Brandon Sheppard picked up $5,000 for the East Bay win
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series hit the track at East Bay Raceway Park on Tuesday for its second night in the Wrisco Winternationals. After the dust had settled at the facility located in Tampa, it was Rocket Chassis house car driver Brandon Sheppard who claimed the winner’s trophy and a check valued at $5,000.
Boom Briggs led the way in Group A qualifying with a lap of 15.361 seconds around the third-mile clay oval to beat out Jonathan Davenport, Hudson O’Neal, Shanon Buckingham, Dennis Erb, Jr. and Donald McIntosh.
Chase Junghans was fastest in Group B time-trials and overall by turning a lap in 15.252 seconds bettering the efforts of Brian Shirley, Mike Marlar, Brandon Sheppard, Mason Zeigler and Jimmy Owens.
Tim Dohm earned the pole for the feature by beating out Boom Briggs and Brandon Overton in the first heat of the evening while Jonathan Davenport topped Billy Moyer, Sr. and Dennis Erb, Jr. in the second preliminary.
Hudson O’Neal outran Kyle Bronson and Devin Moran to win the third heat race.
Brandon Sheppard would start the feature from the outside of the front row as a result of his victory in the fourth heat race ahead of Trever Feathers and Billy Moyer, Jr. with Tyler Erb taking the win in the fifth heat over Tim McCreadie and Jeff Mathews.
Mike Marlar got the win in the sixth and final heat ahead of Josh Richards and Jimmy Owens.
Shanon Buckingham, Chase Junghans, and Shane Clanton won the three B-main races used to set the remainder of the field for the main event.
At the start of the 30-lap feature it was Sheppard who shot to the early lead with Dohm, Davenport, Erb and O’Neal trailing. Dohm passed by Sheppard to take the lead on lap 2 but Sheppard returned the favor on lap 4 when he went back to the top of the leader board.
Erb began moving to the front on lap 5 when has bolted around Davenport to take third. He then moved around Dohm for second one lap later. At the same time, Marlar entered the top-5 when he moved around O’Neal.
Erb took second away from Dohm on lap 7 while Bronson began to charge through the field on his home state track as he took fifth from Marlar on lap 8. One lap later, Bronson made an attempt to get by both Davenport and Dohm.
However, the No. 40B ran out of running room on the backstretch when he and Dohm got together. The contact sent Bronson into the outside retaining wall and essentially ended his night on lap 9.
Sheppard asserted himself as the clear leader during the race’s middle stages while Erb, Marlar, Dohm and Davenport engaged in a fierce battle behind the front runner. At the same time, Overton began a charge through the field that got him to second by lap 16.
Overton made an attempt to wrest the race lead away from Sheppard with less than 10 laps to go but the No. 1 machine proved to be too much for the competition.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Tim McCreadie, 4. Tim Dohm, 5. Jonathan Davenport, 6. Mike Marlar, 7. Josh Richards, 8. Jeff Mathews, 9. Devin Moran, 10. Billy Moyer, Sr., 11. Mason Zeigler, 12. Billy Moyer, Jr., 13. Tyler Breuning, 14. Hudson O’Neal, 15. Shane Clanton, 16. Trever Feathers, 17. Earl Pearson, Jr., 18. Dennis Erb, Jr., 19. Jimmy Owens, 20. Shanon Buckingham, 21. Tyler Erb, 22. Stormy Scott, 23. Chris Garnes, 24. David Breazeale, 25. Brian Shirley, 26. Boom Briggs, 27. Johnny Scott, 28. G.R. Smith, 29. Chase Junghans, 30. G.R. Smith
