Brandon Overton scored two wins last weekend
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series hit the dirt for the third and final night at East Bay Raceway Park as part of the so-called “Reopening Tour”. At the end of the night it was Brandon Overton who used a last lap pass to score his second consecutive win and leave the Tampa, Fla. area with another first place reward of $7,000.
Jimmy Owens proved to be the fastest in Group A qualifying by posting a lap of 14.541 second around the third-mail clay oval to better the efforts of Tanner English, Shanon Buckingham, Tyler Erb and Mason Zeigler.
Brandon Overton set the pace in Group B time-trials with a lap of 14.265 seconds to out perform Rick Eckert, Tim McCreadie, Stormy Scott and Tyler Bruening.
Jimmy Owens took the first heat race of the evening over Mason Zeigler, Devin Moran and Billy Moyer, Jr. while Tyler Erb beat out Shane Clanton, Tanner English and Kyle Bronson in the second heat.
Brandon Overton topped Tim McCreadie, Blake Spencer and Tyler Bruening in the third heat just before Rick Eckert captured the fourth heat in front of Josh Richards, Stormy Scott and Earl Pearson, Jr.
Jonathan Davenport won the lone B-main race used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
On the initial attempt to start the 40-lap feature there was a major crash involving Clanton, McCreadie, Richards, Buckingham and Spencer were among those damaged as a result of their involvement in the mishap. Despite the damage, the drivers involved were able to continue although some had to move back in the starting order as a result of going to the hot pit area.
Once the the feature finally got underway it was Erb who went to the front with Owens, Clanton and Overton trailing. However, another incident doled out significant damage to the cars of Davenport, Bronson and Spencer after just one lap had been completed.
On the ensuing restart, Erb maintained the lead with Owens in second while Moran and Zeigler fought over third until Zeigler took the spot on lap 4. But another yellow flag would wave on lap 5 when Shirley came to a stop on the track.
On the lap 6 restart Zeigler emerged as a serious contender when he rose to the second position behind Erb. On lap 11, Overton also stepped forward by taking third away from Owens.
Just passed the midway point the top-3 of Erb, Zeigler and Overton were poised to settle the issue among themselves as they broke away from the rest of the pack in a race that would not see another caution after the early rash of yellows.
With three lap remaining Zeigler made his move as he applied a slide job pass on Erb for the lead in turns one and two. However, Erb fought back and returned the favor in the next set of turns. But this time around there was contact between the two that sent Zeigler up and over the cushion causing him to lose momentum.
Just after taking the white flag, Overton used his own slide job on Erb to grab the lead in turns one and two but the relentless Erb fought back with a crossover maneuver that allowed him to regain the top spot as the cars entered turn three. Once more, Overton employed a slider and just edged in front of Erb coming off of turn four.
Overton then held off another attempt by Erb, winning the race to the checkered flag by just a few feet.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Tyler Erb, 3. Mason Zeigler, 4. Jimmy Owens, 5. Devin Moran, 6. Rick Eckert, 7. Tim McCreadie, 8. Tanner English, 9. Stormy Scott, 10. Hudson O’Neal, 11. Billy Moyer, Jr., 12. Kyle Bronson, 13. Earl Pearson, Jr., 14. Shane Clanton, 15. Shanon Buckingham, 16. Jonathan Davenport, 17. G.R. Smith, 18. Josh Richards, 19. Jeff Mathews, 20. Ken Monahan, 21. Blake Spencer, 22. Tyler Bruening, 23. Brian Shirley, 24. Ross Robinson
