Photo Credit - Josh James Artwork
If there's a bottom you can bet Dennis Erb Jr. will be using that line and last night was no exception as Erb patiently used that line to pass race long leader Bobby Pierce with 5 to go to win Night 1 of the Illinois Speedweek. Pierce held on to finish 2nd ahead of new track record holder Jonathan Davenport who has never been to the fast 3/8th mile banked oval. Brian Shirley challenged for the race lead would finish 4th and Tanner English would round out the top 5.
47 Late Models were signed in kicking off the night in qualifying with Bobby Pierce topping Group A narrowly missing the track record then Davenport would break the record in Group B picking up an extra $500 cash bonus from a local fan putting up the money to the overall fastest qualifier.
Bobby Pierce would win the first heat earning him the pole for the 50 lap $23,023 to win main event. The mini-series point leader and winner from Eldora Speedway , Mike Marlar , would win Heat 2. Davenport would take Heat 3 win giving him the outside pole and Garrett Alberson took the final heat race win. B Main wins went to Chase Junghans and Tim McCreadie. T-Mac was in the Rumley owned #5 but will be back in his Paylor Motorsports 39 for the Lucas events Friday and Saturday. The big surprise was some of the big names that didn't qualify for the feature including the 2nd and 3rd place drivers in the Lucas Oil Series. Ricky Thornton Jr. and Brandon Overton did not transfer forcing them to load up and try again at Lincoln.
Pierce and Davenport would pace the opening couple of laps as both drivers were up on the cushion as Brian Shirley was running 3rd using the bottom lane of the track gaining on "Superman" for the runner up spot. He would make the pass on lap 3 then the next lap the first of 2 caution flags would wave as Alberson spun then got drilled in the right side by Kolby Vandenbergh ending what was the beginning of a good night for Alberson. Vandenbergh also has heavy right side door damage but never stopped on the track and kept his position.
When the green replaced the yellow Davenport swooped back to the topside and regained the runner up position from Shirley but once again "Squirrel" would use the patient lower line to pass Davenport. Meanwhile the early big mover was Tanner English also using the bottom racing line to move into 5th from his 12th starting spot before lap 10.
Lap 11 the second and final caution would appear for Tyler Erb losing his driveshaft on the backstretch. The top 5 of Pierce,Shirley,Davenport, O'Neal, and English was the running order for the restart as Dennis Erb had a great restart going into 4th as Mike Marlar reappeared in the top 5.
Lap 20 Davenport would slip over the turn 4 cushion dropping him to 4th and at the time knocked him out of contention for the win as Shirley was reeling in the cushion pounding 32 of race leader Bobby Pierce. He would show him his nose several times but kept the racing for the lead clean as Pierce would drop to the bottom taking Shirley's line away from him. Dennis Erb would join the duo as he was applying heavy pressure to the 3S of Shirley.
The trio would start picking up the rear of the field making the leaders move around the track and the slower cars as Pierce wasn't as good on the bottom as the other 2 with a loose handling race car.
Lap 36 would see Erb pass Shirley as the racing got real tight as Erb knew he had to go to have a shot for the win. Lap 44 Erb would pass Pierce for the lead but the next lap Pierce would go back to the top line and repass Erb for the lead. Going into turn 4 Ross Robinson slid a little too high in front of the Pierce causing Pierce to hit his rear end slowing down the battle for the lead as Robinson almost spun out.
Photo Credit - Josh James Artwork
Dennis Erb would pull away from the field the final 5 laps to go onto victory lane picking up his 2nd FloRacing Night In America win as he is the reigning winner at Lincoln Speedway. The 2022 World of Outlaws champion will try to repeat and go back to back tonight at the quarter mile speedway tonight.
Pierce would say in victory lane he was happy with his runner up spot even with him leading the majority of the race. The contact with the lapper didn't keep him from victory lane as he would say Dennis had the best car and he wasn't setup with the right tire choice to run the bottom.
You can catch Night 2 and all of Illinois Speedweek races on FloRacing if you can't make the trip to Lincoln,Farmer City,and Fairbury.
ILLINOIS SPEEDWEEKS NIGHT 1
1) D.ERB JR.
2) PIERCE
3) DAVENPORT
4) SHIRLEY
5) ENGLISH
6) O'NEAL
7) GUSTIN
8) SHEPPARD
9) GUNDAKER
10) WINGER
11)MCCREADIE
12) MARLAR
13) JUNGHANS
14) ROBINSON
15) SMITH
16) MORAN
17) HARRISON
18) TROUTMAN
19) T. ERB
20) VANDENBERGH
21) BABB
22 ALBERSON
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