SHANNON BABB TAKES NIGHT 3 OF WORLD OF OUTLAWS AT VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY!

by Terry Young

60 cars rolled into Dick Murphy's Volusia Speedway Park Friday night for Round #3 of World of Outlaw Late Model action, and action packed it was! (Photo by Rebecca Richards)

The hype surrounding this years Volusia speedweeks has not left fans short of excitement!

On an ultra fast surface, the first heat rolled off with Scott Bloomquist taking the win over Babb and Bart Hartman. The first heat was slowed by red when Skip Arp suffered a frightening looking roll on the front stretch. Arp was uninjured, but the car was damaged severely.

The second heat was won by Rick Eckert over Dan Schlieper and Greg Johnson.
Another scary roll occurred in the heat bringing the red out once again as David Turner took an easy roll over entering turn 3. Turner too was uninjured but the car was all the worse for wear!

The third heat saw Terry English take the checkers ahead of R.J. Conley and Rod Conley.

The fourth heat was topped by Anthony Rushing over Wendell Wallace and Tim Dohm.

Fifth heat action was claimed by Dale McDowell over Chub Frank and Billy Moyer.

The sixth and final heat was won by young upstart Tim McCreadie as he took the checkers ahead of Steve Francis and Jackie Boggs.

Due to there being 6 heats, two dashes were held with R.J. Conley taking the first dash ahead of Frank, Bloomquist, Babb, Schlieper and English and would set the inside starting positions for the first 6 rows.

Setting the outside 6 rows for the feature was the second dash which was won by McDowell over Francis, Eckert, Wallace, Rushing and McDowell.

There were two consi races which would each transfer two to the A-main event and the first was topped by Dennis Erb over Mike Balzano with Clint Smith earning the honors in the second over Mike Marlar.

The feature rolled to the stripe with R.J. Conley setting the pace until Rick Eckert took over the point on lap 6 off of turn 4. Conley would slow to a stop as they rolled to the backstretch. As the front runners battle between Eckert and McCreadie was building, Shannon Babb was quickly moving to the front on the bottom line of the race track. Also making a quick move through the field was Babb teammate and boss Billy Moyer.

By lap 21 Moyer had moved his mount from the 17th starting position to take over the third place position behind teammate Babb.

Babb who was in pursuit of Eckert and dogged him on each restart and seemed to be just a bit short of having the momentum to overtake Eckert. But all of that would change with Eckert using a preferred high line as Babb had the previous 2 nights of World of Outlaw action. Babb who tonight seemed to prefer the bottom, would overtake Eckert on lap 35 and lead the final 5 laps unchallenged.


When the checkers flew over Babb in his CJ Rayburn, CAR CITY, WATTERS, Weld Wheel, J&J Steel, Wick Racing Products, HOOSIER by Smash, Arkansas Motors, Outlawed Motorsports, JAY DICKENS powered #18, he would be followed by Eckert, Moyer, Schlieper, Hartman, Frank, McDowell, McCreadie, Bloomquist, and Boggs rounding out the top 10.

While not the biggest win of his career, Babb commented in victory lane, "What an honor it is to be able to visit victory lane in Florida racing against the best drivers in the nation. Especially to have it come in front of a packed house ." Babb described the track conditions the best he has ever seen at Volusia. Babb complimented track owner Dick Murphy for the track crew's hard work and efforts!

Babb is now one of three different winners during this years inaugural season of the Boundless Motorsports World of Outlaw Late Models.

If you want to see the best racing in Florida during the 2004 speedweeks, you better not miss the World of Outlaws late model finale this Sunday at the Volusia Speedway Park when the cars take to the track for the $12,000.00 finale as the nations most accomplished drivers compete for an opportunity to visit victory lane.

This is action you will not see at any track anywhere in the state other than Volusia Speedway Park!



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