Bobby Pierce earned $30,000 at Boone
The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series contested one of its top paying events on Saturday evening at Boone Speedway. After leading for most of the night, it was Bobby Pierce who scored the feature win at the Boone, IA facility. The Oakwood, Ill. driver earned $30,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by DirtVision.com.
A total of 25 cars were signed in for competition.
The starting lineups for the heat races were determined by points earned through a pair of feature races held on Friday night.
Shannon Babb topped Billy Moyer, Richie Gustin Jr., Gordy Gundaker, and Tyler Bruening in the night’s first heat race.
Cade Dillard took the second preliminary of the night over Bobby Pierce, Ricky Weiss, Chris Madden, and Ryan Gustin.
Kyle Strickler was victorious in the third and final heat ahead of Brandon Sheppard, Frank Heckenast Jr., Logan Martin, and Spencer Diercks.
The World of Outlaws redraw set the first six starting positions in a three-wide starting formation as Moyer, Babb, Strickler, Sheppard, Pierce, and Dillard.
At the start of the 100-lap feature it was Moyer who went to the early lead with Strickler, Babb, Pierce and Sheppard in tow. Strickler moved in to challenge the legendary leader on lap the three as those two drivers engaged in a multiple lap side-by-side fight at the front of the field with Strickler emerging as the leader by lap 5 only to be crossed over by Moyer in the next set of turns. Ultimately, however, Strickler would establish control of the event in its early stages.
Pierce began to move forward by lap 11 as he and Babb wrestled over the third position.
After a lap 14 restart, Moyer found himself battling with Babb and Weiss for the second through fourth spots as Strickler continued to show the way. But by lap 20, Moyer was ready to retake the top spot and did so when he passed by Strickler.
On a lap 21 restart, the top-5 cars shuffled positions with Strickler falling back into a struggle with Weiss. Contact between those two cars on lap 22 sent Strickler for a spin and brought out another yellow flag. On that restart, Weiss took second away from Babb with Pierce then moving back into the fray to challenge Babb for third.
On lap 28, Pierce continued to climb as he wrested the runner-up spot away from Weiss and set out after the leading car of Moyer. Two laps later, the No. 32 machine would assume the lead of the race as Pierce worked his way around Moyer.
Defending series champion Sheppard began to work his way forward when he went around Moyer for third on lap 41 while Madden and Weiss battled further back for fifth.
The feature’s second half became a follow-the-leader contest as Pierce held the lead while methodically picking his way through slower traffic on the now bottom dominant racing surface. Babb, Sheppard and Moyer closed right to the rear spoiler of the Pierce machine but were only able to ride there, not wanting to move out of the bottom groove.
When Pierce, was able to put a slower car between himself and his pursuers, he was able to build a relatively comfortable advantage.
Three cautions within the final ten laps allowed the pack to close in on the leader but no one was ever able to mount a serious challenge as Pierce ultimately sailed under the checkered flag for the win.
Feature Finish: 1. Bobby Pierce, 2. Shannon Babb, 3. Brandon Sheppard, 4. Billy Moyer, 5. Ricky Weiss, 6. Chris Madden, 7. Richie Gustin Jr., 8. Gordy Gundaker, 9. Logan Martin, 10. Frank Heckenast Jr., 11. Ryan Gustin, 12. Tyler Bruening, 13. Cade Dillard, 14. Boom Briggs, 15. Daniel Hilsabeck, 16. Brent Larson, 17. Jeremy Grady, 18. Brennon Willard, 19. Kyle Strickler, 20. Dennis Erb Jr., 21. Chad Mahder, 22. Chase Junghans, 23. Spencer Diercks
