Brandon Sheppard dominated at Eriez
The fourth event of a four race weekend was contested for the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series was contested on Sunday evening at Eriez Speedway. Defending series champion Brandon Sheppard came away from the Hammett, Pennsylvania facility as the winner when the dust had settled. The Rocket Chassis driver from New Berlin, Illinois claimed $10,000 for his efforts in a race shown live on DirtVision.com.
A total of 26 cars were signed in for competition.
Matt Lux set the mark in qualifying when he toured the 3/8 mile clay oval in 15.480 seconds to top Dave Hess, Chub Frank, Dennis Erb Jr., Wyatt Scott and Brent Larson.
Dennis Erb Jr. took the first heat race of the night ahead of Matt Lux, Ryan Gustin, Mike Knight, Boom Briggs and Logan Zarin.
Wyatt Scott won the second preliminary over Bump Hedman, Steve Kania, Ricky Weiss, Greg Oakes and Ken Schaltenbrand.
Chub Frank was the victor on the third and final heat as he outran Brandon Sheppard, Brent Larson, Chris Madden, Max Balir and Andy Boozel.
Dutch Davies won the lone Last Chance Showdown of the night.
The WoO Late Models redraw set the first three rows in the feature as Sheppard, Erb, Frank, Hedman, Scott and Lux.
At the start of the 40-lap main event it was Erb who seized the lead with Sheppard, Frank, Scott and Lux trailing. A caution slowed the pace on the second lap when Steve Kania spun.
On the lap 2 restart, Lux moved to fourth. Two laps later, Sheppard moved by Erb on the outside to assume the race lead and immediately began to pull away from his pursuers. Soon after, the top-5 of Sheppard, Erb, Frank, Lux and Scott began to click off laps in single-file formation. `
On lap 12, Sheppard was engaged with slower traffic but was given a reprieve when Jason Genco spun to bring out a yellow flag on lap 13. On that restart, Frank moved to the runner-up position, but once more, Sheppard began to slip away from the pack.
A lap 20 caution for an incident involving Hedman and Logan Zarin set in a motion a string of restarts that would immediately be interrupted by cautions.
When racing action finally resumed, Sheppard maintained the lead while Frank, Scott, Erb and Madden fought for positions 2-5. Unfortunately for the fourth running Scott, his car came to a stop with a flat tire on lap 26 to bring out another caution.
Over the closing laps, Sheppard held control of the race but the story was further back where tail-starting Dave Hess charged through the field after he entered the top-5 and lap 27 then picked off competitors one by one until me moved around Frank to settle into second.
But in the end, it was Sheppard who earned the 75th WoO Late Models win of his career which now places him solely in second place among all-time winners on the series.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Dave Hess, 3. Chub Frank, 4. Dennis Erb Jr., 5. Boom Briggs, 6. Chris Madden, 7. Brent Larson, 8. Max Blair, 9. Wyatt Scott, 10. Ryan Gustin, 11. Bob Doeman, 12. Tyler Bruening, 13. Ricky Weiss, 14. Jason Genco, 15. Dutch Davies, 16. Mike Knight, 17. Ken Schaltenbrand, 18. Matt Lux, 19. Logan Zarin, 20. Greg Oakes, 21. Bump Hedman, 22. Andy Boozel, 23. Kyle Bedell, 24. Steve Kania, 25. Doug Eck
