There was no doubt in either class that competed in the Gateway Dirt Nationals finale on Saturday night, December 6th as to who had the best car. Both Bobby Pierce in the Late Models and Ricky Thornton Jr in the Modified left absolutely no doubt that they were the best team in each division and the results showed just that.
Both Pierce and Thornton Jr led from start to finish in their respective feature races, eliminating any drama while also showing that they were the best by far, no matter how strong and talented the competition.
The three night extravaganza was capped off on Saturday night with Last Chance racing that filled the feature fields with many of the sports best runners left sitting on the sidelines come feature time. Probably some of the best racing of the weekend saw the majority of the field fight it out to become one of the few drivers still standing when feature race time came.
A huge crowd, announced as the largest ever to attend a night of this ninth annual event, packed the arena and hallways and produced a fantastically profitable weekend for the race promoters and all those vendors selling everything from shirts and hoodies to headache curing potions.
Right at 3 pm the first of a series of Last Chance races rolled off with both the Late Models and Modified working to cut their entry lists down to about twenty cars per class that would race the feature race event. The track had the most moisture in it of any of the three nights which made for some very fast racing. Just showing how finicky this track is though was the fact that as soon as more moisture was worked into the track, it started to get bouncy and we also saw more bouncing around by the cars on Saturday than for any of the preceding nights.
When the fifteen qualifying events were completed about four hours later, twenty drivers had made their way into the main events. There was one provisional entry in both classes with the top drivers drawing for their starting positions in the main event and no tire changing competition.
When all was set, the only drivers that qualified for both feature races were Thornton Jr and Mike Harrison and both would earn first and second row starting spots in the two features, thus showing that not only were they good enough to get in both features, they were especially good to start right up front.
Opening ceremonies are always special and spectacular for this race and the indoor fireworks are always stunning. Driver introductions were above average this year with several especially clever ones including Kyle Bronson's body slam on a table of Ashton Winger and Brian Shirley's Evel Knievel motor cycle antics after which "Superman" Davenport retook his cape. Still, my highlight of the weekend was Tanner English's fast laps with a Christmas tree strapped on the roof.
I was thinking that we might get through the weekend without a single flip but that thought was dashed in the second Modified qualifier when Dave Hess took a wild ride down the back chute. Fortunately he was OK.
The 50/50 drawing, benefitting the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame, was record breaking also. The split was $135,000 and change and the lucky winner was from Iowa.
Twenty one drivers would start the Late Model forty lap feature race with the provisional being Dylan Thornton as promoter Cody Sommer put his own car in as is his prerogative.
The race got off to a shaky start when outside pole starter Brenden Smith got sideways on the first lap and stacked up a bunch of drivers. Mark Whitener got eliminated in that one. Then Davenport got a piece of Shirley, sending him spinning into the infield where he saw for a couple laps before he was finally spotted and the yellow came out. Davenport, with a flat, and Shirley were both done.
Meanwhile, Bobby Pierce had gotten the jump on the field and immediately put distance on the pack with no one seemingly able to stay with him. The battle for second was good as Thornton Jr and Jason Feger battled hard for that spot. Feger would get past and would hold that spot for the first half of the race.
However, shortly after that, Thornton Jr made a move and took over second but they still remained far behind Pierce and no matter that the yellow flew several times, each time the green again waved, Pierce would pull away.
The last yellow, with thirty two laps complete, packed up the field once again but Pierce again pulled away and Thornton Jr never could get close enough to attend some kind of move. Late in the contest, Feger nosed into the wall enough that Brandon Sheppard was able to get past and claim the third spot with Feger and Nick Hoffman rounding out the top five. Only ten drivers were still on the track at the finish as attrition was high.
The win was Pierce's thirty second of 2025 and he became the first three time winner of this race. On a fun, no pressure weekend he still managed to drive home with a cool $80,000 in winnings and probably twice that in t-shirt sales.
Thornton Jr managed to shake off the disappointment of the Late Model race nicely by leading from start to finish to win the Modified feature and the twenty grand that went to that winner. Just like Pierce, despite a few yellows that packed the field, every time the green flew Ricky just drove away from the field.
Harrison tried his hardest but just like Ricky in the previous race, he was no match for the winner. Carlos Ahumada Jr had a nice run to take third and the driver on the move at the end was Tyler Peterson as the former winner of this event passed Ryan Ayers on the last lap to grab fourth after starting tenth.
It was quite the event and the enormity of this entire weekend is quite astounding. I won't ever say that the Dome is my favorite event of the year and some of the goings on are not what I think our sport should be all about but there can be no doubt that it is a race that can not be duplicated anywhere for its unique aspects. For many folks it is their most memorable race of the year and as long as they keep coming back each year, I see no reason why this race doesn't just get bigger and bigger for the foreseeable future. How all the moving parts of this event come together in such a smooth manner is a tribute to Sommer and both his crew and the folks that work at the Dome.
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