event.
As the field took the green again, it was evident that second running Babb was experiencing problems as he suddenly began drifting backwards. He soon pulled in to the pits with rear end problems.
The last caution of the night fell on lap thirty-four when Boen spun his car in turn four sending the Colorado driver to the tail. He would make a good come back and finish in the top ten.
On the restart, Richards once again held the point with second running Lanigan and Fuller in a fisticuffs for the runner-up spot. Richards seemed to have completely tuned into the big Knoxville half mile and again began to pull away from the field. However, lap thirty-seven would be his last led lap as he began to slow with handling problems.
Right away Lanigan grabbed the lead and five laps later had lapped the hapless Richards’ machine.
When Lanigan took the chechers on lap 50, his nearest challenger Fuller was exiting turn four. The win marked the second win in late model competition at this historic oval by a Kentucky driver. In June of 1972 Chuck McWilliams of Walton (Ky) came home the champion in a hundred lapper.
Third running Steve Francis came from a tenth row start to take third, Billy Moyer who was in this thing the entire way was fourth and Chub Frank was fifth.
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