Earl Pearson, Jr. collected his first win after his return to Dunn-Benson Racing.
A hurricane warning may very well have been sounded throughout the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series pit area at the Golden Isles Speedway on Friday night as Earl Pearson, Jr. scored the win in the first points paying race of the 2015 season. It was only the second start for the Jacksonville, Fla. driver since reuniting with the Dunn-Benson Racing organization he had such success with earlier in his career.
For the second consecutive night, Jonathan Davenport led the way in qualifying. The Blairsville, Georgia driver laid down a lap of 15.388 seconds to pace Group B ahead of Jared Landers, Gregg Satterlee and Pearson. However, Satterlee’s car proved to be too light at the scales and his time was disallowed.
Ross Bailes was fastest in Group A with a lap of 15.431 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval. Following Bailes in that group was Donald McIntosh, Kenny Pettyjohn and Stormy Scott.
Bailes beat out Pettyjohn, Dennis Franklin and Scott Bloomquist in the first heat race of the night. Defending series champion Don O’Neal was forced to earn a feature berth out of the B-main after failing to transfer to the main event from this heat.
Scott won out over McIntosh, Devin Moran and Jimmy Owens in the second heat race. Chris Madden was sent to the B-main after failing to transfer from this heat.
Davenport won the third preliminary over Pearson, Billy Moyer, Jr. and Kyle Bronson. Friday night winner Eddie Carrier, Jr. and fellow Lucas Oil regular Dennis Erb, Jr. were unable to transfer from this race and were sent to the B-main.
Jason Papich bested Landers, Brandon Sheppard and and Satterlee in the fourth and final heat race.
Madden won the only B-main of the night ahead of O’Neal and Erb.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, Davenport bolted to the early lead and immediately set about the task of putting distance between himself and the rest of the pack while Bailes, Papich, Scott and Pearson gave chase. Further back, the likes of former champions Bloomquist, Owens and O’Neal were forced to battle intense traffic from deep in the field.
A lap 4 restart offered Pearson an opportunity to make a move and he seized upon the chance by first moving around Papich for 4th and then Scott for 3rd. At the same time, Landers was making moves of his own by picking off those same drivers. But while this fight was going on behind him, Davenport once again built a sizable advantage over his pursuers.
After a lap 7 caution, the race settled into a rhythm with Davenport holding the top spot while working his way through traffic. However, Bailes began to close from his runner-up position during the race’s second half. Then, a familiar theme rang out for the lead car.
Just like on Friday, Davenport experience trouble while leading. Bailes moved around for the lead on lap 36 then the No. 6 car came to a stop in turn four. Mechanical issues had once again ruined Davenport’s night when it looked as if he would score a win.
Landers, who had moved around Pearson for the 3rd spot, now found himself right behind the leader on the ensuing restart after Davenport’s issue. However, the No. 777 car drifted very high in turn one just after the green flag waved and he gave up a couple of positions. That placed Pearson on Bailes rear spoiler as the laps wound down.
The veteran driver challenged the young competitor on several occasions but had yet to move around when Bailes slowed suddenly. An apparent flat tire had ended his night and lifted Pearson to the top of the leader board.
On the final restart at lap 42, Pearson asserted himself as the front runner and kept the pack behind him until the checkered flag waved.
Feature finish: 1. Earl Pearson, Jr., 2. Jared Landers, 3. Scott Bloomquist, 4. Donald McIntosh, 5. Stormy Scott, 6. Chris Madden, 7. Don O’Neal, 8 Kenny Pettyjohn, 9. Jason Papich, 10. Gregg Saterlee, 11. Dennis Erb, Jr., 12. Steve Francis, 13. Devin Moran, 14. Kyle Bronson, 15. Jimmy Owens, 16. Mike Benedum, 17. Billy Moyer, Jr., 18. Eddie Carrier, Jr., 19. Brandon Sheppard, 20. Ross Bailes, 21. Jonathan Davenport, 22. Austin Kirkpatrick, 23. Dennis Franklin, 24. Steven Roberts
