June 2, 2024 | By Anthony Ainslie

Leighton dominates Malvern Bank Late Models at Off-Road Speedway

NORFOLK, Neb. — Bill Leighton Jr. found his way to victory lane once again with the Malvern Bank Super Late Models West Series as he put on a flawless performance in Saturday’s visit to Off-Road Speedway.

The West Series returned to racing for the first time in Nebraska of the 2024 season. The tour made its first of 2 trips to Norfolk’s Off-Road Speedway. Over 30 drivers from Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota made the trip to the 1/3-mile bullring for the second round for the West Series.

Qualifying time trials saw Blair Nothdurft, the lone South Dakota native, set the overall fastest time at 14.016 seconds and was the fastest in group A. Derrick Stewart set the fastest time in group B when he stopped the clock at 14.109 seconds.

The four heat races on the night were won by Dylan Sillman, Jake Bridge, Tad Pospisil, and Chad Holladay. Zach Less and Jesse Sobbing won the two B features on the night, and after provisionals were taken, a 23-car field took to the speedway for the 35-lap main event.

Bill Leighton Jr. capitalized on his pole starting position and jumped out to the lead, and that would be where he would spend his time all night long. Leighton stuck mainly to the low side of the speedway while Chad Holladay continued to use the outside line to his benefit.

As the race wore on, the leaders would encounter lapped traffic. Both Leighton and Holladay had to practice patience as to not overdrive the corners and to navigate the back marker cars successfully. Holladay would draw close to challenge Leighton for the lead but could not get by.

Derrick Stewart brought out the race’s only caution when he slowed to a stop on the front stretch with 11 laps remaining. Leighton would hit his marks on the restart, and from there, the La Vista, Nebraska native would not falter. He would lead all 35 laps to take home his first win of the year and his 24th all-time series win. The victory was also Leighton’s fourth at Off-Road Speedway, the most of any driver with the series, and his first win at the speedway since 2017.

Chad Holladay finished his Off-Road Speedway debut with a second-place finish while hometown hopeful Tad Pospisil came in third. Blair Nothdurft took fourth, while Chris Spieker made a late race charge to round out the top five.

After a rainout at Beatrice and an action-packed night at Off-Road Speedway, the West Series now takes a break and will return to race on June 29th with the Hampel Memorial at Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa.

Meanwhile, the East Series is back in action on June 14th with the 3rd annual Tony Stewart Tribute at C J Speedway in Columbus Junction, Iowa. Following that race will be the East Series’ debut at the Lafayette County Speedway in Darlington, Wisconsin.



RESULTS

MalvernBank A Feature (35 Laps): 1. 24-Bill Leighton[1]; 2. 32C-Chad Holladay[2]; 3. 04-Tad Pospisil[3]; 4. 76-Blair Nothdurft[6]; 5. 56S-Chris Spieker[11]; 6. 85-Josh Leonard[8]; 7. 14X-Chase Osborne[5]; 8. 26JR-Corey Zeitner[4]; 9. 35D-Dylan Sillman[15]; 10. 53-Andrew Kosiski[7]; 11. 14-Kyle Berck[12]; 12. 36B-Beau Johnson[16]; 13. 22-Charlie McKenna[9]; 14. 4-JC Wyman[19]; 15. 99-Jesse Sobbing[18]; 16. 52-Brian Kosiski[10]; 17. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[22]; 18. 1-Jake Bridge[13]; 19. 15C-Curt Schroeder[21]; 20. 42-Fred Remley[20]; 21. 3C-Mike Collins[23]; 22. 20-Zach Less[17]; 23. 43-Derrick Stewart[14]

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Zach Less[2]; 2. 4-JC Wyman[1]; 3. 3C-Mike Collins[4]; 4. 35-Kale Kosiski[3]; 5. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[5]; 6. 02-Matt Haase[7]; 7. 36-Jim Johnson[6]; 8. 07-Jason Jacob[9]; 9. (DNS) 21X-Jared Hoerle

Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Jesse Sobbing[1]; 2. 42-Fred Remley[3]; 3. 7J-Chris Johnson[7]; 4. 5-Dylan Schmer[6]; 5. 15C-Curt Schroeder[5]; 6. 10-JR Coover[4]; 7. 44-Troy Daly[2]; 8. 5S-Jeff Segebart[8]; 9. 34K-Colby Klaassen[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 35D-Dylan Sillman[1]; 2. 56S-Chris Spieker[3]; 3. 22-Charlie McKenna[4]; 4. 85-Josh Leonard[5]; 5. 76-Blair Nothdurft[6]; 6. 42-Fred Remley[2]; 7. 5-Dylan Schmer[7]; 8. 02-Matt Haase[8]; 9. 34K-Colby Klaassen[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Jake Bridge[2]; 2. 14-Kyle Berck[3]; 3. 24-Bill Leighton[5]; 4. 14X-Chase Osborne[6]; 5. 3C-Mike Collins[7]; 6. 99-Jesse Sobbing[4]; 7. 15C-Curt Schroeder[1]; 8. 7J-Chris Johnson[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 04-Tad Pospisil[4]; 2. 36B-Beau Johnson[7]; 3. 35-Kale Kosiski[1]; 4. 53-Andrew Kosiski[5]; 5. 20-Zach Less[3]; 6. 43-Derrick Stewart[6]; 7. 10-JR Coover[2]; 8. 5S-Jeff Segebart[9]; 9. 07-Jason Jacob[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 32C-Chad Holladay[6]; 2. 52-Brian Kosiski[3]; 3. 26JR-Corey Zeitner[5]; 4. 44-Troy Daly[2]; 5. 4-JC Wyman[4]; 6. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[7]; 7. 36-Jim Johnson[1]; 8. 21X-Jared Hoerle[8]

Qualifying A: 1. 76-Blair Nothdurft, 00:14.016[15]; 2. 14X-Chase Osborne, 00:14.270[9]; 3. 85-Josh Leonard, 00:14.324[7]; 4. 24-Bill Leighton, 00:14.333[4]; 5. 22-Charlie McKenna, 00:14.429[14]; 6. 99-Jesse Sobbing, 00:14.432[13]; 7. 56S-Chris Spieker, 00:14.541[10]; 8. 14-Kyle Berck, 00:14.563[8]; 9. 42-Fred Remley, 00:14.566[11]; 10. 1-Jake Bridge, 00:14.597[17]; 11. 35D-Dylan Sillman, 00:14.599[16]; 12. 15C-Curt Schroeder, 00:14.666[3]; 13. 5-Dylan Schmer, 00:14.717[1]; 14. 3C-Mike Collins, 00:14.720[12]; 15. 02-Matt Haase, 00:14.758[2]; 16. 7J-Chris Johnson, 00:14.854[6]; 17. 34K-Colby Klaassen, 00:14.923[5]

Qualifying B: 1. 43-Derrick Stewart, 00:14.109[12]; 2. 32C-Chad Holladay, 00:14.116[5]; 3. 53-Andrew Kosiski, 00:14.170[10]; 4. 26JR-Corey Zeitner, 00:14.214[9]; 5. 04-Tad Pospisil, 00:14.253[15]; 6. 4-JC Wyman, 00:14.254[4]; 7. 20-Zach Less, 00:14.451[2]; 8. 52-Brian Kosiski, 00:14.519[7]; 9. 10-JR Coover, 00:14.600[16]; 10. 44-Troy Daly, 00:14.698[3]; 11. 35-Kale Kosiski, 00:14.740[6]; 12. 36-Jim Johnson, 00:14.754[14]; 13. 36B-Beau Johnson, 00:14.794[1]; 14. 99D-Darrel DeFrance, 00:14.804[8]; 15. 07-Jason Jacob, 00:14.849[11]; 16. 21X-Jared Hoerle, 00:15.308[17]; 17. 5S-Jeff Segebart, 00:15.342[13]