The FK Rod Ends Vado Speedway Park hosted the nineteenth annual Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O"Reilly Auto Parts which started its six night run on Saturday, January 4th in the "Land of Enchantment" of New Mexico. Late Models, Modifieds and X Mods will be running all six nights as has been the case for years at the Wild West Shootout.
For the Late Model drivers, the scenario from 2024 doesn't seem to have changed, even though the calendar has flipped to a new year as everyone continues to chase Bobby Pierce to get a win. For Pierce, it was his thirteenth feature win in the history of this six night mini series that has settled here in New Mexico after racing at various different tracks across the border in Arizona, which ties him with Billy Moyer Jr. for first in the all time wins in this series, a record he seems ready to break perhaps before this opening weekend of racing is completed.
Cade Dillard, who has flexed his muscle in recent years in both the Late Models and Modified classes, did so again on Saturday as along with a fourth place finish in the Late Model feature, he dominated the Modified main event, leading from start to finish to take the win in that class.
The X Mods put on perhaps the most exciting feature race of the three presented and after a series of slide jobs and exchanging of the top spot, Rob Moseley would take the win in that class.
One hundred and forty six drivers signed in to race for the Saturday opener with this being just a three division show. Drivers were on hand from coast to coast and even included a couple of Canadian drivers for the 2025 presentation of this event. Vado Speedway Park was in excellent condition for the opening night of racing with the preliminary events providing some great racing action. The format would be unchanged from recent years with the Late Models qualifying which set their running order for the heats while the Mods and X Mods drew for starting positions in their qualifying events with the top sixteen in passing points in each class locked into the feature race with the rest of the fields fighting it out in some Last Chance events. Twenty four drivers would start the main events except for the Late Models where Bill Schlieper again put on the Pro Power Dash with the winner Carson Brown opted to pass on the cash offered and instead start on the tail of the Late Model main.
Racing would begin promptly at 5 pm with farming sessions scheduled after qualifying and directly before the three main events. The Late Models always go first here for their feature as the Flo Racing pay per view is a large consideration here with their viewership for this event among the highest of any race they broadcast all year.
Garrett Alberson, wanting so badly to win a feature in his home town, was quick qualifier for the night at 14.818 seconds and would also redraw the outside pole position for the fifty lap feature that paid twenty five grand to the winner.
Alberson jumped into the early lead after using the outside to edge past Chase Junghans with Pierce coming up from the second to quickly move into second. An early disaster was avoided after Ethan Dotson got sideways in front of most of the field off turn two and while Garrett Smith did bite the wall, it could have been much worse.
Alberson would maintain a slim lead early over Pierce with Mike Marlar on the move. He got past both Dillard and Junghans and moved into third and indeed at one point was putting much pressure on Pierce for second. Brandon Sheppard was also gradually moving to the front and by the halfway point had cracked the top five.
Alberson was able to maintain a slight lead over Pierce who perhaps was just cruising and waiting for the proper time to flex his muscle. That would occur with twenty eight laps in the book as Marlar slowed with a flat tire, triggering yellow number four.
On the restart, Alberson was just a bit high in turn one and lost just a ting of momentum and that was all Pierce needed as he smelled blood in the water, made a hard charge into turn three and was able to take over the lead on lap thirty. As luck would have it, the final twenty laps of the race would run off nonstop with the two leaders breaking away from the pack. Pierce would hit quite a bit of traffic but he handled it well and while Alberson would remain fairly close, he wasn't able to fashion a hard change as Pierce would maintain his pace. Pierce would flash across the finish line with plenty of space to spare as he took the win over Alberson. Sheppard continued his charge and would finish up third with Dillard and Tyler Erb next in line.
Erb, Dotson, Drake Troutman and Dustin Sorensen put on a pleasing battle for position for the second half of the race with much sparing and daring driving a part of that battle. Twenty cars would complete the race with twelve still left on the lead lap.
It was heart break early in the Modified feature as Paden Phillips earned the pole position. However, he had to go to a back up car which relegated him to the tail of the field and Dillard moved up one row and took his pole position. This proved to be bad news to the field as Dillard would jump into an immediate lead and truly never be severely challenged as he drove on to a twenty five lap feature win.
The only other driver that seemed capable of hanging with Dillard was Kyle Strickler and he moved up quickly from the second row to grab second and stayed relatively close to Dillard. The first sixteen laps of this race would go green as Dillard and Strickler pulled away from the field. It was a Gallardo battle for third as Jake fought to hold off his father Fito who had moved up from the fourth row to challenge for a podium finish.
Another driver to watch was Dustin Sorensen after he started ninth but gradually worked his way forward, cracking the top five by the halfway point. Sorensen continued to charge to the front, getting by both Gallardo's and moving into third.
One last yellow slowed the action with just six laps to go and while Dillard was able to pull away once again, Strickler had his hands full. Sorensen and he had a great battle right down to the wire with Dustin prevailing in one of his rare Modified starts in the last year, having focused on his WoO Late Model last year.
The X Mods provided an entertaining twenty five lap feature of their own. Exchanging the lead four times among the top three drivers, it was Rob Moseley that would drive home for the win. Moseley started on the pole for the feature but Hunter Sandy provided a spectacular opening lap as he charged forward after starting fourth, threw a monster slider on Moseley in turn four and lead the opening lap.
Moseley came right back two laps later with his own slider to retake the lead and over the next nine laps, while Moseley was officially scored the leader of each lap, both he and Sandy were busy exchanging lanes and edging back and forth into the lead. Suddenly, as the two leaders were still busy with their own battle, a third challenger emerged as Jesse Haynie, who started fifth, suddenly became a player and probably stunned both the leaders as on lap twelve he drove under both to take over the top spot.
The first yellow flew for a spinner at this time and on the green, Moseley gathered himself and made another change, getting past Haynie and retaking the lead. Haynie would hang right with Moseley though while Sandy dropped out with problems.
One final yellow flew with just eight laps to go and this slowdown allowed another hard charger, Josh Cain, to move up into the top three after he started eleventh. While the running order didn't change over the last few laps, the top three were engaged in quite a battle with Moseley holding off both Haynie and Cain. Nate Reinke drove a steady race to finish fourth and Christy Barnett charged all the way from seventeenth to complete the top five as twenty one of the starters were still on the track at the finish, all on the lead lap.
The final checkers would wave right at 10 pm on what was a comfortable, although windy at times, January night. There is always plenty to see and do at the supreme Vado facility with live music to entertain the spectators before the racing begins and even a trick roping exhibition behind the grandstands during the track prep break. I got to meet new Track Manager Mike Garcia who seems to be doing an excellent job and we even had Christina Mitchell to do a spectacular job of playing the National Anthem on her violin. Probably the only thing missing was the Canadian and Mexican anthems since we do have drivers from both countries also participating. It was a very strong opening night performance for what is one of the finest racing events of the entire calendar.
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