ROSSBURG, Ohio — Opening night of the 54th World 100 at Eldora Speedway Thursday night featured dominant performances from Ryan Gustin and Hudson O’Neal as they broke through to victory lane on the biggest stage in all of dirt-track racing.
Gustin, the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series regular, led all 25 laps of the Group A Twin 25 feature to secure his first win at the historic half-mile oval.
O’Neal, the defending World 100 winner, took the lead on lap 14 of the Group B Twin 25 feature and drove away to collect his $12,000 grand prize.
One hundred and seven late models were on hand for group qualifying, six shootouts and two 25-lap features.
Group A Feature
Lining up for the main event beside Eldora’s most dominant late model driver of the past decade didn’t intimidate Ryan Gustin.
The Iowa-born racer made quick work of getting by five-time World 100 winner Jonathan Davenport at the drop of the green flag, taking the lead before they left turn two.
While Davenport stayed close and tried to retake the spot in the following corners, Gustin’s high side momentum prevailed and began to open up a gap between the two.
When Davenport slipped up the track in turn two on lap three, two-time World 100 winner Brandon Overton went by underneath to take the runner-up spot.
Over the next 20 laps, the Georgia racer gave chase in hot pursuit of Gustin’s Cooney Motorsports No. 30, and nearly closed the gap completely in traffic as the race moved into the closing laps but was unable to get close enough in the end.
“I feel like we beat two of the best here in Davenport and Overton, so we definitely didn’t beat no slugs tonight,” Gustin said. “We’ve got a really good racecar right now; this Infinity Chassis is on rails. Jay Dickens engine ran awesome. All of our other partners; the crew is working extremely hard.”
An Eldora win was a first for both Gustin and former World of Outlaws racer Todd Cooney and his Cooney Motorsports team.
“This Cooney Motorsports team with Tim Douglas on the wrenches and Noah (Bushman) doing the tires — everything’s been clicking,” Gustin said. “We started out, it was a little rocky at first, but it’s a brand-new team. Before the race season, we didn’t have a hauler or anything. Everything came together really fast.
“Of course, there was some really hard, trying times at first, but at the end of the day I feel like we’ve got one of the top tier teams in the country right now.”
The finish:
Feature 1 (25 laps): 1. 30-Ryan Gustin[2]; 2. 11-Brandon Overton[4]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 4. 14H-Wil Herrington[5]; 5. 74X-Ethan Dotson[16]; 6. 8S-Brian Shirley[9]; 7. 44-Chris Madden[7]; 8. 87-Ross Bailes[10]; 9. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 10. 58-Garrett Alberson[22]; 11. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[19]; 12. 68-Adam Stricker[6]; 13. 83-Jensen Ford[15]; 14. 19M-Spencer Hughes[11]; 15. 12W-Ashton Winger[12]; 16. 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 17. B5-Brandon Sheppard[25]; 18. 25F-Jason Feger[14]; 19. C6-Oakley Johns[21]; 20. 18C-Chase Junghans[13]; 21. 1G-Devin Gilpin[18]; 22. 18D-Daulton Wilson[26]; 23. 114-Jordan Koehler[20]; 24. 101-Forrest Trent[24]; 25. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[23]; 26. 89-Mike Spatola[17]
Group B Feature
O’Neal’s first globe trophy came in the event one year ago for Rocket1 Racing team owner Mark Richards, and Thursday night he returned to victory lane with SSI Motorsports in the Group B preliminary feature.
Starting on the pole, O’Neal gave up the lead to outside polesitter Joseph Joiner but was able to battle back and retake the top spot on lap 14.
After a few restarts, O’Neal held off all challengers to bag the checkered flag, but not without some company behind him.
Defending World of Outlaws champion Bobby Pierce had made his way up to second on a lap-19 restart after starting sixth. The 2016 World 100 winner put pressure on O’Neal for the remaining laps but was unable to get close enough to make a bid for the lead in the end and settled for second.
“I’m not really feeling the most comfortable in this car this weekend; kind of a mixture of things we need to get a little better,” Pierce said. “We’ll just keep working at it. Tomorrow’s another test day, in a sense. We didn’t really need to come out here and win tonight. Everyone knows the better you do on the prelim nights, sometimes the worse you start in the heats on Saturday.”
The finish:
Feature 2 (25 Laps): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 3. 1-Tim McCreadie[12]; 4. 10-Joseph Joiner[2]; 5. 99-Devin Moran[7]; 6. 10S-Garrett Smith[10]; 7. 8-Kyle Strickler[5]; 8. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 9. 17M-Dale McDowell[16]; 10. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[9]; 11. 17D-Zack Dohm[11]; 12. 93-Carson Ferguson[8]; 13. 23V-Cory Hedgecock[19]; 14. 1T-Tyler Erb[13]; 15. 25-Shane Clanton[20]; 16. 12-Jason Jameson[3]; 17. 79-Donald McIntosh[21]; 18. 22-Chris Ferguson[23]; 19. 15-Clayton Stuckey[14]; 20. 95-Jerry Bowersock[24]; 21. 31-Tyler Millwood[25]; 22. 88-Trent Ivey[15]; 23. C8-Timothy Culp[17]; 24. 18M-Matt Dooley[18]; 25. 103-Jason Riggs[26]; 26. 11R-Josh Rice[22]