Pierce Finally Visits Victory Lane During WWS Finale

 During what has been a most successful Wild West Shootout at the Central Arizona Raceway, Bobby Pierce, the winningest driver in WWS history had yet to visit victory lane as the winner. That changed during the finale of the six night series on Sunday, January 18th as he topped Jonathan Davenport and Hudson O'Neal is what can be described as a "spirted" contest that left some hard feelings after the checkered flew and plenty for folks to talk about as the Late Model troops now heard to Florida. 

In other action, Jeremy Payne scored his second straight victory in the Modifieds, Jake Smith cemented his point title in the X Mods with his second win and in the initial appearance of the IMCA Stock Cars in a preview race for this week's upcoming IMCA TV Winter Nationals, it was Minnesota's Curt Lund who took the win. 

It has been a long week with lots of hard racing and for some of the teams, they were out of cars, patience and perhaps money by Sunday's finale with the smallest car count in all three classes which was not a surprise but the norm for this event. Still, with the addition of twenty eight Stock Cars there were one hundred and sixty five drivers that signed in to race for the finale. 

The format for Sunday would see one less X Mod and Modified heat while the Stock Cars would run three heats and a feature race, again using passing points that is the norm for this event. 

Hudson O'Neal was quickest at 15.060 seconds while Davenport topped the opening group just slightly slower as the track prep crew has been successful at producing a track that has remained remarkably consistent from night to night. 

In a night where there seemed to be more "fireworks" than normal, it started early when during the first Late Model heat Tyler Erb decided to plant the back half of his car on Davenport's hood while making a less than desirous slide job attempt. Davenport halted with damage and eventually pulled off the track while Erb went on for the win and expressed his opinion on the matter. There would be more than a few words spoken between the two back in the pits with track officials mediating but this would later result in one of the more interesting facets of the feature race, watching Davenport charge through the field after starting the back by qualifying through a B Feature. 

Pierce redrew the pole for the twenty four car, fifty lap finale for the Late Models with Bobby taking the early lead. Erb moved to second with O'Neal up to third while Davenport began his long journey to the front. Garrett Alberson was also working his way toward the front after starting eighth. 

After a quick yellow with a pair of laps complete, the next nineteen would go green and Pierce continued to lead but O'Neal worked his way to second as Erb started to slip back and Alberson up to third. O'Neal began to make big progress on Pierce and on lap twenty three he drove past Pierce to take over the lead. However, Pierce appeared to get up on the wheel at this point and two laps later, riding the cushion, he returned the favor to take over the lead. One lap later the caution flew and the field was bunched again. 

Alberson dropped out with motor issues while the battle for the lead continued. Coming off turn two with O'Neal moving past on the outside, Pierce threw a slider and the leaders got together. Somehow Pierce was able to keep going while O'Neal did a quick spin and also kept moving while the yellow flew. 

Track officials used the "blend rule" which allowed Pierce to maintain the lead while O'Neal got second back but he had some damage to the front end of his car which resulted in a couple of quick stops for track officials to assist him. 

Davenport continued his charge when the green came back out, dispatching Cade Dillard and Ethen Dotson for position and then thumbing his nose at Erb as he passed him and moved into third when the final yellow waved with thirteen laps to go for a slowing Jake Timm. Davenport moved up to  the cushion and blew past O'Neal for second but Pierce was long gone by this point. 

Davenport pushed hard over the last dozen laps but he wasn't able to close the distance as Pierce drove home for the win. O'Neal limped home for third with his damaged car and with restrained words let everyone know that he was not happy. Erb and Dustin Sorensen, who came from the back after an early flat, filled out the top five. O'Neal did earn the point title for the series. 

With bonuses and lap money, Pierce made out very well on Sunday, banking $51,500 for his win. So, leaving Arizona, Davenport is mad at Erb, O'Neal is mad at Pierce and there should be plenty of ammo available to hype the Florida events. 

It has been a great series for Smith, the St. Joseph Minnesota driver. He has finished in the top three for all six nights of the X Mods, no mean feat considering the size and quality of the field. Sunday he made another of his patented charges to the front after starting ninth on the grid as he easily passed many more cars than anyone over the course of six nights. 

Developments started early in this race when Christy Barnett, scheduled to start on the outside pole and a strong contender for the win, dropped out on the pace lap with mechanical issues and Keenan Glasser moved to the early lead. After a red flag stoppage when Blake Davis took a wild ride around the turn one wall,  another Canadian driver, Curtis Stieh, who has been a revelation this week, drove past Glasser to take over the top spot on lap three. 

When the yellow flew on lap ten for a Tyler Johnson spin, Smith was up to third with Rob Mosley and Jeremy Haddox next in line. Stieh tried but he simply couldn't hold off the charging Smith, who drove past him for the lead just two laps later. 

Bad luck struck a couple competitors as both Glasser and Bryson Yaeger, both in the top five at one point, both dropped out of the race with mechanical issues. However, there would be no challenging Smith who drove away from the field as the last fifteen laps of the race ran off nonstop. Stieh was firmly planted in second while the battle raged for third. 

Friday night's winner Lucas Rodin was making a charge for himself after starting fourteenth. He drove past Mosley with a few laps to go to take over third with the three WISSOTA drivers finishing in that order. Completing the top five was Haddox. 

Cade Dillard passed on one fast Modified for Jeremy Payne to drive the second half of this series and Payne made the most of it. After a point rich heat race allowed him to start on the pole for the feature event, he made short work of the field, leading from start to finish to win the twenty five lap finale and was never seriously challenged once the green flag fell. 

Talan Willis held the second spot for the first few laps until passed by Jake Gallardo with Lance Mari and Gabe Hodges close behind. There were a number of yellows in this race, six in all, but each time the green would wave, Payne would pull out to a comfortable lead as no one had anything for him. 

A driver on the move and charging forward following each slowdown was Hunter Sandy. He started way back in the eighth row and in fact was not even in the top five by the halfway point of the race but after that, he really started to shine as he passed driver after driver in the final few laps. He got by both Mari and Gallardo in the last five laps as he drove all the way up to second at the finish, a great run for the former X Mod driver. 

Hodges moved up to third at the finish with Gallardo and Dustin Strand rounding out the top five finishers. Rodney Sanders, a one time feature winner during the series, won the points title based on consistency. He dug out of a hole caused by a flat tire early in this race to move up to sixth at the finish. 

IMCA Stock Cars will be a part of the upcoming IMCA Winter Nationals that will staged at this same track in the upcoming two weeks and as a teaser, the Stock Cars ran their own program on Sunday. Twenty eight of them signed in to race and just for fun, they started their feature race in a three wide fashion!

That perhaps was not a wise choice for many drivers unfamiliar with this track as yellow flags plagued a division that often runs green to checkers. Dominating the action was Curt Lund who led from start to finish in the twenty lapper, again something that does not happen often in this class. 

On this night however, Lund was far superior to the field with no one able to even challenge him despite the numerous chances based on all the yellows. Local driver Bo Partain maintained the second spot for much of the race after getting by Jason Rogers who later dropped out. Miciah Hildebaugh and Modified star Chaz Baca moved up until Hildebaugh also pulled off. 

As Lund drove away from the field, the best battle was for second with Baca eventually passing Partain for that spot. North Dakota driver Chris Tuchscherer ended up fourth with "Wahoo" Mike Albertson finishing fifth. 

A sponsor provided gold nugget prizes for the Hard Luck award for each class with Tyler Peterson, Chance Kodet and Stephen Glenn the dubious winners. 

There was another large crowd on hand for the final night action, despite it being a Sunday which typically is not a great night to draw a crowd in Arizona and this entire series has been a smashing success with even the weather being even more outstanding than normal. 

Dates were announced for next  year's event as being January 9-17th and not surprisingly, the Central Arizona Raceway will again be a host as promoter Brad Whitfield and his staff provided a great venue for Chris Kearns and his all star staff of officials and workers to operate at. My suspicions are that someone his going to have to "hit it out of the ball park" to top this series for RPM race of the year. 

My thanks goes out to Chris and his crew for their help this week. I look forward to another couple weeks of outstanding racing here in the desert hosted by Brad starting next Wednesday. 

For Iowa Late Model fans, on another note. I received a phone call from Gary Webb on Sunday. He tells me that he has purchased a new Kryptonite Late Model and is very excited and looking forward to the 2026 racing season. He has one car done and will be having a second car finished. One car will have an IMCA crate engine, and one an IMCA spec. He plans on racing at Davenport and East Moline, along with some Malvern Bank and PRO Series races. 

His plan is to race for two more years which would make fifty six years of racing for the #56 car and then sell everything and retire. When asked about his car color for 2026, he said "wait and see."