September 9, 2023 | By Jordan Delucia, DIRTcar PR

Pierce, Shirley prevail on Night 2 at Eldora

Rossburg, OH —  The Land of Lincoln had a night at Eldora Speedway.

Illinois racing favorites Bobby Pierce and Brian Shirley were triumphant in their respective World 100 preliminary Feature events Friday night – Pierce for the fourth time in his career and Shirley for the first.

The multi-time DIRTcar Late Model national champions bagged a couple $12,000 checks for their efforts and a maximum 300 points in the Every Lap Matters format, which, in part, determines Saturday’s Heat Race lineups before the $53,000-to-win main event.

Group A Prelim Feature – Bobby Pierce

While he had to come from sixth to win on Thursday, Pierce afforded himself a spot on the outside front row for the drop of the green on Friday. The 26-year-old from Oakwood, IL, took the lead on the opening lap but quickly encountered resistance from behind.

Thursday night Feature winner Hudson O’Neal ran Pierce down inside the first five laps and threw a big slide job on him entering Turn 1, completing the pass out of Turn 2 and driving off with the lead on Lap 5.

“He was right on me [the lap before],” Pierce said. “I felt like I was kinda holding him up, honestly.

“I didn’t expect that. It was all-of-a-sudden, and then I shot up [the track] to try to get the cushion and get some run on him, but I pushed and had to lift out of it.”

A restart slightly before the halfway point restacked the field and put Pierce on O’Neal’s bumper. O’Neal took off with the lead again, but only briefly. He went into Turn 1 at speed after completing Lap 12, but suddenly slowed and veered up the track toward the outside wall, bringing out the caution.

The Rocket1 Racing machine had blown a right-front tire. O’Neal came to the work area to change it, and did return for the restart, but was only able to get back to 13th by the checkered.

Now armed with the lead and a fast car underneath him, Pierce led the rest of the way unchallenged for his fourth World 100 prelim Feature win.

“Hudson – he was getting through them corners pretty well; he was a little better than us,” Pierce said. “We had the luck on our side, for sure. We just happened to be that car that was there in the right place.”

Group B Prelim Feature – Brian Shirley

Fifteen-plus years of chasing Eldora crown jewel Feature wins, but no big trophies for Brian Shirley. That drought ended Friday night, when the four-time DIRTcar Summer Nationals champion finally broke through to Victory Lane in dramatic fashion.

Shirley, 42, of Chatham, IL, took the lead from outside polesitter Ricky Thornton Jr. on Lap 2 and paced the field around through Lap 14, when the race’s final caution flag was displayed. Shirley got a solid restart, but Thornton did not go away.

After winding up the momentum on the top side, Thornton pulled the trigger on Lap 19 with a big slide job on Shirley in Turns 1-2 and made it stick, securing the lead down the backstretch. He kept the lead in-tact through Lap 23, but coming to the white flag with lapped traffic directly in his path, Thornton’s gap shrank to nothing with Shirley pedaling hard behind him.

“I wasn’t for sure, but I saw that [Thornton] didn’t go to the top of [the lapped cars], so I knew he was gonna get slowed down,” Shirley said. “I felt like I knew how much better I was on that bottom.”

Shirley used his bottom-groove momentum to drag race Thornton down the backstretch and pulled even with him getting into Turn 3. Thornton slid up to the top while Shirley stuck to the bottom with a lapped car right in front of him. The two drag raced to the line, and in a photo finish, Shirley had inched ahead of Thornton by .057 seconds to win the race and his first career Eldora crown jewel Feature of any kind.

“I thought that lapped car was gonna be in the way because of how much speed I was getting off the corner,” Shirley said. “I just said we gotta try and get as close as we can to that lapped car without wrecking him, and then when I looked up to that board and saw that we were in first, I was just in shock. Couldn’t believe it.”

Reflecting on all his years of taking bi-annual trips to Rossburg, OH, for Eldora’s biggest events and coming up empty handed for so long, Shirley thanks and points to his crew members at Bob Cullen Racing who worked so hard to be the difference he needed to finally break through to the iconic Victory Lane stage for the first time in his career.

“It’s a little bit of relief for all the hard work,” Shirley said. “People don’t see… there’s three of us. Me, Devin and Aaron – we work just as hard as anybody else. I’m not saying we’re any better or any less than anybody. But I promise you, as far as effort, our effort goes in just as hard as anybody.”

UP NEXT

The 53rd running of the World 100 reaches its boiling point Saturday, Sept. 9, when the DIRTcar Late Models take on the half-mile one final time in 2023, fighting for the iconic globe trophy and a shot at the $53,000 grand prize. Heat Races and Last Chance Showdowns will take the final cars into the lineup before the 100-lap main event goes green.

RESULTS

Feature - Group A (25 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 22-Chris Ferguson[7]; 3. 99-Devin Moran[5]; 4. 1W-Daulton Wilson[11]; 5. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[15]; 6. 18-Shannon Babb[6]; 7. 9-Nick Hoffman[20]; 8. 58-Garrett Alberson[18]; 9. 10-Joseph Joiner[13]; 10. 1T-Tyler Erb[23]; 11. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[21]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[24]; 13. 1-Hudson O'Neal[4]; 14. 17M-Dale McDowell[9]; 15. 49-Jonathan Davenport[3]; 16. 111-Steven Roberts[12]; 17. 12-Jason Jameson[8]; 18. 25B-Mike Benedum[1]; 19. 11H-Spencer Hughes[16]; 20. 22S-Gregg Satterlee[22]; 21. 42-Matt Sheppard[14]; 22. 4G-Kody Evans[17]; 23. 3-Austin Neely[19]; 24. 39-Tim McCreadie[10]

Feature - Group B (25 Laps): 1. 8S-Brian Shirley[3]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 3. 87-Chris Madden[4]; 4. B5-Brandon Sheppard[9]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott[7]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[13]; 7. 25-Shane Clanton[12]; 8. 88-Trent Ivey[5]; 9. 157-Mike Marlar[8]; 10. 25F-Jason Feger[10]; 11. 79-Donald McIntosh[6]; 12. 10S-Garrett Smith[23]; 13. 4-Brandon Overton[16]; 14. 7R-Kent Robinson[22]; 15. S21-Seth Daniels[19]; 16. 22R-Will Roland[15]; 17. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[11]; 18. 187-David McCoy[14]; 19. 214-Haiden Cowan[1]; 20. 24D-Michael Brown[18]; 21. 6-Tyler Nicely[21]; 22. 5-Ross Bailes[24]; 23. 1N-Casey Noonan[20]; 24. 40B-Kyle Bronson[17]

LCS 1 - Group A (10 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 2. 22S-Gregg Satterlee[1]; 3. 7-Ricky Weiss[2]; 4. 11R-Josh Rice[4]; 5. 11-Gordy Gundaker[10]; 6. 55H-Benji Hicks[6]; 7. 66C-Matt Cosner[8]; 8. 23-Cory Hedgecock[12]; 9. 4S-Travis Stemler[7]; 10. 22X-GR Smith[5]; 11. 00S-Richie Stephens[9]; 12. 81-Jason Riggs[11]; 13. 00-Justin Cooper[14]; 14. 55-Jeep Van Wormer[15]; 15. (DNS) 44H-Gilbert Hess; 16. (DNS) P3-Jeff Robertson

LCS 2 - Group A (10 Laps): 1. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[6]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 3. 15K-Cody Overton[1]; 4. 20-Jimmy Owens[2]; 5. 71C-RJ Conley[4]; 6. 19M-Wil Herrington[5]; 7. 31-Kye Blight[8]; 8. 5N-Dustin Nobbe[7]; 9. 114-Jordan Koehler[12]; 10. 17SS-Brenden Smith[10]; 11. 95-Jerry Bowersock[9]; 12. 49R-Brian Ruhlman[14]; 13. 99J-Donnie Jeschke[11]; 14. 49T-Jake Timm[13]; 15. (DNS) 14-Terry Wolfenbarger

LCS 3 - Group B (10 Laps): 1. 6-Tyler Nicely[1]; 2. 10S-Garrett Smith[13]; 3. 8-Kyle Strickler[8]; 4. 96V-Tanner English[2]; 5. 48-Tim Lance[4]; 6. 9D-Josh Dietz[12]; 7. 63-Terry Rushlow[9]; 8. 5T-John Tweed[10]; 9. 7C-Jeremy Cropper[7]; 10. 9R-Curtis Roberts[3]; 11. 21-Kirk Phillips[6]; 12. 71R-Rod Conley[5]; 13. (DNS) 11K-Austin Kirkpatrick; 14. (DNS) 5D-Bryant Dickinson; 15. (DNS) 17-David Ellis; 16. (DNS) C4-Freddie Carpenter

LCS 4 - Group B (10 Laps): 1. 7R-Kent Robinson[2]; 2. 5-Ross Bailes[1]; 3. 00F-Carson Ferguson[6]; 4. 0-Brad Dyer[10]; 5. 1C-Kenny Collins[3]; 6. 130-Chase Osterhoff[11]; 7. 8A-Rob Anderzack[8]; 8. 316-Mike Bargo[7]; 9. 69-Jon Hodgkiss[9]; 10. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[4]; 11. 126-Kaede Loudy[5]; 12. 101-Forrest Trent[12]; 13. (DNS) 64-Luke Anstett; 14. (DNS) 25K-Jeff Kohn; 15. (DNS) 6M-Dona Marcoullier

Heat 1 - Group A (8 Laps): 1. 1-Hudson O'Neal[4]; 2. 111-Steven Roberts[1]; 3. 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 4. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[5]; 5. 3-Austin Neely[6]; 6. 22S-Gregg Satterlee[8]; 7. 9-Nick Hoffman[7]; 8. 22X-GR Smith[10]; 9. 4S-Travis Stemler[9]; 10. 00S-Richie Stephens[2]; 11. 81-Jason Riggs[12]; 12. 44H-Gilbert Hess[13]; 13. 55-Jeep Van Wormer[11]

Heat 2 - Group A (8 Laps): 1. 1W-Daulton Wilson[1]; 2. 17M-Dale McDowell[2]; 3. 22-Chris Ferguson[3]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 5. 11H-Spencer Hughes[5]; 6. 7-Ricky Weiss[8]; 7. 11R-Josh Rice[6]; 8. 55H-Benji Hicks[7]; 9. 66C-Matt Cosner[10]; 10. 11-Gordy Gundaker[9]; 11. 23-Cory Hedgecock[11]; 12. 00-Justin Cooper[12]; 13. (DNS) P3-Jeff Robertson

Heat 3 - Group A (8 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[3]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[2]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 5. 4G-Kody Evans[5]; 6. 15K-Cody Overton[7]; 7. 1T-Tyler Erb[10]; 8. 19M-Wil Herrington[8]; 9. 5N-Dustin Nobbe[6]; 10. 95-Jerry Bowersock[9]; 11. 99J-Donnie Jeschke[11]; 12. 49T-Jake Timm[12]; 13. (DNS) 14-Terry Wolfenbarger

Heat 4 - Group A (8 Laps): 1. 10-Joseph Joiner[1]; 2. 12-Jason Jameson[3]; 3. 25B-Mike Benedum[4]; 4. 42-Matt Sheppard[2]; 5. 58-Garrett Alberson[5]; 6. 20-Jimmy Owens[9]; 7. 71C-RJ Conley[8]; 8. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[10]; 9. 31-Kye Blight[6]; 10. 17SS-Brenden Smith[12]; 11. 114-Jordan Koehler[7]; 12. 49R-Brian Ruhlman[11]

Heat 5 - Group B (8 Laps): 1. 87-Chris Madden[4]; 2. 4-Brandon Overton[5]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 4. 187-David McCoy[1]; 5. 25F-Jason Feger[2]; 6. 6-Tyler Nicely[10]; 7. 9R-Curtis Roberts[12]; 8. 71R-Rod Conley[9]; 9. 7C-Jeremy Cropper[11]; 10. 63-Terry Rushlow[8]; 11. 11K-Austin Kirkpatrick[7]; 12. (DNS) 10S-Garrett Smith; 13. (DNS) 17-David Ellis

Heat 6 - Group B (8 Laps): 1. 8S-Brian Shirley[4]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 3. 88-Trent Ivey[3]; 4. 22R-Will Roland[1]; 5. 24D-Michael Brown[8]; 6. 96V-Tanner English[7]; 7. 48-Tim Lance[10]; 8. 21-Kirk Phillips[9]; 9. 8-Kyle Strickler[5]; 10. 5T-John Tweed[11]; 11. 9D-Josh Dietz[6]; 12. 5D-Bryant Dickinson[12]; 13. (DNS) C4-Freddie Carpenter

Heat 7 - Group B (8 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 3. 2S-Stormy Scott[3]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[5]; 5. 214-Haiden Cowan[4]; 6. 5-Ross Bailes[6]; 7. 1C-Kenny Collins[8]; 8. 126-Kaede Loudy[9]; 9. 316-Mike Bargo[10]; 10. 69-Jon Hodgkiss[7]; 11. 130-Chase Osterhoff[11]; 12. 64-Luke Anstett[12]; 13. (DNS) 6M-Dona Marcoullier

Heat 8 - Group B (8 Laps): 1. 25-Shane Clanton[1]; 2. 79-Donald McIntosh[3]; 3. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[2]; 4. 1N-Casey Noonan[10]; 5. S21-Seth Daniels[8]; 6. 7R-Kent Robinson[9]; 7. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[11]; 8. 00F-Carson Ferguson[4]; 9. 8A-Rob Anderzack[6]; 10. 0-Brad Dyer[5]; 11. 101-Forrest Trent[7]; 12. (DNS) 25K-Jeff Kohn

Qualifying Group A (2 Laps): 1. 1-Hudson O'Neal, 00:15.300[6]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:15.316[16]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 00:15.357[11]; 4. 25B-Mike Benedum, 00:15.487[36]; 5. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:15.511[4]; 6. 22-Chris Ferguson, 00:15.524[45]; 7. 99-Devin Moran, 00:15.525[31]; 8. 12-Jason Jameson, 00:15.561[27]; 9. 00S-Richie Stephens, 00:15.563[37]; 10. 17M-Dale McDowell, 00:15.565[29]; 11. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:15.602[3]; 12. 42-Matt Sheppard, 00:15.605[15]; 13. 111-Steven Roberts, 00:15.607[23]; 14. 1W-Daulton Wilson, 00:15.623[42]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:15.634[49]; 16. 10-Joseph Joiner, 00:15.651[35]; 17. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:15.670[48]; 18. 11H-Spencer Hughes, 00:15.708[7]; 19. 4G-Kody Evans, 00:15.717[8]; 20. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:15.752[32]; 21. 3-Austin Neely, 00:15.754[19]; 22. 11R-Josh Rice, 00:15.757[38]; 23. 5N-Dustin Nobbe, 00:15.765[43]; 24. 31-Kye Blight, 00:15.768[9]; 25. 9-Nick Hoffman, 00:15.779[20]; 26. 55H-Benji Hicks, 00:15.782[10]; 27. 15K-Cody Overton, 00:15.811[14]; 28. 114-Jordan Koehler, 00:15.813[22]; 29. 22S-Gregg Satterlee, 00:15.813[44]; 30. 7-Ricky Weiss, 00:15.859[2]; 31. 19M-Wil Herrington, 00:15.883[17]; 32. 71C-RJ Conley, 00:15.914[13]; 33. 4S-Travis Stemler, 00:15.931[33]; 34. 11-Gordy Gundaker, 00:15.935[41]; 35. 95-Jerry Bowersock, 00:15.946[50]; 36. 20-Jimmy Owens, 00:15.966[24]; 37. 22X-GR Smith, 00:15.988[46]; 38. 66C-Matt Cosner, 00:16.024[28]; 39. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:16.045[18]; 40. 25Z-Mason Zeigler, 00:16.102[5]; 41. 55-Jeep Van Wormer, 00:16.124[51]; 42. 23-Cory Hedgecock, 00:16.144[40]; 43. 99J-Donnie Jeschke, 00:16.156[47]; 44. 49R-Brian Ruhlman, 00:16.189[25]; 45. 81-Jason Riggs, 00:16.327[39]; 46. 00-Justin Cooper, 00:16.389[34]; 47. 49T-Jake Timm, 00:16.470[12]; 48. 17SS-Brenden Smith, 00:16.775[1]; 49. 44H-Gilbert Hess, 00:17.447[21]; 50. P3-Jeff Robertson, 00:17.510[26]; 51. (DNS) 14-Terry Wolfenbarger, 00:17.510

Qualifying Group B (2 Laps): 1. 87-Chris Madden, 00:15.313[6]; 2. 8S-Brian Shirley, 00:15.475[9]; 3. 214-Haiden Cowan, 00:15.478[48]; 4. 00F-Carson Ferguson, 00:15.509[30]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:15.515[15]; 6. 88-Trent Ivey, 00:15.530[29]; 7. 2S-Stormy Scott, 00:15.552[18]; 8. 79-Donald McIntosh, 00:15.574[12]; 9. 25F-Jason Feger, 00:15.590[32]; 10. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:15.612[19]; 11. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:15.653[41]; 12. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:15.710[23]; 13. 187-David McCoy, 00:15.717[17]; 14. 22R-Will Roland, 00:15.737[7]; 15. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:15.743[11]; 16. 25-Shane Clanton, 00:15.751[22]; 17. 4-Brandon Overton, 00:15.752[13]; 18. 8-Kyle Strickler, 00:15.756[26]; 19. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:15.797[50]; 20. 0-Brad Dyer, 00:15.833[39]; 21. 10S-Garrett Smith, 00:15.840[37]; 22. 9D-Josh Dietz, 00:15.840[42]; 23. 5-Ross Bailes, 00:15.857[24]; 24. 8A-Rob Anderzack, 00:15.880[4]; 25. 11K-Austin Kirkpatrick, 00:15.881[3]; 26. 96V-Tanner English, 00:15.883[2]; 27. 69-Jon Hodgkiss, 00:15.885[35]; 28. 101-Forrest Trent, 00:15.919[44]; 29. 63-Terry Rushlow, 00:15.924[25]; 30. 24D-Michael Brown, 00:15.942[27]; 31. 1C-Kenny Collins, 00:15.960[46]; 32. S21-Seth Daniels, 00:16.034[31]; 33. 71R-Rod Conley, 00:16.049[8]; 34. 21-Kirk Phillips, 00:16.055[21]; 35. 126-Kaede Loudy, 00:16.060[34]; 36. 7R-Kent Robinson, 00:16.110[28]; 37. 6-Tyler Nicely, 00:16.123[45]; 38. 48-Tim Lance, 00:16.135[33]; 39. 316-Mike Bargo, 00:16.156[1]; 40. 1N-Casey Noonan, 00:16.156[38]; 41. 7C-Jeremy Cropper, 00:16.325[20]; 42. 5T-John Tweed, 00:16.527[16]; 43. 130-Chase Osterhoff, 00:16.802[36]; 44. 28C-Tyler Carpenter, 00:16.842[51]; 45. 9R-Curtis Roberts, 00:16.966[49]; 46. 5D-Bryant Dickinson, 00:17.314[14]; 47. 64-Luke Anstett, 00:17.344[5]; 48. (DNS) C4-Freddie Carpenter, 00:17.344; 49. (DNS) 6M-Dona Marcoullier, 00:17.344; 50. (DNS) 17-David Ellis, 00:17.344; 51. (DNS) 25K-Jeff Kohn, 00:17.344