CONCORD, N.C. — Five years ago, Mike Marlar considered quitting dirt late model racing.
He had reached somewhat of a crossroads with Ronnie Delk, his former team owner, but the two ultimately decided it wasn’t time to give up.
“We went another five years, and we don’t regret one ounce of it,” Marlar said. “We accomplished everything together that we wanted to accomplish, both personally for him and personally for me.”
One week ago, Marlar and Delk ended their 10-year partnership. And on the heels of the announcement, Marlar shared that he’d be joining Skyline Motorsports to pilot the team’s No. 157 entry.
“Ronnie and I, at the end of our deal, we were kind of just riding along,” Marlar explained. “But Greg (Bruening) has different goals than even I have. It’s always fun to race, to have a reason to race and have something that challenges.”
The Skyline No. 157 crew got off to a picture-perfect start on Thursday night at the World Finals, winning in their first outing together at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Pierce Officially Clinches WoO Late Model Title
During qualifying on Wednesday night, Bobby Pierce became the fifth rookie in series history to win the World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship.
“Great way to cap off our year,” Pierce said. “We can just come in here and relax, and just try to win the race and not have to worry about the points as much. And it’s a good thing too, because I haven’t been here in about 10 years.”
The last time the Illinois native was at The Dirt Track was in 2014, and he didn’t make the show. In his only other start at the four-tenths-mile oval, which was in 2013, he finished third.
Now, as he concludes his banner rookie season on the tour — with 14 wins and 25 top fives to pad his confidence — Pierce is hoping his luck will change this time around.
But with a 13th-place finish in the feature on Thursday night, it looks like the newly crowned champion will have a little work to do if he wants to add a 15th win to his column before the season ends.
Sheppard Stumbles
On Thursday night, Brandon Sheppard let his points rival, Chris Madden, get the best of him.
The two competitors are currently engaged in a battle for second in the World of Outlaws standings and entered the World Finals separated by 54 points — advantage Madden.
With the No. 44 claiming a runner-up finish on Thursday, and Sheppard salvaging a 21st-place effort, the gap has increased to 92 points going into Friday.
But at this stage, Sheppard is simply grateful to be in the fight.
“At one point this year, we were seventh or eighth in points. The last half of the year, we got our stuff together and I was able to get comfortable in the cars and we can back to where we’re in third now,” Sheppard said. “To be able to say that we’re battling for second now after the year that we’ve had — and we’ve had a lot of adversity to overcome with the crew and all the headaches of going back on your own — I’m just really thankful.”
The No. B5 driver debuted his co-owned operation, Sheppard Riggs Racing, at the beginning of the season.
While they’ve won only two World of Outlaws races this season, Shepherd earned $100,000 in October for winning the Dirt Track World Championship for the fifth time.