Clint Smith wins Battle on the Bayou opener!

Clint Smith wins Battle on the Bayou opener!

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (March 17, 2006) - Clint Smith started on the pole and led all but three of the 50-laps to claim night number one of the Battle on the Bayou at Baton Rouge Raceway. Smith had to hold off a determined Chris Wall to take the win, his first-ever O’Reilly SUPR victory and the second victory of the season on the World of Outlaws Late Model tour. “I like small race tracks where you stop and go and the GRT fortunately, it has a lot of forward traction and where you can stop and go we can usually pull them off the corner. That last caution dome out with four to go and I could just eat them up coming off the corners. The GRT made the difference as did the RaceTek engine; it could really pull me down the straightaway.”

The feature began with Smith on the pole and Shane Clanton to his outside. Chub Frank moved by Clanton on the start and was able to run side by side with Smith for several laps, even taking the lead for laps three through five. Unfortunately for Frank, the bottom groove soon proved to be the way to go and Clint was able to secure his hold on the lead while Frank soon found himself slipping back several positions when the top went away. Chris Wall started fifth but made a strong early move and while Frank slipped back Wall pounced on the opportunity to grab second.

Smith started third in his heat race but made an early pass for the lead that set him in good position for the remainder of the night. “That was really the main pass of the whole race. I kind of got Francis off guard on that first lap and got beside him and cut the bottom off for him. I made a good tire choice, me and my crew talked about it a lot and made the right tire choice to get the jump and when we got out front we were in good shape. We fortunately drew a one (for the dash).”

Clint was concerned that efforts to make the track racy in the feature may have hurt his chances but, “I thought we was in trouble when they moved tires out on me for the feature, we had to put hard tires on right quick and we did that except for my left side. I could sneak around them tires and get some traction. They watered the top and made Chub real good for about five or six laps and I thought it was going to stay and then we got by him and I think he got railroaded a little bit there. That got us the lead and then all them laps everybody was running right dead in the bottom. I think if them back cars would have spread out a little bit the race track would have stayed better. But they had seen what had gone on all night. ”

Smith acknowledged that Chris was a local favorite and would have liked to take the win and he credits Chris for running a clean race. “Even when we about got in that wreck ( a lap thirty spin when John Blankenship got into Ronny Adams and collected Keith Craft), he got into me but we were both on the brakes and we both dodged each other. I tried to go up the race track to give him some room behind me to dodge the wreck also. It worked out real good for us.”

Chris Wall, while wanting to win, was satisfied with his second place finish. “I think we had a car capable of winning if we could have stayed multi-grooved a little bit longer but just to run up front and be competitive we these guys, these guys do this for a living and these guys run clean. It’s just neat to get up front and be competitive with that caliber of racer.”

The track was favorable in the early laps for passing but went away and helped decide the outcome. Chris could only think about what if. “Thank goodness we were able to do a little passing early, which made me think we might have been able to have won this thing. If we could have gotten to the front a little bit quicker but once it took rubber you kind of had to just take a ride, you can’t tear yourself up or somebody else as well.”

Chris Wall took advantage of a rule for the race that allowed him to run open tires with a spec motor as long as his spoiler was at a 45 degree angle and the car weighed 2300 lbs.

Shane Clanton, who slipped to fifth on the start, was able to recover to finish third ahead of Chub Frank and Dale McDowell. Current World of Outlaw point leader Steve Francis finished sixth ahead of Billy Moyer, Tim McCreadie, Rick Eckert, and Darrell Lanigan in another strong showing by the Dirty Dozen. Ray Moore was the highest finisher in SUPR spec trim with a 13^th place finish just ahead of David Ashley.

41 Late Models were on hand and when time trails were complete, Billy Moyer would sit atop the field with a lap of 15.52 seconds around the Baton Rouge dirt oval. Billy Moyer would continue his strong early run by winning the first heat race with Shane Clanton, Chub Frank and Clint Smith taking the others. Leading World of Outlaw rookie contender and current O’Reilly SUPR point leader Garrett Durrett topped the first B main with Rob Litton topping the second.

Official Results:

1. (1) #44-Clint Smith-Senoia , GA -50-Running-$10,000
2. (5) #71-Chris Wall-Holden , LA -50-Running-$6,000
3. (2) #25- Shane Clanton-Locust Grove , GA -50-Running-$3,500
4. (3) #1*- Chub Frank-Bear Lake , PA -50-Running-$2,500
5. (6) #17M-Dale McDowell-Chickamauga , GA -50-Running-$2,200
6. (8) #15-Steve Francis-Ashland , KY -50-Running-$2,000
7. (4) #21-Billy Moyer-Batesville , AR -50-Running-$1,800
8. (7) #39-Tim McCreadie-Watertown , NY -50-Running-$1,600
9. (10) #24-Rick Eckert-York , PA -50-Running-$1,400
10. (9) #29-Darrell Lanigan-Union , KY -50-Running-$1,200
11. (11) # 1-Josh Richards-Shinnston , WV -50-Running-$1,000
12. (14) #28-Eddie Carrier Jr.®-Salt Rock, WV-50-Running-$900
13. (16) #93-Ray Moore-Shreveport , LA -50-Running-$800
14. (19) #14-David Ashley Jr.-Zachary, LA-50-Running-$700
15. (17) #58C-Garrett Durrett®- Simsboro , LA -50-Running-$700
16. (20) #12-Jason Ingalls-Longview , TX -50-Running-$700
17. (13) #6R-Robbie Stuart-DeRidder , LA -50-Running-$700
18. (22) #48- Marlon Wild-Springfield , LA -50-Running-$700
19. (26) #8C-Keith Craft-Hollywood , AR -50-Running-$700
20. (24) #11C-Jeff Chanler-Menden , LA -50-Running-$700
21. (25) #23-John Blankenship-Williamson , WV -50-Running-$700
22. (15) #98C-Phillip Cooper-Lafayette , LA -50-Running-$700
23. (23) # 5-Eric Jacobsen®- Santa Cruz , CA -50-Running-$700
24. (12) #1A-Ronnie Adams-Harleton , TX -30-Accident-$700
25. (21) #W3-James Ward-Lettsworth, LA-23-Mechanical-$700
26. (18) #6X-Rob Litton-Alexandria, LA-18-Mechanical-$700

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