January 7, 2024 | By Ben Shelton

Dillard Doubles Down in Wild West Shootout Opener

VADO, N.M. — The 18th annual Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts saw the opening round of the mega miniseries come to life on Saturday afternoon at FK Rod Ends Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park.

With 144 entries in the pit area Louisiana’s Cade Dillard headlined the night’s program by emerging victorious in both the Dirt Track Bank Super Late Models presented by Black Diamond Race Cars and the Mesilla Valley Transportation/ Border Tire Modifieds presented by Rancho Milagro, while New Mexico’s Nick Rivera snared top honors in the ShockerHitch.com X-Mods presented by Border Tire competing in action.

“A lot of great people a have helped me get to this point in my career, and it’s just a surreal experience to win two features against this caliber of field in one night. (In the Super Late Model feature) I knew Bobby (Pierce) would be coming there once the (track) got pretty top dominant and I knew he went a little harder on tires,” Dillard said. “There about lap 28 or 30, (crew chief) Donnie (Pederson) told me (Pierce) is closing a little, so I just tried to use up what I had left, and I’d say he was probably getting better at the end with the tire choice. Man, what an awesome race car and an awesome facility. I love racing at this place.”

The Dirt Track Bank Super Late Model presented by Black Diamond Racecar saw Bobby Pierce starting in the Gorsuch Performance Solutions Pole Position with Cade Dillard alongside. Dillard bolted to the lead as the 40-lap feature went green. He fended off early race challenges from Garrett Alberson before having to outduel Bobby Pierce.

Pierce threw a slider and briefly nosed ahead on lap 34 before Dillard edged him at the line by 0.048 of a second and pulled away slightly to win by 0.289 of a second at the checkers. Dillard collected $11,000 for his winning performance.

Hometown racer Garrett Alberson settled for third.

Dillard double down on the night by topping the Mesilla Valley Transportation / Border Tire Modifieds presented by Rancho Milagro. After starting sixth he charged past early race leader, Jacob Hobscheidt on the eighth circuit and went on to win by over five seconds in the $2,000-to-win main event. Johnny Scott, Terry Phillips, 12th-starting Dan Ebert, and Hobscheidt completed the Top-5 finishers.

In Shocker Hitch X-Mod division action presented by Border Tire, Las Cruces’ racer Nick Rivera wired the field in the 25-lap feature to snare the $1,000 victory. J.C. Morton charged from seventh to finish second with sixth-place starter, Josh Cain in third. Greg Gorham advanced from 10th to finish fourth with Mike Rosales passing seven racers to finish fifth.

Full results from the event can be found at www.WildWestShootout.net.

Action continues with Round #2 of the miniseries on Sunday, Jan. 7 at FK Rod Ends Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park with complete shows for Super Late Models ($11,000-to-win), Modifieds ($2,000-to-win), and X-Mods ($1,000-to-win).

The pit gate opens at 1 p.m. MT with the driver’s meeting at 2 p.m. and hot laps at 3 p.m.. The grandstand gate opens at 3 p.m.

Daily general grandstand admission on Sunday, Jan. 7 is $25 for adults, $10 for children (ages 6-12) and free for kids (ages 5-and-under). Reserved seats are $30 and can be purchased at https://www.etix.com/ticket/v/17413/vado-speedway-park .

Pit admission is $45.

Full details are available at www.WildWestShootout.net.

The Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts is made possible by Rio Grande Waste Services, O’Reilly Auto Parts, FK Rod Ends, Dirt Track Bank, Black Diamond Race Cars, Hoker Trucking, ShockerHitch.com, Penske Racing Shocks, Merry’s Home Furnishings, Shaw Trucking, Schaeffer Oil, Karl Chevrolet, Rancho Milagro Racing, Eagle Moon Hemp, Top of the World Ranch, Mesilla Valley Transportation, Border Tire, Wehrs Machine & Racing Products, Swift Springs, Dirt Pro Grading & Padwork, Contractors & Developers (C&D) Bonding, Shocks by Hammer, Midwest Sheet Metal, Speedway Motors, Day Motor Sports, Hoosier Racing Tires, Sunoco Race Fuels, Pro Power Engines, Beaver Stripes, Arizona Differential, Gorsuch Performance Solutions, Toste Construction, Winning Edge Carburetion, The Joie of Seating, Screven Motor Speedway, DirtDraft.com, Victory Fuel, and FloRacing.

18th annual Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts: Round #1
FK Rod Ends Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park
Jan. 6, 2024

Dirt Track Bank Super Late Models presented by Black Diamond Racecars
A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[6]; 5. 6-Kyle Larson[14]; 6. 157-Mike Marlar[10]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 8. 18-Chase Junghans[9]; 9. 2-Tyler Stevens[4]; 10. 10-Kaden Honeycutt[5]; 11. 73-Rodney Sanders[17]; 12. 14S-Collen Winebarger[20]; 13. 18B-Shannon Babb[18]; 14. 2S-Stormy Scott[8]; 15. 14M-Morgan Bagley[24]; 16. 77-Preston Luckman[19]; 17. 7-Ricky Weiss[15]; 18. 82-Eston Whisler[25]; 19. E85-Jason Strand[22]; 20. 86-Kyle Beard[21]; 21. 7T-Drake Troutman[12]; 22. 101-Forrest Trent[13]; 23. 32B-Cody Laney[7]; 24. 1R-BJ Robinson[11]; 25. 28M-Sam Mars[23]


SUNDAY RESULTS


DIRT SUPER LATE MODELS - 44 entires

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[6]; 5. 6-Kyle Larson[14]; 6. 157-Mike Marlar[10]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 8. 18-Chase Junghans[9]; 9. 2-Tyler Stevens[4]; 10. 10-Kaden Honeycutt[5]; 11. 73-Rodney Sanders[17]; 12. 14S-Collen Winebarger[20]; 13. 18B-Shannon Babb[18]; 14. 2S-Stormy Scott[8]; 15. 14M-Morgan Bagley[24]; 16. 77-Preston Luckman[19]; 17. 7-Ricky Weiss[15]; 18. 82-Eston Whisler[25]; 19. E85-Jason Strand[22]; 20. 86-Kyle Beard[21]; 21. 7T-Drake Troutman[12]; 22. 101-Forrest Trent[13]; 23. 32B-Cody Laney[7]; 24. 1R-BJ Robinson[11]; 25. 28M-Sam Mars[23]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 73-Rodney Sanders[1]; 2. 77-Preston Luckman[3]; 3. 86-Kyle Beard[4]; 4. 28M-Sam Mars[5]; 5. 25-Mikey Kile[2]; 6. 15-Justin Duty[10]; 7. 13-Bricen James[12]; 8. 11-Jon Kirby[7]; 9. 51C-Jake O'Neil[8]; 10. 78S-Steve Stultz[6]; 11. 88-Chance Mann[9]; 12. 777-Pete Vargas[11]; 13. 38-Thomas Hunziker[13]; 14. 250-Walton Kyle Jr[14]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 18B-Shannon Babb[3]; 2. 14S-Collen Winebarger[1]; 3. E85-Jason Strand[5]; 4. 14M-Morgan Bagley[4]; 5. 82-Eston Whisler[2]; 6. 49T-Jake Timm[13]; 7. 42S-Don Shaw[7]; 8. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[6]; 9. 19C-Colby Moore[11]; 10. 5C-Brad Couch[8]; 11. 28W-Jim Whisler[10]; 12. 3-Keko Perez[12]; 13. 6T-Terry Carter[14]; 14. 02-Kent Rosevear[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 10-Kaden Honeycutt[2]; 3. 18-Chase Junghans[4]; 4. 101-Forrest Trent[5]; 5. 73-Rodney Sanders[8]; 6. 77-Preston Luckman[3]; 7. 28M-Sam Mars[7]; 8. 11-Jon Kirby[9]; 9. 88-Chance Mann[10]; 10. 777-Pete Vargas[11]; 11. 38-Thomas Hunziker[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Tyler Stevens[1]; 2. 32B-Cody Laney[4]; 3. 1R-BJ Robinson[2]; 4. 7-Ricky Weiss[6]; 5. 25-Mikey Kile[3]; 6. 86-Kyle Beard[5]; 7. 78S-Steve Stultz[7]; 8. 51C-Jake O'Neil[11]; 9. 15-Justin Duty[9]; 10. 13-Bricen James[8]; 11. 250-Walton Kyle Jr[10]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[2]; 2. 1-Tyler Erb[3]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 4. 6-Kyle Larson[4]; 5. 14S-Collen Winebarger[5]; 6. 18B-Shannon Babb[7]; 7. E85-Jason Strand[6]; 8. 42S-Don Shaw[9]; 9. 02-Kent Rosevear[10]; 10. 19C-Colby Moore[11]; 11. 49T-Jake Timm[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[2]; 3. 7T-Drake Troutman[3]; 4. 19-Dustin Sorensen[6]; 5. 82-Eston Whisler[4]; 6. 14M-Morgan Bagley[7]; 7. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[5]; 8. 5C-Brad Couch[8]; 9. 28W-Jim Whisler[11]; 10. 3-Keko Perez[10]; 11. 6T-Terry Carter[9]

Qualifying A: 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 2-Tyler Stevens[3]; 3. 10-Kaden Honeycutt[8]; 4. 1R-BJ Robinson[9]; 5. 77-Preston Luckman[6]; 6. 25-Mikey Kile[5]; 7. 18-Chase Junghans[7]; 8. 32B-Cody Laney[11]; 9. 101-Forrest Trent[22]; 10. 86-Kyle Beard[15]; 11. 38-Thomas Hunziker[10]; 12. 7-Ricky Weiss[18]; 13. 28M-Sam Mars[13]; 14. 78S-Steve Stultz[2]; 15. 73-Rodney Sanders[12]; 16. 13-Bricen James[20]; 17. 11-Jon Kirby[19]; 18. 15-Justin Duty[16]; 19. 88-Chance Mann[21]; 20. 250-Walton Kyle Jr[4]; 21. 777-Pete Vargas[14]; 22. 51C-Jake O'Neil[17]

Qualifying B: 1. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:14.571[16]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:14.636[1]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:14.724[3]; 4. 2S-Stormy Scott, 00:14.896[13]; 5. 1-Tyler Erb, 00:14.942[22]; 6. 7T-Drake Troutman, 00:14.999[7]; 7. 6-Kyle Larson, 00:15.011[14]; 8. 82-Eston Whisler, 00:15.042[19]; 9. 14S-Collen Winebarger, 00:15.091[2]; 10. 15S-Clayton Stuckey, 00:15.147[8]; 11. E85-Jason Strand, 00:15.149[15]; 12. 19-Dustin Sorensen, 00:15.193[11]; 13. 18B-Shannon Babb, 00:15.207[10]; 14. 14M-Morgan Bagley, 00:15.239[20]; 15. 49T-Jake Timm, 00:15.245[9]; 16. 5C-Brad Couch, 00:15.313[4]; 17. 42S-Don Shaw, 00:15.320[12]; 18. 6T-Terry Carter, 00:15.420[5]; 19. 02-Kent Rosevear, 00:15.497[21]; 20. 3-Keko Perez, 00:15.612[6]; 21. 19C-Colby Moore, 00:15.644[17]; 22. 28W-Jim Whisler, 00:15.882[18]

Pro Power Dash (10 Laps): 1. 82-Eston Whisler[2]; 2. 15-Justin Duty[3]; 3. 13-Bricen James[5]; 4. 25-Mikey Kile[1]; 5. 49T-Jake Timm[4]; 6. 51C-Jake O'Neil[9]; 7. 11-Jon Kirby[7]; 8. 19C-Colby Moore[10]; 9. 42S-Don Shaw[6]; 10. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[8]



A MODIFIEDS - 60 entries

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[6]; 2. 1ST-Johnny Scott[5]; 3. T75-Terry Phillips[2]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[12]; 5. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[1]; 6. J17-Jake Gallardo[16]; 7. G17-Fito Gallardo[10]; 8. 24X-Xavier Ortega[8]; 9. 189-Steven Whiteaker Jr[11]; 10. 65-Tyler Davis[19]; 11. 71-Philip Houston[9]; 12. 4W-Tyler Wolff[13]; 13. 02-Tanner Mullens[18]; 14. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[14]; 15. 89-AJ Diemel[20]; 16. 3J-Lewis Jackson[7]; 17. 85-Austin Adams[4]; 18. 45-Chase Holland[22]; 19. 69-Lucas Schott[3]; 20. 58X-Gary Christian[17]; 21. 28-Tom Georges[21]; 22. 88-Chad Wheeler[15]; 23. 16-Chris Henigan[24]; 24. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[23]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 58X-Gary Christian[3]; 2. 65-Tyler Davis[6]; 3. 28-Tom Georges[1]; 4. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[16]; 5. 11N-Gene Nicholas[2]; 6. 57-Duke Erickson[8]; 7. 5-Jon Mitchell[5]; 8. J7-Jake Boles[13]; 9. 24-Rick Ortega[15]; 10. 32-DJ Shannon[20]; 11. D25-David Tanner[10]; 12. 07T-Randy Thornell[9]; 13. 44-Christy Barnett[4]; 14. 77-CJ Hulsey[21]; 15. 17-Peyton Gallardo[11]; 16. 71T-Billy Wilker[19]; 17. 75-Alan Sharpensteen[12]; 18. 64-Casey Fowler[18]; 19. 20-Rodney Sanders[7]; 20. 3-Javier Zapien Jr[17]; 21. 37S-Spencer Rolenc[14]; 22. 111-Logan Drake[22]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[1]; 2. 89-AJ Diemel[2]; 3. 45-Chase Holland[9]; 4. 16-Chris Henigan[4]; 5. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[6]; 6. 7G-Gabe Hodges[3]; 7. 27X-Calvin Iverson[7]; 8. 37-John Neal Reid[5]; 9. 18JR-Ricardo Olague Jr[15]; 10. 34-Noah Daspit[10]; 11. 131-Royal Jones[8]; 12. 96-Taton Hansen[19]; 13. 14BT-Blake Thornell[18]; 14. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[16]; 15. 2SS-Mark Smith[11]; 16. 75J-Jeremy LaCoe[12]; 17. 12-Paul Miles[13]; 18. 28S-Ronnie Leathem Jr[21]; 19. 88S-Nathan Smith[17]; 20. 9R-Jimmy Ray[14]; 21. 33-Jaren Martin[20]; 22. 96C-Carson Ditsch[22]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 189-Steven Whiteaker Jr[1]; 2. 24X-Xavier Ortega[4]; 3. 5-Jon Mitchell[2]; 4. 58X-Gary Christian[6]; 5. 7G-Gabe Hodges[8]; 6. D25-David Tanner[5]; 7. 12-Paul Miles[3]; 8. 75J-Jeremy LaCoe[9]; 9. 88S-Nathan Smith[7]; 10. (DNS) 96C-Carson Ditsch

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 60-Dan Ebert[1]; 2. J17-Jake Gallardo[3]; 3. 02-Tanner Mullens[5]; 4. 3J-Lewis Jackson[9]; 5. 65-Tyler Davis[7]; 6. 17-Peyton Gallardo[2]; 7. J7-Jake Boles[4]; 8. 24-Rick Ortega[6]; 9. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[8]; 10. 96-Taton Hansen[10]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[6]; 2. 28-Tom Georges[3]; 3. 37-John Neal Reid[1]; 4. 85-Austin Adams[10]; 5. 44-Christy Barnett[8]; 6. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[9]; 7. 37S-Spencer Rolenc[2]; 8. 9R-Jimmy Ray[7]; 9. 32-DJ Shannon[4]; 10. 77-CJ Hulsey[5]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 4W-Tyler Wolff[1]; 2. 71-Philip Houston[4]; 3. 16-Chris Henigan[3]; 4. 1ST-Johnny Scott[10]; 5. 131-Royal Jones[6]; 6. 20-Rodney Sanders[9]; 7. 34-Noah Daspit[8]; 8. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[2]; 9. 14BT-Blake Thornell[5]; 10. 33-Jaren Martin[7]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[1]; 2. T75-Terry Phillips[8]; 3. 69-Lucas Schott[10]; 4. 57-Duke Erickson[4]; 5. 07T-Randy Thornell[5]; 6. 27X-Calvin Iverson[9]; 7. 2SS-Mark Smith[7]; 8. 3-Javier Zapien Jr[2]; 9. 64-Casey Fowler[6]; 10. 28S-Ronnie Leathem Jr[3]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[2]; 2. 89-AJ Diemel[1]; 3. G17-Fito Gallardo[6]; 4. 88-Chad Wheeler[8]; 5. 11N-Gene Nicholas[9]; 6. 45-Chase Holland[10]; 7. 75-Alan Sharpensteen[7]; 8. 18JR-Ricardo Olague Jr[4]; 9. 71T-Billy Wilker[5]; 10. 111-Logan Drake[3]



X-MODS - 40 emtries

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. AOS-Nick Rivera[2]; 2. 18-JC Morton[7]; 3. 3J-Josh Cain[6]; 4. 93-Greg Gorham[10]; 5. 12-Mike Rosales[12]; 6. 71-Nate Reinke[9]; 7. 5-Reece Solander[3]; 8. 23H-Hector Barraza[18]; 9. 44-Christy Barnett[17]; 10. M17-Rob Moseley[15]; 11. 21X-Tanner Kade[19]; 12. 5M-Eric McNutt[16]; 13. 07-Donavon Flores[20]; 14. 15A-Mike Anderson[13]; 15. 88-Andrew Fanning[14]; 16. 24-Shane McNutt[8]; 17. 44JT-Jaime Torres[23]; 18. M77-Cameron Martin[4]; 19. 21K-Brian Kleine[24]; 20. 65-Dustin Smith[11]; 21. 14J-Jacob Hodges[5]; 22. X15-Jesse Haynie[21]; 23. J2-Kris Jackson[1]; 24. 7C-John Carney[22]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 44-Christy Barnett[4]; 2. 21X-Tanner Kade[3]; 3. X15-Jesse Haynie[5]; 4. 44JT-Jaime Torres[6]; 5. 23B-Israel Ortega[1]; 6. 198-Jake Haddox[8]; 7. 96-Dusty Riggs[2]; 8. 21A-Andrew Hodges[9]; 9. 25K-Kale Murphrey[12]; 10. 40-Ruben Ortega[10]; 11. X0-Tyler Tallmon[11]; 12. 81-Devon Jobin[7]

B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 23H-Hector Barraza[1]; 2. 07-Donavon Flores[3]; 3. 7C-John Carney[6]; 4. 21K-Brian Kleine[5]; 5. 19-Lucas Rodin[7]; 6. 96V-Victor Barraza[10]; 7. 05N-Jimmy Nicholas[11]; 8. 02-Deuce Teague[2]; 9. 21-Jason Pool[12]; 10. 94-Justin Garrett[9]; 11. 28-Aiden Frazier[4]; 12. 25-Clayton Schroer[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. AOS-Nick Rivera[4]; 2. 88-Andrew Fanning[1]; 3. 14J-Jacob Hodges[7]; 4. 96-Dusty Riggs[3]; 5. 21X-Tanner Kade[5]; 6. 23H-Hector Barraza[9]; 7. 44-Christy Barnett[8]; 8. X15-Jesse Haynie[10]; 9. 94-Justin Garrett[6]; 10. 21-Jason Pool[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Nate Reinke[1]; 2. 12-Mike Rosales[2]; 3. 5M-Eric McNutt[3]; 4. 65-Dustin Smith[7]; 5. M17-Rob Moseley[8]; 6. 07-Donavon Flores[5]; 7. 19-Lucas Rodin[6]; 8. 21K-Brian Kleine[10]; 9. 25-Clayton Schroer[9]; 10. 05N-Jimmy Nicholas[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 3J-Josh Cain[2]; 2. J2-Kris Jackson[9]; 3. 24-Shane McNutt[6]; 4. M77-Cameron Martin[10]; 5. 23B-Israel Ortega[7]; 6. 81-Devon Jobin[1]; 7. 28-Aiden Frazier[8]; 8. 21A-Andrew Hodges[3]; 9. 96V-Victor Barraza[5]; 10. 25K-Kale Murphrey[4]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 93-Greg Gorham[1]; 2. 18-JC Morton[4]; 3. 5-Reece Solander[8]; 4. 02-Deuce Teague[2]; 5. 15A-Mike Anderson[9]; 6. 44JT-Jaime Torres[3]; 7. 7C-John Carney[10]; 8. 198-Jake Haddox[7]; 9. 40-Ruben Ortega[6]; 10. X0-Tyler Tallmon[5]