Stormy Scott got his first Lucas Oil win at East Bay
The Wrisco Industries Winter Nationals continued on Thursday night at East Bay Raceway Park after rain disrupted the show on Wednesday. When the dust had settled, it was Stormy Scott who earned the winner’s trophy at the Tampa, FL facility in an emotional victory lane. The New Mexico driver earned $7,000 for his efforts.
Tim McCreadie posted the fastest lap in Group A qualifying by touring the third-mile clay oval in 14.790 seconds to edge out Stormy Scott, Josh Richards, Tony Jackson Jr., and Brian Shirley.
Bobby Pierce led the way in Group B time-trials and overall with a time of 14.773 to top Gregg Satterlee, Brandon Sheppard, Shane Clanton, and Mark Whitener.
Boom Briggs earned the pole position for the feature when he beat Tim McCreadie and Billy Moyer Jr. to the checkered flag in the first heat race while Brian Shirley bested Stormy Scott and Mike Marlar in the second preliminary.
Kyle Bronson sailed to victory in the third heat over Frank Heckenast Jr. and Brandon Overton.
It was Bobby Pierce winning the fourth heat and earning an outside front row starting position as he outran Shane Clanton and Ricky Thornton Jr. then Mason Zeigler charged from mid-pack to take the fifth heat ahead of Gregg Satterlee and Michael Brown.
Tyler Erb was the victor in the sixth and final heat by outpacing Rick Eckert and Brandon Sheppard.
Jonathan Davenport and Tanner English transferred to the main event out of the first B-main just before Ashton Winger and Jimmy Owens came out of the second B-main to make the feature. It was Tyler Bruening and Ross Bailes who punched their tickets into the big show out of the final B-main.
At the start of the 40-lap feature it was Pierce who went to the lead with Shirley, Briggs, Erb and Bronson trailing. Bronson went by Erb for fourth on the second circuit just before Shirley took the lead away from Pierce.
Intense racing on lap 4 featured Erb, Zeigler and McCreadie going three-wide in the top-5. Contact sent Erb spinning to bring out a yellow flag.
On the restart, Stormy Scott bolted up to third and immediately looked to move up further. On lap 6 Scott then took second away from Briggs and then moved by Shirley for the race lead one lap later.
Pierce, Briggs, and Bronson went three-wide for third on lap 9 with Pierce grabbing the position. Further back, McCreadie stormed into the top-5 by passing Briggs on lap 11.
A lap 13 caution for Bruening again slowed the action and set up a major mishap on the restart. More than half of the field was involved after apparent contact near the front of the field.
Scott, Shirley, Bronson, Pierce, and McCreadie made up the top-5 after the melee.
When the racing action finally resumed after the cleanup Scott continued to lead as Bronson moved up to second just before another big wreck took place on lap 14. That restart saw McCreadie and Heckenast look to improve their positions.
Finally on lap 17, McCreadie took third from Shirley then Heckenast moved around Shirley for fourth. After that, the front runners began to slip away from the pack with Scott, leading Bronson, McCreadie, Heckenast and Shirley.
Scott began to encounter slower traffic as everyone fought for the lower line. Bronson, McCreadie and Heckenast began to close the gap on Scott with everyone running around the bottom.
Ultimately, no one was able to mount a serious challenge for the lead and Scott sailed to his first career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory.
“I just can’t thank everyone who’s helped us get here enough,” Scott said in his victory interview with MavTV Plus. “We’ve probably had the roughest two years in Late Models there probably is. We started at the hardest level and everybody thought we were fools for doing it. I can’t stand defeat and every time we get kicked I guess we just keep going.”
He then described his battles with slower traffic.
“I knew when I moved up the track just a little bit I couldn’t steer,” Scott pointed out. “I started watching up in front of me and I noticed that nobody else could steer up there either so I just figured as long as I didn’t get off the bottom if somebody could get by me in that middle they deserved this win more than me.”
Feature Finish: 1. Stormy Scott, 2. Kyle Bronson, 3. Tim McCreadie, 4. Frank Heckenast Jr., 5. Brian Shirley, 6. Mike Marlar, 7. Ricky Thornton Jr., 8. Ross Bailes, 9. Brandon Overton, 10. Ashton Winger, 11. Tanner English, 12. Brandon Sheppard, 13. Tyler Erb, 14. Devin Moran, 15. Hudson O’Neal, 16. Bobby Pierce, 17. Tyler Bruening, 18. Jimmy Owens, 19. Michael Brown, 20. Mason Zeigler, 21. Billy Moyer Jr., 22. Gregg Satterlee, 23. Jonathan Davenport, 24. Earl Pearson, Jr., 25. Josh Richards, 26. Boom Briggs, 27. Shane Clanton, 28. Rick Eckert, 29. Wil Herrington, 30. Chase Junghans
