Dennis Erb Jr. scored his second win in three races
The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series ventured to is most western venue when officials and competitors rolled through the gates of River City Speedway on Friday evening. After a night of lead swapping action, it was Dennis Erb Jr. who scored the victory at the Grand Forks, North Dakota facility. The Carpentersville, Illinois driver earned a paycheck valued at $10,000 for his achievement in a race shown live by DirtVision.com.
A total of 34 cars were signed in for competition.
Brandon Sheppard proved to be the fastest in Group A qualifying when he laid down a lap in 12.568 seconds around the 3/10 mile clay oval besting Frank Heckenast Jr., Jimmy Mars, Cade Dillard and Cole Schill.
Dennis Erb Jr. was quickest in Group B time-trials with an effort of 12.513 seconds to top Joey Pederson, Brad Seng, Brent Larson, and Blair Nothdurft.
Jimmy Mars outran Brandon Sheppard, Cole Schill and Paul Parker in the first heat race of the night then Cade Dillard took the second preliminary ahead of Ricky Weiss, Frank Heckenast Jr. and Chris Madden.
Dennis Erb Jr. defeated Brad Seng, Chad Mahder and Boom Briggs in the third heat while Ryan Gustin won the fourth and final heat over Joey Pederson, Brent Larson and Jason Strand.
Tyler Bruening topped Jeff Massengill, Tommy Corcoran, Jordan Yaggy, Brody Troftgruben and Brandon Fuller transferred to the main event out of the Last Chance Showdown race used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
The WoO Late Models redraw set the first four rows on the feature starting grid as Erb, Mars, Dillard, Gustin, Seng, Pederson, Sheppard and Weiss.
When the green flag waved over the 40-lap feature Dillard made a big move from the third starting position to bypass both Erb and Mars and grab the early lead. However, Erb immediately fought back and moved in to challenge Dillard, eventually taking the top spot just before a caution flag waved on lap 4 for the stalled car of Kyle Hammer.
After a lap 6 restart, Gustin broke into the top-3 and then fought with Dillard for the runner-up spot before Dillard finally established himself in that position after multiple laps of side-by-side racing.
By lap 14, Erb appeared to have things well in hand as he began to slip away from a battle among Dillard, Mars and Gustin. However, Mars asserted himself into the second spot and quickly began to erase Erb’s advantage. By lap 19, the two No. 28 cars were engaged in a contentious fight for the lead of the race.
Mars took over the top spot on lap 22 but Erb would not go away as he moved back in to challenge on laps 24 and 25 before retaking the position on the 26th circuit. Mars would issue one more challenge to the topside running Erb before Erb was able to use slower traffic to his advantage and slip away.
The veteran driver earned his third overall WoO Late Models win and his second victory in three races.
Feature Finish: 1. Dennis Erb Jr., 2. Jimmy Mars, 3. Ryan Gustin, 4. Cade Dillard, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Frank Heckenast Jr., 7. Brad Seng, 8. Joey Pederson, 9. Ricky Weiss, 10. Chris Madden, 11. Cole Schill, 12. Tyler Bruening, 13. Chad Mahder, 14. Boom Briggs, 15. Brent Larson, 16. Jeff Massengill, 17. Brody Troftgruben, 18. Jason Strand, 19. Paul Parker, 20. Brandon Fuller, 21. Tommy Corcoran, 22. Lance Mathees, 23. Kyle Hammer, 24. Jordan Yaggy
