Brandon Sheppard got his second win of SpeedWeeks
Following a rainout of Tuesday’s planned show, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series took to the track at the East Bay Raceway Park on Wednesday night for a complete racing program. After a dominating night of racing at the ‘Clay by the Bay’, it was — who claimed the winner’s trophy. The Rocket Chassis driver from New Berlin, Illinois earned $7,000 for the victory in a race shown live by Mav TV Plus.
A total of 70 cars were signed in for competition.
Brandon Sheppard was fastest in Group A qualifying after he posted a time of 14.980 seconds around the third-mile clay oval topping Brandon Overton, Tyler Erb, Ricky Thornton Jr., Ross Robinson, Ashton Winger, Tyler Bruening and Dennis Erb Jr.
Devin Moran led the way in Group B time-trials with a lap of 15.282 seconds bettering the efforts of Earl Pearson Jr., Josh Rice, Tanner English, Kyle Bronson, Brian Shirley, Stormy Scott and Shane Clanton.
Brandon Sheppard would start the feature from the pole position by virtue of his win in the first heat race of the night over Ricky Thornton Jr. and Tyler Bruening.
Brandon Overton scored a win in the second preliminary ahead of Ross Robinson and Dennis Erb Jr. then Ashton Winger outran Tyler Erb and Cody Overton in the third heat.
Devin Moran would start from the outside of the front after taking the fourth heat besting Stormy Scott and Tanner English.
Earl Pearson Jr. was victorious in the fifth heat after he beat out Hudson O’Neal and Kyle Bronson while Tim McCreadie concluded the heat racing action in the sixth preliminary by outperforming Brian Shirley and Josh Putnam.
Chase Junghans, Mark Whitener, and Spencer Hughes 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 Sheppard who went to the front with Moran, Overton, Winger and Pearson in his tire tracks. Overton took second from Moran on the second circuit while McCreadie entered the top-5 a bit further back.
Thornton rumbled forward when he passed McCreadie for fifth on lap 4. Overton took the lead away from Sheppard in that traffic on lap 8 just before a yellow flag was shown to the field when third-running Moran spun after tangling with a slower car.
Just after the restart, the field went back under caution when Hughes spun. Tyler Erb fired to third on the restart.
Sheppard regained the top spot on lap 13 when he sailed past Overton who then fell back into a battle with Erb for the runner-up position. On lap 17, Erb’s efforts paid off as he worked by Overton for second.
Freddie Carpenter slowed to bring out a caution at the halfway point. Sheppard led Erb, Overton, Thornton, Winger and Pearson at that point. Overton went back to second on the ensuing restart but Erb quickly fought back as Sheppard slipped away.
Erb went back to second on lap 25. Thornton moved into challenge Overton for third when contact ensued on lap 29 with Overton going for a spin. The caution was deemed to be for debris that had been spotted just before the spin by the No. 76 machine which allowed Overton to return to third.
Erb returned to second as Overton’s damaged car fell back. Winger and Thornton also passed by the ailing No. 76. Meanwhile, Sheppard was at the front of the field driving away from the pack. At the same time, Erb and Winger were fighting hard for second.
Overton fell off the pace to bring out a caution with four laps remaining. Sheppard remained as the leader ahead of Erb, Winger, Thornton and Bronson.
Over the final laps, Sheppard sailed to the win for his second win of this year’s Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks and his seventh career win at East Bay.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, Ashton Winger, 3. Tyler Erb, 4. Kyle Bronson, 5. Ricky Thornton Jr., 6. Hudson O’Neal, 7. Earl Pearson Jr., 8. Stormy Scott, 9. Tim McCreadie, 10. Devin Moran, 11. Tyler Bruening, 12. Brian Shirley, 13. Dennis Erb Jr., 14. Mark Whitener, 15. Daulton Wilson, 16. Garrett Alberson, 17. Tanner English, 18. Cody Overton, 19. Brandon Overton, 20. Josh Putnam, 21. Ross Robinson, 22. Freddie Carpenter, 23. Spencer Hughes, 24. Shane Clanton, 25. Chase Junghans, 26 Clinton Hersh
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