JACKSON, Minn. — All Ricky Thornton Jr. needed on Saturday night was one mistake, one tiny slip-up or one window of opportunity to strike.
He got all of that, and then some, on the 53rd lap of the $20,000-to-win Drydene Double Down Invitational at Jackson Motorplex.
After waging war with Chad Simpson all race long, a costly error in turn two sent Simpson’s No. 25 machine over the cushion and put the race lead right in Thornton’s lap.
From there, Thornton controlled the final seven laps despite Friday winner Ricky Weiss and two-time champion Brandon Sheppard hot on his tail, fighting off the nerves en route to his first career World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series victory.
“This is huge,” Thornton said in victory lane. “I’ve always wanted to run a Late Model and Todd and Vicky Burns have made this dream come true for me. I swear I have never gotten nervous in a car, but that was for sure the most nervous I have ever been those final seven laps.”
From the jump of Saturday’s 60-lapper, it was all about Thornton and Simpson. The duo brought the 24-car field to the green flag after both took heat race wins and pulled the 1-2 pills in the Morton Buildings redraw.
While Simpson controlled the majority of the race, it was Thornton who paced the opening circuit after nailing the low-line around the four-tenths-mile Jackson oval.
While Thornton was quick down low, Simpson was quicker up top and blew by the No. 20rt to assume the lead on the second lap.
Slipping back to third on lap six, Thornton quickly rallied after Chris Madden passed him for second and drove back around the Scott Bloomquist Racing-owned, Drydene-backed No. 0m to reclaim his spot.
After that, Simpson went searching out front and allowed Thornton to close. They ran side-by-side down the backstretch on lap nine, but Simpson proved too strong on the high side and maintained control.
Before a caution with 16 laps down, the duo ran off into lap traffic, while the battle for fourth heated up between Justin Zeitner, Scott Bloomquist and Weiss.
On lap 26, the door-to-door battle was back after Thornton caught Simpson again, but a mistake of his own in turn two cost Thornton serious ground just shy of halfway.
He caught Simpson again and provided another serious challenge in lap traffic on lap 40, but a caution halted the action.
The ensuring restart nearly changed the whole race when Weiss drove underneath Thornton momentarily, but another caution saved Thornton and slotted him back into second.
“I kept running around the top and then all of a sudden Weiss got under me and pretty much passed me,” noted Thornton. “I thought that as long as I could get back by him and maybe block him, I could hang on. You just get such a good run from center-off-to-exit, but your straightaway speed isn’t as good.”
Proving his speed time and time again, Thornton managed to reel Simpson back in on each and every occasion. However, it’s one thing to catch ’em, it’s another thing to pass ’em.
That’s where Thornton struggled in his race-long chase for the lead. With that in mind though, Thornton went to the intimidation tactic.
“I just wanted to make him drive harder and maybe slip up,” said Thornton on his late-race game plan. “I honestly think my only shot was to slide him off Turn 4 and hope that we didn’t wreck. The odds are we honestly probably would have ran second tonight. I could tell that the cushion kept getting more and more gnarly over there, so I just kept showing my nose down there. I wanted to pressure him and show him I was there.
“Then I got that one big mistake, and it was it all it took.”
That mistake came on lap 53, when Simpson railed around the outside a little too heavy, and he jumped the cushion at the exit of turn two.
Watching a golden opportunity develop right in front of his eyes, Thornton stabbed the brakes, turned down the track, and drove by Simpson to claim the race lead with seven laps remaining.
A restart with six laps left set the stage with Thornton out front for the first time since the green flag dropped.
A strong restart, followed by a three-way battle for second between Simpson, Weiss and Sheppard, all played a part in helping Thornton escape from the hornet’s nest behind him.
After Weiss and Sheppard disposed of Simpson, they made one last ditch run at Thornton, but didn’t have enough to run the IMCA dirt modified ace down.
“Maybe if we had five more laps, I might have had something,” Weiss said. “I got besides Ricky a few times, and maybe if I made a move sooner that could’ve been me there to capitalize when Chad slipped up.
“They were just so good once they built their momentum up. I was great on restarts and could get to their door, but they eventually got away every time.”
It wasn’t a win like Friday’s triumph, but a second-place result for the Headingley, Manitoba native still allowed him to ever-so-slightly cut down Brandon Sheppard’s young point lead.
Leaving Jackson, Sheppard is ahead of Weiss by 52 markers through the first 11 races of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series campaign.
Simpson crossed fourth after leading 51 of the 60 laps, while Chris Madden was fifth.
Chase Junghans, hard charger Darrell Lanigan, Cade Dillard, Dennis Erb Jr. and Frank Heckenast Jr. completed the top 10. Lanigan came from 19th to finish ninth.
The results:
1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton [1][$20,000]; 2. 7-Ricky Weiss [9][$7,000]; 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard [10][$3,000]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson [2][$2,500]; 5. 0M-Chris Madden [3][$2,000]; 6. 18-Chase Junghans [12][$1,700]; 7. 29v-Darrell Lanigan [19][$1,400]; 8. 97-Cade Dillard [16][$1,300]; 9. 28-Dennis Erb [17][$1,200]; 10. 99jr-Frank Heckenast [8][$1,100]; 11. 99B-Boom Briggs [14][$1,050]; 12. 66c-Matt Cosner [23][$1,000]; 13. B1-Brent Larson [15][$1,000]; 14. 0-Scott Bloomquist [6][$1,000]; 15. 12-Ashton Winger [7][$1,000]; 16. 18b-Shannon Babb [18][$1,000]; 17. 62-Justin Zeitner [4][$1,000]; 18. 4G-Kody Evans [22][$1,000]; 19. 98-Jason Rauen [13][$1,000]; 20. O4-Tad Pospisil [21][$1,000]; 21. 32-Chris Simpson [5][$1,000]; 22. 43-Jeremy Grady [11][$1,000]; 23. 76-Blair Nothdurft [24][$1,000]; 24. 49-Jake Timm [20][$1,000].
Lap Leader(s): Ricky Thornton Jr. 1, 53-60; Chad Simpson 2-52.
Hard Charger: Darrell Lanigan [+12].