Brandon Sheppard earned his third win of SpeedWeeks
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series continued its week-long run at East Bay Raceway Park on Thursday evening. It would be the third event held so at the Tampa, Florida facility this week and the ninth race of 2022. At the end of the night, it was Brandon Sheppard who claimed his second straight feature win. The Rocket Chassis driver from New Berlin, Illinois earned $7,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by MavTV Plus.
A total of 75 cars were signed in for competition.
Garrett Smith set fast time in Group A qualifying with a lap of 14.429 seconds around the third-mile clay oval to beat out Earl Pearson Jr., Brian Shirley, Max Blair, Colten Burdette, Dennis Erb Jr., Spencer Hughes and Daulton Wilson.
Brandon Overton proved to be quickest in Group B time-trials with a mark of 14.394 seconds topping Ashton Winger, Tim McCreadie, Brandon Sheppard, Tyler Bruening, Tanner English, Shane Clanton and Cody Overton.
Max Blair would start the feature from the pole position by virtue of his win in the first heat race ahead of Spencer Hughes and Jimmy Owens.
Garrett Smith was initially flagged as the winner of the first heat but was disqualified for the night after series officials deemed that his rear spoiler was too high.
Earl Pearson Jr. took the second preliminary ahead of Devin Moran and Daulton Wilson then Brian Shirley outran Dennis Erb Jr. and Hudson O’Neal in the third heat.
Brandon Overton earned an outside front starting spot in the main event after winning the fourth heat ahead of Brandon Sheppard and Shane Clanton.
Ashton Winger bested Tyler Bruening and Kyle Bronson in the fifth heat while Tim McCreadie claimed the sixth and final heat over Tanner English and Ricky Thornton Jr.
Colten Burdette, Garrett Alberson and Johnny Scott won the three B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting grid for the main event.
At the start of the 40-lap feature it was Overton who took the early lead followed by Pearson, Blair, Winger and Shirley. On the second lap, Shirley passed by Winger for fourth as Pearson moved in to challenge Overton for the rsce lead.
However, a caution flag on lap 3 would temporarily bring a halt to the action. When green flag action resumed Overton and Pearson broke away from the pack as they looked to settle the issue among themselves. However, Shirley moved into third and looked to join the fight for the lead.
Overton encountered slower traffic on lap 17 while further back, Wednesday night winner Sheppard entered the top-5. At the halfway point a yellow flag was shown to the field when Robinson spun. At that time, Overton led Pearson, Shirley, Blair and Sheppard.
On the restart, Overton, Pearson and Shirley went three-wide for the lead with Shirley looking if he would seize the advantage until Sheppard stormed past everyone on the outside to blast all the way to the lead. A lap 23 caution for Hughes brought that furious action to a brief reprieve.
Sheppard maintained the lead on the restart as a hornet’s nest of activity played out behind him. Pearson, Moran, Bronson and Shirley fought over the remaining positions in the top-5 with Blair and O’Neal looking to join the fray.
With less than 10 laps to go, Sheppard continued to lead with Pearson riding second while Moran and Bronson fought furiously for third. With two laps remaining, a caution set up a final dash to the checkered flag with Sheppard leading Pearson, Bronson, Moran and Blair.
Sheppard led the way over the final two laps to claim the win but not after banging into the wall off of turn four coming to the white flag and almost losing the lead. It was Sheppard’s second consecutive win and his third overall for Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Earl Pearson Jr., 3. Kyle Bronson, 4. Devin Moran, 5. Hudson O’Neal, 6. Max Blair, 7. Tyler Erb, 8. Daulton Wilson, 9. Ashton Winger, 10. Brian Shirley, 11. Shane Clanton, 12. Stormy Scott, 13. Tyler Bruening, 14. Garrett Alberson, 15. Johnny Scott, 16. Ross Robinson, 17. Jimmy Owens, 18. Tim McCreadie, 19. Boom Briggs, 20. Tanner English, 21. Dennis Erb Jr., 22. Brandon Overton, 23. Spencer Hughes, 24. Josh Putnam, 25. Colten Burdette, 26. Ricky Thornton Jr.
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