It’s been two years since Bobby Piece won his first World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series race.
On April 7, 2021, the Illinois native wheeled his dirt late model to victory lane at his home track of Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway. It was a hard-fought win, as Pierce passed leader Cade Dillard as the field came to the white flag of the 75-lap race.
From there, Pierce refused to relinquish his position, logging the Illini 100 as his inaugural Outlaw victory after 10 years of trying. While a lot has changed since that chilly April day, Pierce’s prospects of winning in Farmer City have only blossomed.
“It’s always fun to have that home track advantage,” Pierce said. “It took me so long to win a World of Outlaws race, but if it was going to be anywhere, it was going to be somewhere I knew.”
The 26-year-old returns to Farmer City Raceway for the upcoming WoO weekend March 30 to April 1. He’s had the date circled on his calendar for quite some time as a potential place to make up points or secure another victory.
“You kind of jot that down as, ‘Oh, we might get a win here.’ Knock on wood,” Pierce said with a laugh.
However, Pierce’s run on the quarter-mile track will be made under slightly different circumstances this year.
For the first time, he’ll be making his appearance as a full-time Outlaw driver. Pierce is one of 22 drivers registered to contest the full, 53-race season.
After nearly a decade of racing the tour on a part-time basis, he pulled the trigger to take his No. 32 Bobby Pierce Racing entry on the road this January.
The transition has required a bit of a mentality shift, as Pierce is no longer just fighting for wins at one-off events. Instead, he has a potential championship to chase.
“It’s something new. At the end of the day, if we would walk away from the season with a lot of wins, we’d be very happy,” Pierce said. “Point chasing is something that’s different for us, so you kind of have to not think about it too much and just go out there and race.”
The World of Outlaws is the first national tour Pierce has joined as a team owner and driver. During his only full season with the national Lucas Oil Late Model Series in 2018, he raced for Dunn-Benson Motorsports and finished seventh in the standings.
This year, the dirt racing operation consists of Pierce, a tight-knit crew and his father, Bob Pierce. The elder Pierce is a National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame driver — he works as his son’s crew chief.
Whatever the new formula may be, it appears to be working.
Following a tough run at the season-opening Sunshine Nationals in January, Pierce rebounded to collect a victory at the DIRTcar Nationals at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 16. Weather conditions have caused several rainouts since then, eliminating the series’ scheduled trips to Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain Speedway and Boyd’s Speedway in Georgia.
After more than a month off, the “Smooth Operator” will enter Farmer City Raceway seventh in the championship, respectively — 36 points behind leader Chris Madden.
“It sends us off into these other places with the other competitors knowing we’ve got a pretty good edge on them. We jumped right into this new Longhorn [chassis] and did pretty well right off the bat. I think they should be pretty scared,” Pierce said with a grin.