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WoO/Kevin Kovac
CONCORD, N.C. (February 2) - Darrell Lanigan has some unfinished business to take care of on the 2008 World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
After the momentum he built up during a strong 2006 season was dulled by an unsatisfying '07 campaign, the 'Bluegrass Bandit' is laser-focused on getting back in the thick of a WoO LMS championship race he felt he should have been part of a year ago.
"We didn't have the season we were hoping for last year," said Lanigan, who slipped to a seventh-place finish in the 2007 points standings (from a career-high fifth in '06). "We broke some stuff at the beginning of the year that put us behind in the points and we never really recovered. We ran good and won a couple races in the middle of the year, but then we just fell off a little bit, didn't maintain it.
"I'd probably rate our ('07) season a 'B-minus,'" he added. "Being more consistent gets you an 'A' - and that's what we're shooting for."
Lanigan, 37, of Union, Ky., is hoping to get off to a much better start in 2008, beginning with the season-opening WoO LMS events on Feb. 14 and 16 during the 37th annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.
There was nothing memorable, of course, about how Lanigan broke out of the gate in 2007. Coming off an '06 season in which he led all WoO LMS drivers in top-five finishes, Lanigan had to use a provisional to get in the tour lidlifter at Volusia (a heat-race incident hampered him) and, in an even more frustrating development, did not score his initial top-five finish until the 18th A-Main of the year, on June 14 at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn.
Lanigan heated up and enjoyed two wins in a four-race span in June (at Iowa's Knoxville Raceway and Pennsylvania's Port Royal Speedway), but he didn't reach Victory Lane again for the remainder of the season.
How uncharacteristic was Lanigan's '07 campaign? Consider three telltale moments: he experienced his first DNQ on the tour in nearly two years (on May 16 at Indiana's Brownstown Speedway); he skipped the July 3 event at Missouri's Lebanon I-44 Speedway; and he left the Sept. 2 program at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa., after experiencing mechanical trouble during time trials.
What's more, Lanigan ended the 2007 season an enormous 502 points behind champion Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky. - one year after entering the season-finale with an outside shot at the title (he finished just 44 points behind '06 champ Tim McCreadie).
One of five drivers who has won at least one WoO LMS A-Main every season since 2004, Lanigan is confident that '07 will end up being an aberration. He has plenty of experience on the road - he's entering his fifth year as a WoO LMS regular - and possesses championship-caliber equipment; in fact, there's no team on the circuit that presents a sharper, more professional appearance than the Lanigan Autosports team.
Now, if Lanigan could only catch a few breaks…
"We have to keep the DNFs ('Did Not Finish') away," said Lanigan, whose sponsors include gottarace.com and Xtreme Graphics. "We had some bad luck last year, broke some stuff that knocked us out. You can't have that happen if you want to keep the top-fives going."
It's Lanigan's hope that his first outings of 2008, during the 'Super Bowl of Racing' at Golden Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Ga., aren't a harbinger of the racing fortune he can expect in the months to come. He started the scheduled 10-night meet off with a sixth-place finish on Jan. 23, but an accident in the A-Main on Jan. 29 and another in a B-Main on Jan. 30 prompted him to head back early to his Kentucky shop to regroup for the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals.
"The second wreck hurt it pretty good," Lanigan said of his Rocket car. "We figured we'd be better off coming home, stripping it down and taking it back to Rocket (in Shinnston, W.Va.) to get it fixed."
The crash left Lanigan with two race-ready Rocket cars, but he has another new one in the process of being built. He also has plenty of fresh Cornett motors set to go for '08.
Lanigan's crew situation, meanwhile, is a bit uncertain. Wayne Caskey, who has served as a fulltime mechanic for Lanigan in recent seasons, is working with him again through the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals but doesn't plan to travel this season, so Lanigan must find a regular wrench to assist him.
Cool, calm and collected as always, Lanigan isn't letting his search for a crewman stress him out. He's also looking on the bright side of his early-season doldrums at Golden Isles.
"At least we got our bad luck out of the way already," said Lanigan. "That's what we're hoping."
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
Tickets for the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals are available on-line at www.volusiaspeedwaypark.com.
Fans unable to attend the spectacular week at Volusia can still catch all the action on the DIRTVision Cybercast. For just $29.99 fans can purchase the 'Alltel DIRTcar Nationals Racepass' and watch live streaming video of all 12 nights of racing action from Feb. 5-16. Log on to www.dirtvision.com for more information.
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