After last year's inaugural success appearance on the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model schedule, everyone was expecting another good show on Tuesday night, July 15th at the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan Iowa. when the Lucas Oil Late Model Series came to town. However, what they got later must have been even more than the most optimistic race fan could have expected as the LOLMS drivers put on a show that had the fans buzzing all the way to their cars in the parking lot and certainly the fans that watched on tv were already booking this race on their 2026 racing schedules.
In a race that had so much going on it was hard to keep up, Bobby Pierce came from the seventh starting spot and after engaging in some thrilling slide jobs with a variety of drivers, led the final thirteen laps to win the Kosiski Family 53 and take home twenty five thousand and fifty three dollars for his efforts.
The IMCA Late Models also ran a full program with Jack Hearty coming from the fifth starting spot to take the win in that race.
It was a steamy and hot Tuesday in southwestern Iowa with thunderstorms promised for the over night hours and you could almost hear the corn growing in the rolling hills around Harlan, a part of the state that is quite hilly, despite everyone's belief that the state of Iowa is flat as a pancake which isn't really true.
Thirty eight drivers signed in to race with the Lucas Oil Series and the one thing that Lucas brings to the table is the strongest group of racers that follow all their races of any series around. The top sixteen in current points were on hand plus there was a surprise infiltration of World Of Outlaws drivers with an off weekend and lots of money available for the taking that joined the regulars. The SLMR Series was also represented which made the overall number of entrants significantly larger than last year. And along with the Lucas Oil cars, a very nice field of IMCA drivers was also on hand, making a solid two division field of all Late Models for the fans.
The Lucas Oil program was their standard one with qualifying followed by four heats and a pair of B Features which set the starting field of twenty four drivers for the fifty three lap main event. Only two series provisional starters joined the field on this night, which made for a twenty car field. But the two provisional starters were heavy hitters including Hudson O' Neal who had mechanical issues earlier on the night. O'Neal earlier was quick qualifier at 13.400 seconds but then broke in his heat and used a B Feature as just a test session. Local fans were pleased when both Shane DeMey and Jesse Sobbing made the feature race.
It is not very often that there is so much going on during a race that I can't keep up with my notes but I can say that the fifty three lapper for the Lucas cars was one of those. The crowd was absolutely beside themselves, there was so much excitement and wild racing going on.
For the first forty laps, Jonathan Davenport led the race but he had to survive many challenges to hold the top spot for that long. Drivers were moving up from deeper in the pack than is normally seen and it would be one driver after another challenging Davenport for the lead.
Early on it was Garrett Alberson but then he faded and Dennis Erb and Ricky Thornton Jr replaced him. Brandon Overton was on the most also and Bobby Pierce moved into the top five by lap fourteen. Thornton and Overton became the chief aggressors for awhile but then Pierce started picking off drivers one by one and suddenly, there he was battling for the lead.
Davenport and Pierce exchanged sliders on lap after lap and then suddenly Thornton Jr was back beside them as they raced three wide down the back straight. Pierce would take the lead and then suddenly he was challenged by Brandon Sheppard who had quietly moved up from the twelfth starting spot.
One last yellow set up a four lap finish and following the single file restart, that was probably the quietest time of the entire race with Pierce holding off Sheppard and Thornton Jr. O'Neal started twenty third but by the end had raced all the way up to fourth with Davenport fading back to fifth. Alberson and Erb had both lost ground in the late going also.
The fans were absolutely limp after this race which certainly will be considered one of the best of the year. The amount of passing and repassing plus drivers making big charges up through the field was staggering. Certainly not a fan that was on hand could feel that they didn't get their monies worth on this night.
But while the Lucas drivers more than exceeded expectations, the IMCA crew had more trouble. I don't know if it was the hype of the night and they were all too wired, but the drivers in this class treated their racing more like a demo derby than a race. I can't remember the last time I saw so much banging and bashing in what is a premier division of weekly racing in this area.
Micah Brown led until just at the halfway point of the race when Jack Hearty passed him and he then led the rest of the race. Not many cars failed to finish the race but just about everyone had some sort of damage from the body to body passing moves made by a number of the drivers. Patience was not a virtue for them on this night and the slamming was almost constant.
Two late yellows kept the field bunched but Hearty held off the late challenge of Nick Deal to take the win. Jake Bridge, Brown and eastern Iowa visitor Sam Halstead completed the top five. The IMCA feature was run first and perhaps the speed of the track after a complete farming session lead to their over aggressiveness.
After the preliminaries were completed, track officials opted to farm the track completely and that proved to be the correct call. Instead of most everyone hugging the low groove, the drivers were all over the track in the main events and it certainly improved the racing. And to be fair, on a humid night such at Tuesday, quite often the race tracks are at their best, even if it is miserable enduring the muggy conditions as a fan.
The crowd was huge, just what both the sanctioning body and the local track officials want to see. This night had it all, an excellent race, a great crowd and the kind of "county fair" track atmosphere that is often missing but so much desired these days. Congratulations to all involved. I'm sure that Lucas can hardly wait to come back again in 2026 and the fans who saw this race live and many on tv will be marking the calendars as soon as next year's schedule is released.
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