Brandon Sheppard scored his second win of 2020 at East Bay
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series once again took to the East Bay Raceway Park for the fourth night of the Wrisco Winternationals. At the end of the evening, it was Brandon Sheppard who, on a very windy night, blew the field away to claim the win and take home the $7,000 first prize.
Brandon Overton led the way in Group A qualifying with a lap of 15.126 seconds around the third-mile clay oval to better the efforts of Boom Briggs, Jimmy Owens, Jason Rauen, Dennis Erb, Jr. and Brian Shirley.
Tim McCreadie’s lap of 14.985 seconds beat out Kyle Bronson, Billy Moyer, Jr., Mason Zeigler, Tyler Erb and Matt Cosner in Group B time-trials.
Brandon Overton earned the pole starting position for the feature by besting Mike Marlar and Shanon Buckingham in the night’s first heat while Boom Briggs beat out Dennis Erb, Jr. and Devin Moran to capture the second preliminary.
Jimmy Owens drove away from Brian Shirley and David Breazeale to score the win in the third heat race of the evening.
Tim McCreadie made his way onto the outside of the front row for the feature by winning the fourth heat race ahead of Mason Zeigler and Shane Clanton with Kyle Bronson outrunning Tyler Erb and Billy Moyer, Jr. in the fifth heat.
Billy Moyer, Jr. won the sixth and final heat of the evening over Brandon Sheppard and G.R. Smith.
Jadon Frame, Josh Richards and Chase Junghans won the three B-main races to earn spots in the feature.
The 40-lap feature began with a four lap side-by-side battle between front row starters Overton and McCreadie with Bronson, Briggs and Owens trailing. That action, however, was halted when Frame suffered damage after hitting one of the tires used to form the barrier of the inside portion of the race track.
Just after the restart, Overton and McCreadie engaged in a lead swapping battle while Briggs began moving forward by passing by Bronson for third on lap 7. Briggs took the lead away from McCreadie on lap 10 just before a caution flag waved for a spin by Pearson.
The lap 10 restart saw Overton grab second with Sheppard taking third as McCreadie slipped back to fourth. Sheppard then took second away from Overton on lap 14 then kept the momentum up as he passed Briggs to take the lead one lap later.
Overton and Bronson slipped by Briggs for second and third respectively. as Sheppard pulled away. Another yellow flag flew just before the halfway point when Shirley and Zeigler got together causing Zeigler to spin.
On lap 20, Moyer, Jr. made a three-wide move by Overton and Bronson to assume the second position in the running order. But another caution flag waved when debris was found on the track on lap 21.
On the restart, McCreadie- who entered the night as the LOLMDS points leader – slowed and went to the hot pit area where his crew went under the hood of his car.
Between laps 21 and 28 the No. 1 of Sheppard pulled away to a relatively comfortable lead while Moyer, Briggs, Overton, Shirley and Owens engaged in a fierce battle for positions 2-5. Richards(who started at the tail of the field because of a deck height violation) then began storming through the field toward the front. The No. 14 moved into the top-5 on lap 29 then made a move to pass both Briggs and Owens to take third on lap 30.
Coleby Frye rolled over to bring out a caution on lap 32.
Over the final 8 circuits Richards was able to get to second but Sheppard drove away from the pack to claim the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Josh Richards, 3. Billy Moyer, Jr., 4. Jimmy Owens, 5. Devin Moran, 6. Boom Briggs, 7. Brandon Overton, 8. Brian Shirley, 9. Billy Moyer, Sr., 10. Tyler Erb, 11. Kyle Bronson, 12. GR Smith, 13. Hudson O’Neal, 14. Shane Clanton, 15. Earl Pearson, Jr., 16. Jonathan Davenport, 17. Mike Marlar, 18. Shanon Buckingham, 19. Tyler Bruening, 20. Matt Cosner, 21. David Breazeale, 22. Tanner English, 23. Coleby Frye, 24. Mason Zeigler, 25. Chase Junghans, 26. Tim McCreadie, 27. Jesse Stovall, 28. Dennis Erb, Jr., 29. Stormy Scott, 30. Jadon Frame
