Brian Shirley and his team made an overnight drive for the final night of the Lucas Oil MLRA 3rd Annual Spring Nationals Presented by RacingJunk.com. It was worth the trip.
The veteran Illinois driver, a night after a fifth-place run in a World of Outlaws Late Model race in Wheel, Tenn., led all 45 laps in a caution-free feature at Lucas Oil Speedway, picking up $5,000 on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, Republic's Burl Woods captured the Carson's Corner NAPA Auto Parts Street Stock feature and Terry Schultz of Sedalia won the Pitts Home USRA Modified main event for the second night in a row.
A total of 104 cars checked into the pits on the back half of the season-opening doubleheader at Lucas Oil Speedway.
The Late Model feature clicked off in 13 minutes with Shirley taking the other 23 drivers in the feature to the proverbial woodshed.
Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., made a run from a 13th starting position to finish a distant second. Nevada's Brantlee Gotschall came home a solid third to lead Ozarks-area competitors.
Shirley, of Chatham, Ill., earned his first-ever win at Lucas Oil Speedway. The winner's share included a $1,500 bonus from Pitts Homes, commemorating its 45th year in business, and $500 in memory of Ron Jenkins, who built the original Wheatland Raceway.
Shirley, a regular on the World of Outlaws Tour, said after the race in Tennessee he left it to his crew to decide where to race on Saturday. The scheduled WOO race Saturday at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway was cancelled due to cold weather.
"They said, 'You want to go to Wheatland?' I said, 'I don't know. I'm going to sleep and whether we wake up in Wheatland or Springfield, Illinois, that's where we'll race.' "
The choice was a good one after the eight-hour haul. Shirley won his heat race in dominant fashion, earning the pole position for the feature. He opened a clear lead, built it to half a lap by the mid-point and had plenty of margin over the hard-charging 19-year-old Pierce.
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Brian Shirley won for the first time at Lucas Oil Speedway. (Chris Bork photo) |
"t was that good and that made it real easy," Shirley said of his Longhorn Race Car. " I got to control where I wanted to be in lap traffic because I had such a big lead. We love coming to Lucas Oil Speedway and thankful to win my first race here."
Pierce, who's slated to run three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races later this spring, was eating into Shirley's lead. But without a caution, he had no chance.
"It was $10,000 to win, I probably would have took somebody out," Pierce said, laughing. "We were really fast once the rear tires got going. It was a perfect track tonight. They hit it on the money. Thanks to the fans for coming out and congrats to Brian on the win.
"Maybe we'll be back for the Show-Me (100) and hopefully we'll have a better run," Pierce said.
Gotschall's strong finish came despite brake issues throughout.
"But we struggled through it and ended up pretty good. It's been a great night," he said.
Lebanon's Tony Jackson Jr. finished fourth with Randy Timms of Wheatland, Okla., fifth ahead of Billings' Jesse Stovall.
The next MLRA race is April 17 at State Fair Speedway in Sedalia.
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| Burl Woods celebrates his Carson's Corner NAPA Street Stock victory. (Chris Bork photo) | |
In the Street Stock division, Woods moved from his third starting position to get the lead on lap three and led the rest of the way in the 25-lap feature.
Woods finished comfortably ahead of Derek Brown of Stoutland, denying Brown a sweep of the season-opening weekend action. David Hendrix of Buckhorn finished third with Hurley's James Flood fourth.
Woods was driving a new car built by Tony Jackson Jr., Motorsports – the same builder of Brown's car. He won $500, courtesy of Elite Auto Repair.
"It's one heck of a car," Woods said. "We struggled last year and got behind on some stuff. Tim Brown (another TJR Motorsports driver) has been really strong and me and Tim talked and I decided to go with Tony."
Schultz passed Jason Pursley for the USRA Modified lead on the 17th lap after the two dueled for several laps – Schultz working the outside cushion and Pursley hugging the inside line.
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Terry Schultz made it back-to-back wins in the Pitts Homes USRA Modified division on opening weekend. (Chris Bork photo) |
Pursley, of Hermitage, slipped to third behind Darron Fuqua of Mayetta, Kan., in the final laps. Jon Sheets of Nevada was fourth with NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader of Concord, N.C., fifth.
"Me and Pursley had a good race going on," Schultz said. "There's no one better to race with than him."
Racing resumes next Saturday at Lucas Oil Speedway with opening night of the 13-event Budweiser Weekly Championship Series.
