PARK CITY, Kan. — Taking control from the drop of the green flag, Bobby Pierce paced the field for the entire 30 laps enroute to winning the MLRA season opener at the 81 Speedway on Friday night.
Pierce had to survive multiple restarts during the main event before cashing in on the $5,000 top prize.
Tad Pospisil dominated the early part of the night, setting a track record in qualifying with a lap of 16.402 seconds, and followed that up with a heat race win to put him on the pole.
At the onset of the feature, Pierce made the move of the night on the initial lap, grabbing track position heading into turn three, and powering past Pospisil and fellow front row starter Rodney Sanders for the lead at the flag stand.
On the restart, Pierce took a low line off the exit of four, which opened up the top side for Ryan Gustin before Pierce cut off the run near the flag stand.
With Pierce defending the top spot from Gustin, it allowed Rodney Sanders to sneak past both drivers and take the top spot off the exit of turn two. Unfortunately for Sanders, the caution would fly before the lap was completed for a spin by Terry Phillips, giving the top spot back to Pierce.
Pierce led the final 15 laps caution-free to score his 10th career Lucas Oil MLRA win by a dominant 5.087 seconds over Gustin. Chase Junghans grabbed the final podium spot at the line, advancing 10 spots from his 13th starting spot.
“The first one when Rodney got by me that was bad,” Pierce said on the early restart with Sanders and Gustin. “It would have been hard to get back by him that’s for sure. You have so much speed going into turn one and it’s such a tricky corner here and I knew everyone was struggling with it, it was really slick getting in.”
Pierce had to adjust his racing line during the feature event, following a low line in turns one and two while hustling the high line in three and four.
“I really love it when a track is like that,” Pierce said. “It makes it challenging and really makes the restarts pretty hard. All in all, it was a great race track tonight. I felt like it was very racey and I felt like I could have came from the back, and as a racer that’s all you can ask for.”
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 32P-Bobby Pierce[3]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 3. 18-Chase Junghans[13]; 4. 20-Rodney Sanders[2]; 5. 1ST-Johnny Scott[9]; 6. 32S-Chris Simpson[11]; 7. 2S-Stormy Scott[10]; 8. 04-Tad Pospisil[1]; 9. 25-Chad Simpson[7]; 10. 49T-Jake Timm[14]; 11. 56L-Darrell Lanigan[18]; 12. 93-Mason Oberkramer[23]; 13. 10-Jacob Magee[20]; 14. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[6]; 15. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[17]; 16. 15-Justin Duty[24]; 17. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[19]; 18. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[21]; 19. 11H-Jeff Herzog[12]; 20. 76-Blair Nothdurft[16]; 21. 30-Todd Cooney[5]; 22. (DNF) 3-Brennon Willard[25]; 23. (DNF) 75-Terry Phillips[15]; 24. (DNF) 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[8]; 25. (DNF) 92S-Dan Smith[22]