Ricky Thornton Jr. drove to his first win in the state of Florida
With just two races remaining in their portion of SpeedWeeks, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series made its way to Bubba Raceway Park on Monday evening. Ricky Thornton Jr. came away from the Ocala, FL track as the winner after an intense night of racing action. The Arizona driver earned $10,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by MavTV Plus.
Brian Shirley was fastest in Group A qualifying with a lap of 13.588 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval to top Mike Marlar, Jimmy Owens, Tanner English, and Brandon Sheppard.
Kyle Bronson led the way in Group B time-trials by posting a time of 13.587 seconds to outperform Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton Jr., Hudson O’Neal, and Josh Richards.
Brian Shirley earned the right to start the feature from the pole by winning the night’s first heat race besting Brandon Sheppard, Jimmy Owens, and Dennis Erb Jr. while Mike Marlar took the checkered flag in the second preliminary ahead of Tanner English, Bobby Pierce, and Mark Whitener.
Kyle Bronson would start the feature from the outside of the front row after winning the third heat over Josh Richards, Ricky Thornton Jr., and Devin Moran just before Jonathan Davenport outran Hudson O’Neal, Brandon Overton, and Jeff Mathews.
Tyler Erb won out in the first B-main by topping Tim McCreadie and Shane Clanton. Finally, Rick Eckert beat out Tony Jackson Jr. and Ross Robinson.
Shirley went to the lead at the start of the 40-lap feature with Bronson, Marlar, Sheppard and Davenport in his tire tracks. A lap 3 caution for an incident involving Tyler Bruening and John Baker slowed the action.
On the lap 3 restart, Marlar moved around Bronson to take second as Davenport took fourth away from Sheppard. Both he and Sheppard then swept by Bronson to take third and fourth respectively after the No. 40B slipped out of the racing groove.
Davenport took second away from Marlar on lap 9 then Sheppard passed by the No. 157 for third. As the top-5 cars raced in tight formation, the fast rising Thornton tagged the rear of Shirley’s ride sending the pole sitter for a spin on lap 13.
On the lap 13 restart something appeared to happen to Davenport’s car causing him to slow abruptly. Sheppard and Owens and received significant damage as a result of being caught up in the incident. Owens retired from the event.
At that point, Thornton was scored as the leader with O’Neal, Marlar, Richards, and Bronson filling out the top-5. As Thornton and O’Neal fought for the race lead, furious battles raged all throughout the top-10 on the multi-grooved track.
A yellow flag waved on lap 25 when Kyle Strickler slowed. Thornton led O’Neal, Marlar, Pierce, and Whitener completed the top-5. Marlar went back to second on lap 26 as Moran slid past Pierce for fifth further back. He then moved into fourth on lap 31.
A lap 37 caution for the spinning car of Tyler Erb set up a late-race dash for the win on a track allowing for cars to run on the top and the bottom. But in the end it was rookie contender Ricky Thornton Jr. who sailed under the checkered flag to score the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Ricky Thornton Jr., 2. Mike Marlar, 3. Hudson O’Neal, 4. Devin Moran, 5. Brandon Overton, 6. Mark Whitener, 7. Kyle Bronson, 8. Bobby Pierce, 9. Tanner English, 10. Tim McCreadie, 11. Tyler Bruening, 12. Shane Clanton, 13. Josh Richards, 14. Brandon Sheppard, 15. Billy Moyer Jr., 16. Earl Pearson Jr., 17. Jonathan Davenport, 18. Dennis Erb Jr., 19. Ross Robinson, 20. Tony Jackson Jr., 21. Tyler Erb, 22. Kyle Strickler, 23. John Baker, 24. Rick Eckert, 25. Frank Heckenast Jr., 26. Jeff Mathews, 27. Brian Shirley, 28. Jimmy Owens
