A doubleheader for the Lucas Oil Late Model Series at East Bay and a UMP-sanctioned tuneup for the World of Outlaws weekend at Bubba Raceway Park highlighted the action in a chilly sunshine state on Friday as Speedweeks is now in full gear.
At East Bay the points-paying $10,000-to-win Lucas Oil program was run first starting with heat races as the sun was settling over the bay. The feature race got off to a wild start as Earl Pearson Jr., Jared Landers and Scott Bloomquist went three-wide down the back stretch on the opening lap. Pearson would lead at the line just before Bloomquist hit the turn one wall hard to stop the action. Back to action Pearson would pace the field until he closed in on the back of Wisconsin's Doug Blashe. Devin Moran took advantage and swept past Pearson for the lead, but when he had his own struggles with the lapper Blashe, Eddie Carrier Jr. was able to drive under Moran with six laps remaining. Carrier would then drive away over the final laps to take his second Speedweeks win as he also won the opener at Golden Isles Speedway on February 5th.
The youngster Moran finished second followed by Jimmy Owens, Jared Landers and Jonathan Davenport. Even though he faded to a twelfth-place finish Earl Pearson Jr. leads the Lucas Oil points headed into tonight's East Bay finale with Davenport and Landers next in line.
The rained out program from Monday was made up on Friday night following the regular program. Well, actually the qualifying took place on Thursday night, but the heats and feature were run on a slicked off race track Friday and it was Billy Moyer who outdragged Brandon Sheppard at the start and then cruised to his second win of the week here. Sheppard and Billy Moyer Jr. ran second and third from start to finish while the race for fourth did get interesting late with Gregg Satterlee getting the position over Devin Moran.
With the World of Outlaws Late Models set to run two points-paying shows on Saturday and Sunday night in Ocala, Bubba Raceway Park ran a "tuneup"30-lap $5,000-to-win event Friday night that saw plenty of action. Morgan Bagley moved from third to first to lead the opening lap and the Texas driver built a full straightaway lead by lap ten. That lead started to shrink rapidly though as Bagley tucked in behind the slower cars of twelve-year-old Tyler Clem and Tennessee veteran Billy Ogle Jr. with the leader apparently thinking that trying to pass the two of them on the outside would not be a good choice.
Darrell Lanigan closed quickly and then went to the cushion to take the lead from Bagley, but then he too tucked in behind Ogle and with nine laps remaining Josh Richards was able to drive into the lead. Traffic would again come into play with four laps to go as Richards made contact with Minnesota's Jordan Yaggy entering turn one and with just a bit of hesitation by Richards, Lanigan stormed around him on the outside to take the lead and soon after the win, his sixth in twelve starts at Ocala.
Richards took second, Chub Frank finished third, Bagley dropped back to fourth and upstart Brandon Overton was fifth. It was as good of a showing that Chub Frank has had in some time and his teammate Boom Briggs also had a good night setting fast time, winning his heat and finishing sixth in the feature.
The updated Back Stretch National Late Model points can be found at the bottom of this entry.
The All Star Sprint car race at Volusia Thursday night came down to the final lap with Daryn Pittman edging Donny Schatz at the line. On Friday night, at the same track but with it now being the season opener for the World of Outlaws the final lap dramatics involved the same two drivers and the outcome was the same with Pittman beating Schatz back to the stripe for the $10,000 win. Greg Hodnett and Joey Saldana both led the race early and finished third and fourth respectively while Brad Sweet completed the top five. Race two on the extensive 2015 Outlaws schedule is tonight at Volusia.
Ty Dillon used lapped traffic on the final lap to pounce on Kyle Strickler and take the UMP Modified win at Volusia Friday night. Nick Hoffman pushed Strickler back to third at the checkers while Jake Hawkins and Austin Dillon were fourth and fifth. Illinois driver Ray Bollinger continued his solid week with a 13th-place finish.
The World Series of Asphalt Racing kicked off at the New Smyrna Speedway and the headline was that Harrison Burton, the 14-year-old son of NASCAR driver Jeff Burton, won his first career Super Late Model feature. Dirt Late Model fans may remember a northwest Indiana based driver who raced a car number "20th" and his son Paul Shafer Jr. finished second to Burton on this night. Rico Abreu finished 22nd in the thirty-five car field as the open wheel racer tries to adapt to the Stock Cars before his K&N Series debut here this weekend.
After South Texas driver Steve Whiteaker won the USMTS Opener at Shady Oaks Speedway in Goliad, Texas, on Thursday night it was Oklahoma's Dereck Ramirez winning on Friday. Jason Hughes and Ryan Gustin were next in line for the second night in a row, this time with Gustin as the runner-up while Iowa's Zack VanderBeek was fourth. Todd Staley's road warriors will wrap up the three-race weekend there again tonight.
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