Pierce Stays Hot With Swainsboro WoO Late Model Score

SWAINSBORO, Ga. – The Bobby Pierce ‘Vengeance Tour‘ with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series continued Friday night, as Pierce led flag-to-flag to win the series’ return to Swainsboro Speedway during the opening act of the Battle of the Crossroads.

The win marked the current point leader’s second in a row with the Outlaws and the 33rd of the Oakwood, Ill., driver’s career, tying him with Tim McCreadie and the late Scott Bloomquist on the all-time list.

Pierce set fast time in group two during qualifying and won his heat race, then got the pole thanks to the redraw before completing his clean sweep of the night with a perfect feature performance.

Drake Troutman challenged the ‘Smooth Operator’ early in the race, but couldn’t get past. With eight laps to go, Ryan Gustin passed Troutman to take over the runner-up spot.

‘The Reaper’ closed in on Pierce, but even with the help of a four-to-go restart, he wasn’t able to make a move for the win.

While he led every lap, it was not an easy victory for Pierce. The track was very technical, and even Pierce’s father was trying to motion him to change his line at times.

“It’s hard to see hands and stuff, especially when there’s not a light shining on them,” Pierce said in victory lane. “Sometimes you’re looking, but sometimes you’re flying by the seat of your pants, so you try to base yourself off the lap cars and see where they’re going. Michael Paige went flying back by me … and [that] showed me another line there.

“I realized I really had to get on it if I was going to run the top. You couldn’t baby the throttle; you had to get on it hard. Luckily, we held on,” Pierce continued. “I thought the top was possibly coming on down [in turns one and two]. That’s one thing you don’t know as the leader. I knew the bottom was good, but all it takes is one lap and the top can come in. Gustin had me worried on the restart, too. I couldn’t get off [turn four] and I heard him … almost saw him down there.

“It was close, but we held on. What an awesome night.”

Friday’s 35-lap feature was just the warm-up. Saturday will see a 50-lap, $50,000-to-win feature take center stage as the main event of the weekend.

“I’m feeling good [about tomorrow],” said Pierce. “When you have these two-day shows, you want the first day to go as well as it can. You want to have a good car and know you have a good car. We kind of have a safety net now, where if we would’ve sucked, it would’ve been full-on [to improve] tomorrow.

“We already got a win this weekend, so a little pressure is off. We’ll go on to Saturday, and probably do the same thing … if not try to make it a little bit better, and see what we’ve got.”

The day started with Chris Madden going fastest in group one of qualifying alongside Pierce in group two. Madden won heat one, with Jimmy Owens winning heat two, Pierce winning heat three, and Nick Hoffman winning heat four. Ashton Winger, Max Blair, and Michael Paige advanced out of the first Last Chance Showdown, with Jackson Hise, Tim McCreadie, and Luke Morey making it out of the second LCS.

Pierce led the opening lap from the pole, but a massive crash on lap two drew the first caution, and eventually the red flag. Tristan Chamberlain clipped the infield tractor tire in turn one and Kyle Bronson hit him in the door, sending Chamberlain upside down and leaving Bronson stuck on top of the No. 20TC.

At least 10 other cars were also collected in the melee, but all drivers escaped without injury.

Once again Pierce showed the way on the restart, but the caution came right back out after one lap for Bronson. The ensuing restart on lap three saw Pierce keep the lead, but Troutman got past Madden for second place.

After a lengthy green flag run, lap traffic allowed Troutman to catch Pierce, but he couldn’t grab the lead.

Gustin used the traffic to pass Troutman for second with nine laps left and set his sights on the No. 32 of Pierce. While Gustin closed in, he also wasn’t able to get around Pierce for the top spot.

A lap-31 caution for debris off of Troutman’s car gave Gustin one last chance, but a Hail Mary send to Pierce’s inside into turn one on the final restart still couldn’t get the job done, letting Pierce claim the win.

Behind Gustin and Troutman, Cory Hedgecock and Wil Herrington finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Past Swainsboro winner Madden, Hoffman, Dalton Cook, 23rd-starting Ethan Dotson, and Cody Overton rounded out the top 10. Dotson was the night’s hard charger after advancing 14 positions in the feature.

The World of Outlaws Late Models return to Swainsboro Saturday night for a 50-lap, $15,000-to-win finale. Fans can watch the action live on DIRTvision starting at 6:15 p.m. ET.

The finish:

A-Feature (35 laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce [1]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin [10]; 3. 22*-Drake Troutman [5]; 4. 23V-Cory Hedgecock [6]; 5. 15K-Wil Herrington [12]; 6. 44-Chris Madden [2]; 7. 9-Nick Hoffman [3]; 8. 44D-Dalton Cook [7]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson [23]; 10. 2-Cody Overton [14]; 11. 111-Max Blair [19]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr. [25]; 13. 3S-Brian Shirley [24]; 14. 14JR-Trey Mills [8]; 15. 9M-Tim McCreadie [20]; 16. 96-Tanner English [15]; 17. 12-Ashton Winger [17]; 18. 20-Jimmy Owens [4]; 19. 49-Jake Timm [13]; 20. 19-Dustin Sorensen [16]; 21. 18X-Michael Page [21]; 22. 40B-Kyle Bronson [11]; 23. 388-Jackson Hise [18]; 24. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain [9]; 25. 49M-Luke Morey [22]; 26. B1-Brent Larson [26].

Lap Leader(s): Bobby Pierce 1-35

Hard Charger: 74X-Ethan Dotson (+14)