After winning two of the five preliminary events it was no surprise to see Billy Moyer top off the week at East Bay with a $10,000 victory over the Lucas Oil Late Model regulars. Jimmy Owens would fend off pole-sitter Tim Dohm for the early lead in the 50-lap affair and by mid-race Moyer was there to apply the pressure to the leader.
With Owens riding the cushion, Moyer used the rest of the racing surface to edge his way closer to a pass of the leader with each lap until he completed the process on lap 28. "Mr. Smooth" then pulled away from there opening up more than a straightaway lead and often having as many as five-lapped cars between himself and what turned out to be a pretty good race for second.
As Moyer took the checkers in dominating fashion, defending series champion Don O'Neal would prevail in the battle for second followed Jonathan Davenport, Jimmy Owens and Jared Landers. West Virginia veteran Mike Bendum had another good outing finishing in sixth after racing within the top five late in the race and another West Virginia veteran Dohm held on for seventh.
Despite an eleventh-place finish Earl Pearson Jr. leaves the Speedweeks action with a slim five-point advantage over Jonathan Davenport who will likely not even follow the complete Lucas Oil schedule, unless of course he stays in the points battle, and Jared Landers is not far back in third. The next event for the Lucas Oil Late Models will be March 20th at the Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio, so it will now be interesting to see how many of the series regulars will go run the World of Outlaws and UMP sanctioned events the remainder of Speedweeks at Ocala and Volusia County.
While the Lucas crowd was wrapping up their Florida events, the World of Outlaws ran their first one in the sunshine state Saturday night at Bubba Raceway Park and at the end of the night there was a brand new face in victory lane.
Teammates Chub Frank and Rick "Boom" Briggs would run one-two in the early laps before defending Outlaw champion Darrell Lanigan spun in turn four on lap four. On the restart Frank Heckenast Jr. would move to second and challenge Frank taking the lead from the long-time Outlaw regular on lap sixth. Chub was not about to give in to the young suburban Chicago driver and he used the cushion off of turn four to regain the lead on lap eight. The two drivers then swapped the lead on the ensuing laps before Chub Frank took control again on lap ten.
The caution waved a lap later four a Tim McCreadie spin and three laps after the restart Frankie Heckenast moved to the lead. Josh Richards and Shane Clanton would then make their way toward the front and after Clanton cleared Richards for second he went to work on the leader easing by Heckenast with nine-laps remaining. Frankie was not to be denied though as he re-passed Clanton a lap later and then held him at bay over the closing laps to win his first-ever World of Outlaws main event. Clanton would hold on to second over Richards, Darrell Lanigan would come from the back after his early spin to finish fourth, Chub Frank took fifth and Brandon Overton continued to impress in sixth.
The Outlaws will be the only Late Model show in the state tonight as they close out the weekend at Bubba's place with the 28-car field likely swelling a bit with some of the drivers from East Bay.
The up-to-date National Dirt Late Model point standings are at the bottom of this entry.
After finishing second to Daryn Pittman the two previous nights, Donny Schatz put himself in victory lane with the World of Outlaws at Volusia County Speedway. The big obstacle on this night for Schatz was a broken valve spring in the final laps of the Dash requiring a quick engine change prior to feature time. Joey Saldana would lead early only to have Schatz and the new powerplant motor by on lap seven for the eventual victory. Danny Lasoski is enjoying his new Big Game Treestands ride as he finished second ahead of a seemingly rejuvenated Steve Kinser. Greg Hodnett is having a solid week as he raced from twelfth to fourth and Brad Sweet completed the top five. The Outlaws close out the Winged 410 portion of Speedweeks tonight at Volusia.
The UMP Modified field was split in two as they run qualifying events Saturday and Sunday for Monday's $5,000-to-win Gator Championship and it was North Carolina's Nick Hoffman taking the win last night. Kyle Strickler was second ahead of Ty Dillon, Jason Beaulieu and Josh Rice.
Down on the pavement in New Smyrna the day started out in dramatic fashion as Jordan Ives hit the wall during a practice session for the Super Late Models and his car burst into flames. Fortunately Ives was able to escape the inferno and the car essentially burned to the ground. Here is a link to the story and photos from Speed51
In racing action Wisconsin's Ty Majeski took the win in the Super Late Model division with Garrett Jones second and Paul Shafer Jr. in third. Rico Abreu showed some improvement by finishing on the lead lap in twelfth as he now makes his NASCAR debut today here in the K&N East Series event.
After running third and second the previous two nights Iowa's Ryan Gustin made his way into victory lane in the USMTS show at Shady Oaks Speedway in Goliad, Texas. North Dakota's Austin Arneson gave his Rookie-of-the-Year efforts a good early boost by finishing second ahead of Cade Dillard and Jason Hughes. Another USMTS RoY candidate Glenwood, Iowa's Jesse Sobbing finished in fifth.
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