Saturday, January 14, 2023

Pierce Halts Davenport Steamroller; Berry and Solander Also Crack Victory Lane

 The Wild West Shootout began the second half of its six race series after a night off, returning to action on Friday night, January 13th with race number four which once again featured the Super Late Models, the Modifieds and the X Mods. 

After Jonathan Davenport won the first three races of this series in the Late Models and made it a reasonable thought that he might indeed sweep all six races of this series and grab all the bonus goodies offered, those thoughts were slammed on Friday when Bobby Pierce outdueled Davenport in a thirty lap shootout that had the crowd on its feet over the two drivers that have been most dominant to this point. The other two divisions, the Modifieds and X Mods would also see two first time winners as Tom Berry won a hard fought win in the Mods while Reece Solander would do the same in the X Mod division. 

Friday night began a final stretch of three races in three nights and typically produces the largest car counts of the series and such was again the case this year. There was a big boost in numbers in all three classes with the series' largest counts in all three classes. Nineteen new drivers made their first runs of the week, the car count was such that officials added four more heat races while still running big ten to twelve car heats and the total car count neared the one hundred and seventy number, this with only three classes in competition. 

Qualifying for the Late Models would be the first order of business as usual and a quick track early saw Davenport and Brandon Sheppard top their two groups with Davenport turning the quickest time of the week at 14,177, putting him in line to earn yet another bonus. The Late Models would run six heats on this night along with a pair of B Features that would set their field of twenty four drivers for their main event as there are no provisional starters in this series and in order to race the feature, you must qualify for it on the track. 

The feature for the Late Models would be the shorter distance of thirty laps and with such a shorter event, passing must be done quickly as thirty laps flies by like the blink of an eye, particularly if there are not a lot of yellow flags. Davenport would jump to the early lead from the outside pole as he out gunned Garrett Alberson in the early going. Pierce would be on the move quickly too, as he would charge from his fifth starting spot, getting past Billy Moyer and Brandon Sheppard to do so. 

As Davenport continued to lead, stretching it early, Alberson and Pierce engaged in an interesting series of slide jobs as they battled for second with Pierce eventually getting the upper hand and moving into second as he appeared determined to end Davenport's streak. The first yellow would appear with nine laps complete when Kyle Beard broke a front end component and stacked up Terry Phillips, Mikey Kile and Justin Duty in turn three with all but Kyle calling it a night. 

It then turned into a war for the lead as Davenport would not be able to pull away from Pierce as Bobby tried a series of sliders with Davenport responding and managing to continue to lead but Pierce remained all over him. At the halfway point, their order remained unchanged with Mike Marlar fighting his way up into the top five while the driver on the move was Kyle Larson. 

Larson, who was battling it out with Pierce for a heat race win when he tangled with a lapped car and wrecked and then came from twelfth to win a B Feature just to start the main, had charged up from the twentieth starting spot into the top ten and was still on the move by the halfway mark.

Just past the halfway point, Pierce set up Davenport for a slider as Jonathan seemed just a bit tight in turns and seemed to be killing his speed slightly, and Bobby slid up in front of Davenport and Jonathan wasn't able to respond as Pierce motored into the lead. Several times after this, Davenport tried to get the lead back and made a few attempts to get under Pierce but wasn't able to do so. 

The leaders were running close when Dillon McCowan blew a tire as they were trying to lap him and while both managed to avoid an accident, the yellow was triggered with just two laps to go. You knew what was coming on the restart and Davenport dove hard into turn one trying to get back under Pierce but he wasn't able  to complete the move and this killed his momentum as Pierce would then motor away and win without challenge. Alberson would run a solid third and Larson would charge all the way up to fourth at the finish ahead of Sheppard. 

Tom Berry is a very accomplished Modified driver, having won a number of very large and important races in the last couple of years running with IMCA. However, the open motor Modifieds are a big of a different animal than the crate racing cars but he proved on Friday that no matter what engine is under the hood and how much horsepower that was being harnessed, he could drive the wheels off it as he out gunned Chad Wheeler and Jake Gallardo to get the win in only the fourth outing for him with his current car. 

Wheeler would get the jump in what would turn out to be a nonstop Modified main event as he edged past Lewis Jackson on lap one. Berry would start in row two and then move to the cushion and on lap five he would drive past Wheeler to take over the lead. 

On the move after putting up with some miserable racing luck so far this week was Gallardo who would quickly move into the second spot and then start to challenge Berry Jr for the lead. Tom was moving around on the track, searching for the best line and while Gallardo got close on several attempts near the halfway point of the race, each time Berry Jr would fight him off. 

As they battled for the lead, Dereck Ramirez was the driver on the move as after starting sixteenth, he would quickly drive up into the top ten and continue to press forward. With no yellows to aid his cause, it took some hard driving to move up but he continued to charge and would eventually crack the top five. 

Meanwhile, Gallardo would continue to press Berry Jr but Tom seemed to have found his good line, diamonding turn one and then riding the banking through turns three and four and while Gallardo would press the issue, Berry Jr maintained control. Gallardo would make one final push but Berry Jr had his line and would drive on for the impressive win. Ramirez would get up as far as third at the finish with his fine charge and Steven Whiteaker Jr.  would also make a late rush, passing Wheeler to finish fourth. 

North Dakota's Eric Haugland would be the early leader of the X Mod feature as he had a duel with fellow "Peace State" drivers Preston Carr and Lucas Rodin along with Solander. On lap five, Solander would drive under Haugland to take over the lead with the yellow triggered one lap later when contender Andy Bryant would pound the turn four wall and be knocked out of the event. 

Solander would continue to hold a narrow lead with Rodin moving into second and keeping the pressure on the leader. Haugland would lose control while trying to pound the cushion, spin into traffic and get clobbered by Allen Owen Jr with both cars eliminated from the contest. 

Solander would continue to lead through the halfway point with Rodin and Carr both racing him close while it was Kris Jackson who was making another of his charges through the field after starting thirteenth on the thirteenth. He would be up to fourth and was still on the move. 

Bad luck struck Carr with fourteen laps complete when his motor went up in a ball of smoke and flames, triggering the red flag as he bailed out of the car in the infield. This set up a six lap sprint to the finish with Jackson taking advantage of the stoppage to shoot into second on the restart as Rodin got shuffled back several spots. 

The final few laps would see Jackson all over Solander for the win, but each time Kris would try the bottom, Reece would block his line and fight him off. One last attempt on the final corner came up short and Solander would drive on for the win with Jackson a very close second. Jesse Haynie, who has been strong all week would again top the local drivers as he would come from eighteenth to complete the top three. Scott Bintz drove a steady race to get up to fourth with Roding holding on for a top five finish. 

The track had a little bit more character in in than the previous nights but drivers were still able to move around on it and while the Late Models and Modifieds found the high side to work best for them with slide jobs the best passing opportunities, the X Mods seemed to favor the low groove which continued to make things interesting. It was another smoothly run show on a cool January evening in the high desert and with big heats and twenty car B Features in most classes, the drivers in this event have little spare time to make something happen or risk watching the mains from the pits. This, however, is much of what makes this such and interesting event. 


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