Ricky Thornton Jr. added another win on Friday at Lernerville
What in the early going looked like a certain Ricky Thornton Jr. win turned into a late race duel with Jonathan Davenport before the hottest driver on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series was able to emerge with a thrilling victory at Lernerville Speedway. The Friday night win came in the Group A preliminary to Saturday night’s $50,000-to-win 17th annual Firecracker 100.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Martinsville, Indiana earned $5,000 for his efforts on the track located in Sarver, Pennsylvania in a race aired live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 48 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results: 1. Brandon Overton(15.736), 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Spencer Hughes, 4. Ricky Thornton Jr., 5. Gregg Satterlee, 6. Ken Schaltenbrand, 7. Tyler Erb, 8. Daryl Charlier, 9. Ross Robinson, 10. Darrell Bossard
Heat Race Results:
Heat 1 Finish- 1. Ricky Thornton Jr., 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Darrell Bossard, 4. Tyler Erb, 5. Chub Frank, 6. Trevor Collins, 7. Nicholas Eck, 8. Mike Smith
Heat 2 Finish- 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Gregg Satterlee, 3. Hudson O’Neal, 4. Earl Pearson Jr., 5. Daryl Charlier, 6. Alex Ferree, 7. Bump Hedman, 8. Brent Vosbergen
Heat 3 Finish- 1. Spencer Hughes, 2. Ken Schaltenbrand, 3. Ross Robinson, 4. Tyler Dietz, 5. Benji Hicks, 6. Gary Lyle, 7. Kyle Strickler, 8. Doug Eck
Feature Re-cap: Thornton went to the early lead of the 25-lap feature with Davenport, Overton, Hughes and Satterlee in arrears. The top-5 quickly spread out in single-file formation over the early laps on the lightning fast track.
Thornton built a lead of just over two seconds by lap 12. Behind him, Overton closed in and took second away from Davenport on lap 18 as the leader continued to motor away from the pack. However, a lap 19 caution would regroup the field.
On the lap 19 restart, Davenport went back second and set off after Thornton but a spin by Pearson brought out another yellow flag on lap 20.
It was when the racing action resumed that things got interesting. Davenport moved to the top spot on lap 22 but Thornton countered with an aggressive slider of his own on lap 23 to retake the spot. Davenport briefly slid over the edge of the track allowing Overton to get by for the runner-up position,
In the end, it was Thornton who would lay claim to the preliminary victory.
Feature Results: 1. Ricky Thornton Jr., 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Gregg Satterlee, 5. Hudson O’Neal, 6. Tyler Erb, 7. Spencer Hughes, 8. Darrell Bossard, 9. Trevor Collins, 10. Chub Frank, 11. Ross Robinson, 12. Ken Schaltenbrand, 13. Alex Ferree, 14. Benji Hicks, 15. Daryl Charlier, 16. Brent Vosbergen, 17. Bump Hedman, 18. Gary Lyle, 19. Earl Pearson Jr., 20. Mike Smith, 21. Nicholas Eck, 22. Doug Eck
Please consider also reading:
Max Blair get first Lucas Oil victory with Lernerville Group B triumph
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