ROSSBURG — Shane Clanton was living the Dream, if only for a day.
The driver from Fayetteville, Ga., had just entered an exclusive fraternity by winning the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway late Saturday night, making him one of five drivers to win both the Dream and the World 100.
Yet Clanton, who led all 100 laps of the $100,000-to-win feature, hesitated when asked if his name deserved to be included with the likes of Scott Bloomquist, Donnie Moran, Billy Moyer and Jimmy Owens, the other drivers to sweep both of Eldora’s crown jewels of dirt racing.
“Just today. Today I’m the best,” Clanton said. “My car, my crew or somebody is the best, it might not be me.”
Clanton started on the outside pole and never surrendered the lead. Runner-up John Blankenship got a run under Clanton in Turn 2 but couldn’t pull off the pass on lap 43. At times he led by a straightaway — holding a 3.7-second lead over the 26-car field – and won by 3.149 seconds.
Blankenship was followed by Darrell Lanigan, Steve Francis and Dennis Erb Jr. in the top five. Clint Smith, Eddie Carrier Jr., Brian Birkhofer, Billy Moyer and Chris Madden rounded out the top 10.
“It’s a bad race to come up short in,” Blankenship said. “The car was awesome, but Clanton’s was a little better. Kudos to him he ran a great race. I would’ve liked to get up there with him and mixed it up more.
“(Winning $20,000 is) nice and I’ll definitely take it. But $100,000 would’ve been better.”
Clanton benefitted from clean air running ahead of the field, and when he caught lapped traffic late in the race he had built a big enough advantage he didn’t need to pass. He followed the back of the field the final five laps, at times taking glances at Eldora’s jumbo video screen in Turn 2 to see how close cars were behind him.
“I said just stay as far ahead as you can if you hear somebody then you can go. I never heard nobody so I just rode right there behind them,” Clanton said.
“I was just driving, made my laps and wanted the end of the race to hurry up and get there.”
Clanton dodged a challenge when five-time Dream winner Bloomquist roared ahead of the field on a restart on lap 24. Race officials ruled Bloomquist jumped the start and was moved one row back on the restart.
Bloomquist, who appeared to suffer mechanical problems, finished 21st.
“Scott fired 10 car lengths before we were supposed to,” Clanton said. “(Race officials) were telling the whole time the race leader’s got the race in control. It was my job to start the race, not Scott’s. I wasn’t gonna let him just go and fire with him.”
Now as part of that rare racing club, Clanton was asked which win is his favorite — the higher-paying $100,000 Dream or the more prestigious World 100 he claimed in 2008?
“If I said right now I’d say the World because I passed Jimmy Owens for the win. He’s pretty good around this place,” Clanton said. “My bank account is gonna say this one. The World is pretty special because it’s the first big race I ever won.
“That’s a dream come true. To win it is special, to win the World also, prestige can’t get no bigger than these two races. I had a shot to win in 2010 and a part failure cost us a shot to win then. Everything held together tonight and we came out victorious.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2400, ext. 6991, or gbilling@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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