Photo courtesy of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame. Standing in the back row center, Dick Barton is joined by his race team in this July 1, 2006 file photo after winning the World of Outlaws Late Model race at Stateline Speedway.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article first saw the light of day in July 2006, a week after Dick Barton captured the World of Outlaws Late-Model race at Stateline Speedway. With the World of Outlaws returning to the Busti, New York oval on June 17, it was deemed appropriate to run the story again.

The drivers who descended on Stateline Speedway a week ago came from Kentucky, Arkansas, Georgia, California and West Virginia. They came from Louisiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

As members of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, these guys are the pros of the sport, men who make their living touring the country in pursuit of the checkered flag.

So when Dick Barton, whose Ashville home is but a short drive from the track on Kortwright Road in Busti, found his way to victory lane last Saturday, the win set off quite a celebration among his race team.

“This was the first time in the three-year history of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series that a true local driver has beaten the touring professionals,” said Lakewood resident Randy Anderson, who is a Barton team member and local racing historian. “It’s kind of like an amateur winning on the PGA Tour.”

In other words, Barton aced what might have been his biggest test in nearly 30 years behind the wheel, recording the fastest lap in the 51-car time-trial, and then winning his heat, the pole-position dash and finally the 50-lap feature.

The winning prize?

$10,000.

“That is a significant amount of money,” Anderson said. “There have only been a handful of races in the 50-year history of Stateline that have paid $10,000 or more.”

But the money, while certainly nice, was secondary to the magnitude of the victory.

“The whole team was just very, very happy,” said Barton, whose 200-plus career dirt late model feature wins have come primarily at Stateline, Eriez (Hammett, Pennsylvania) and Raceway 7 (Conneaut, Ohio). “We’ve won bigger races (money-wise), but we’ve never won (a race) with the prestige of this one.”

“The whole evening was like a storybook with a storybook ending.”

Barton’s margin of victory was 0.576 seconds over John Blankenship of Williamson, West Virginia. Darrell Lanigan of Union, Kentucky was third, Steve Francis from Ashland, Kentucky was fourth and Billy Moyer of Batesville, Arkansas was fifth.

“The week before at the “King of the Hill,” we earned a guaranteed spot in this week’s race,” Barton said. “When we went to the track, we had confidence that we were at least in the show.”

But there was at least one nervous moment.

“On lap 29, I ran into lapped traffic,” Barton said. “I thought, I’ll just pass these guys on the outside. But the second-place guy got underneath me. I was able to get back in front and made the commitment that I wouldn’t leave the bottom for the rest of the race.”

When the race was over, Barton went, well, nuts.

“I jumped up on the car,” he said. “I’m not ashamed of it. It was a spontaneous thing. It was nothing more than me being me.”

Barton and his team — comprised of Anderson, John Lamb, Jim Seely, Greg Farrar, Warren McDonald, Del Seekings, Bill Hanson and Tim Whitacre — made a winner of car owner Ron Nielson.

“Ron’s daughter was there, so she was well aware of the whole evening’s proceedings,” said Barton, 51. “They (the Nielsons) were patient the last couple of years while we were sorting out the new way.”

The “new way” required that the team change the manner in which they set up Barton’s car to keep up with the competition. After some adjustments, it’s starting to pay dividends.

“The cars were changing. To teach us old dogs new tricks isn’t necessarily an easy deal, but that shows the competitiveness of our team. At this point in my career, I should be thinking about rocking chairs and the porch. Instead, we are concerned about this new way of setting up race cars. We can’t stand not to be competitive.”

As Anderson noted, “Dick Barton doesn’t show up to finish second.”

BLAIR WON WoO IN 2019

BUSTI, N.Y. — The World of Outlaws Late Models Series pulled into Stateline Speedway on Sept. 19, 2019 with a field of 14 of the nation’s best drivers in attendance, including 2018 winner and defending series champion Brandon Sheppard.

Thirteen of the top-rated local drivers, including Max Blair, defended their home turf. Shane Clanton, 2013 winner, was also in the field.

At the end of the night, Blair, the reigning two-time Stateline Speedway champion, was in Victory Lane for the 42nd time in 2019 and the seventh time at Stateline that season.

WONDERLING WINS AT STATELINE

BUSTI, N.Y. — The RUSH Late Model Tour visited Stateline Speedway last Saturday with Jeremy Wonderling taking home the first-place purse after winning his heat, starting on the pole and leading every lap.

The non-qualifiers event was won by Khole Wanzer.

In other action, Wyatt Scott collected his first-ever Super Late Model feature, Michael McGee won the UMP Modified feature, Jason Black captured the Penn-Ohio ProStock feature, Dennis Lunger won yet another RUSH Pro Mod event, and Chris Horton added another Challenger triumph to his laurels. The race was run in memory of Bill Law, the man most responsible for bringing crate-racing to this area. Law passed away in July, 2012 after a battle with small cell lung cancer.

For Wonderling, it was his third win in the event, the others coming in 2017 and 2019. Damian Bidwell won the race in 2018 with a last-lap pass. Law’s grandson, Kyle Murray, races in the division, but was unable to compete in this event due to mechanical issues.