The Wild West Shootout continued after a two night break with round three of the week long series being held on Wednesday night, January 14th at the Central Arizona Raceway. As the series reaches its halfway point, three new winners emerged with Ethan Dotson, Reece Solander and Jake Smith all finding victory lane for the first time. Two of the three led from start to finish although both were under heavy pressure by the end of their races while the Late Model event won by Dotson saw three different leaders during its thirty lap run.
Despite the break, the car counts held up well for round three with one hundred and forty six drivers signing in for the three division program with a Baker's Dozen of new entrants on Wednesday night. One heat was trimmed from both the X Mod and Modified program to try and move things along just a bit quicker and the whole program was tightened up a bit which produced an earlier conclusion to the evening. Track officials still insist however in scheduled monster sized Modified B Features which again just produced some expensive multi car crashes and didn't speed the program whatsoever.
The track was just a bit drier on Wednesday, slowing down the qualifying just a bit as Hudson O'Neal was quickest overall at 15.130 seconds with Jake O'Neil quickest in the second group. Heat race action clicked off quickly and quite frankly, the qualifying events were just a bit on the bland side but were more than made up for by three very entertaining main events.
The Late Model feature would go off first and with the distance trimmed for the week night shows to thirty laps, the drivers had to make their move quickly. Bobby Pierce redrew the pole and would take the initial lead after he and Tyler Erb raced hard on the opening circuit. Only one lap was made before the first yellow flew for a slowing car.
Pierce continued to lead as the race went back under green, but O'Neal made his move past Erb for second and seemed to be gaining ground on Pierce as a long period of green flag racing broke out. At the halfway point, Jonathan Davenport was up to fourth with Ethan Dotson running next in line.
O'Neal was really pressuring Pierce for the lead and slide under him in turn one to take over the top spot. However, they inadvertently made contact as they were battling for the lead and O'Neal no more than passed for the point when he suddenly slowed with a flat tire, apparently from contact between the two.
This gave Pierce the lead back under yellow with Ryan Gustin now moving into the top five. The green dropped and Dotson, who started on the top side of the track, used a great run down the front chute to blow past Erb and then in turn one, to also get past Pierce and take over the lead.
With much of the passing these days coming right after yellow flag restarts, the challenge for Dotson was to then hold off Pierce but not only did he do so, he completely pulled away from Pierce, eventually building up nearly a full straightaway lead as the rest of the race ran under the green.
At the finish, he was the uncontested winner, something that not many in the crowd could have predicted when the green flag first flew. Pierce had his hands full holding on to second but he managed t to stave off a challenge from Gustin, who had found the low groove to work for him as he advanced to the podium finish late in the race, passing both Erb and Davenport.
Only five cars failed to finish the race with the green waving three times. O'Neal, after replacing his tire under yellow, managed to race up into the top ten before the checkers flew.
The Modified feature was the first nonstop main event of the WWS in 2026 and while he led from start to finish, things got tight for Reece Solander before the final checkers waved. He beat Gary Christian to take the early lead with Dustin Sorensen moving up from the second row to slip into second quickly.
In the early going Solander maintained a comfortable lead but as the race wore on, Sorensen gradually closed up the distance on him. By the halfway point of the race, Sorensen had closed to within a few car lengths of the leader with Christian, Joe Duvall and Rodney Sanders following.
With the race staying under the green and most of the field still racing, Solander hit some very heavy traffic during the final half of the race with Sorensen poking a nose to his inside several times but just not quite having enough room to make a pass. Lapped traffic was tough with the top two drivers weaving up and down the track as they looked for openings.
Late in the race, Solander hit a pack of four slower drivers that he had to navigate through and this gave Sorensen one last opening. On the final corner he drove to the inside of Solander but just couldn't fine enough space to drive under him and to his credit, he didn't try a dirty slider that might have wrecked them both. Solander hung on for the win with Sorensen breathing down his tail pipe. Christian hung on for third with Sanders passing Duvall to complete the top five. Only two drivers failed to complete the distance.
Jake Smith and Blake Adams, who had been dominating the X Mod class over the first weekend, went at it again during round three and this time it was Smith that came out the winner. Jake started on the pole for the twenty lapper with Jacob Hodges and Adams battling for second for the first half of the race. As Smith maintained a comfortable lead, Hodges had Adams all over him as he made repeated attempts to take over second.
By the halfway point, Lucas Rodin had moved into the fourth spot and was close to those two in front of him with Scott Bintz completing the top five.
There had not been a roll over so far this week but that quickly changed with a wild tangle in turn one on lap thirteen when a number of drivers got together and both Ken Schrader and James Trantina III ended up on their sides. At least five drivers were eliminated from the race at this point.
Back under green, Adams, who edged past Hodges before the yellow flew, moved in to challenge Smith for the lead. Then Hodges broke, which triggered the last yellow of the race and led to a three lap shootout.
Twice Adams threw sliders at Smith, trying to take over the lead but both times Smith fought him off. One last attempt on the final lap saw Adams take the lead into turn one, only to have Smith cross him over down the back chute, retake the lead and then drive on for the win. Adams made one last attempt off the final corner but came up short for second, with Rodin finishing a strong third. Rob Mosley advanced from the fourth row to nip Bintz for fourth.
Despite it being a Wednesday night, a large crowd was on hand for the midweek run. Drivers will get one last short break before the WWS concludes with a back to back to back finish on Friday through Sunday.
Not to rub it in, but Phoenix set a record high temperature of eighty degrees on Wednesday and the rest of the week promises more of the same!
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