LOCUST GROVE, Ark. — Max Blair and Ricky Thornton Jr. each won their respective 25-lap preliminary feature Friday night during the opening night of the 34th annual Ace Doran Hauling and Rigging Topless 100 Presented by Big River Steel.
Blair captured the opening 25-lap event, worth $5,000, leading Carson Ferguson, Charlie Cole, Brenden Smith and Dale McDowell across the finish line for his second Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season.
Thornton took the second 25-lap event for his fifth series win of the year. Hudson O’Neal, who started 12th, finished second, followed by defending Topless 100 winner Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton and Ethan Dotson.
Race One
Chris Ferguson bolted to the lead at the start of the first feature, leading the first two laps in his first visit to the track. Devin Moran, the defending series champion, then raced past Ferguson for the top spot on lap three. Moran built a sizable lead over the field until he slowed on lap 21 with a flat tire.
Blair inherited the race lead and stayed out front for the final five laps to pick up his third career LOLMDS victory.
“It was crazy for sure. When I got to third, I was just trying to pace myself and not kill my tires too bad, and I was just hoping I had saved enough there for the end. I want to apologize to Dale (McDowell). He is one of my idols, and I definitely got into him on that restart. I don’t know if he spun his tires, and I don’t know exactly what happened, but he didn’t go like I anticipated. I owe him a big apology either way. No excuses, it was my bad. It’s just different than the stuff I grew up on, so I can’t believe we really just won. We obviously had a lot of fortune to help us out.”
Ferguson was in the thick of things for the entire first feature and came home in the runner-up spot behind Blair.
“The track kind of threw us a curveball,” Ferguson said. “We couldn’t keep the nose out of the racetrack all night. I was just real tight on entry. I’d say we were scared to tighten up. We were just too free when we landed in the corner, and we just had to shear it. It was a good first night, though. Obviously, things went our way and we didn’t have a flat. Congratulations to Max; he was good all race. I felt like we could kind of get going, but I had to slow down too much that first lap. Like I said, we were just a little too much around the bottom for what I needed.”
Charlie Cole recorded the best finish of his career in LOLMDS competition, rounding out the podium.
“We are here to have fun, but we can get it done when we need to. When the track is in our favor, when it slows down and gets slick, I think I can get around it as good as anyone. The car was really good. I didn’t have any power steering the last ten laps, and I don’t know if I couldn’t have won it if that didn’t happen. It was that good. I haven’t had a race car that good in a long time. I am really happy. That was cool.”
Race Two
Dane Ebert jumped to the lead at the start of the nightcap feature, looking to complete a clean sweep after setting the overall fastest time and winning his heat race. He was also seeking his first career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature win.
Ebert looked strong while leading the first eight laps and held more than a one-second advantage over Ricky Thornton when he suffered a flat tire on lap nine. The issue handed the lead to Thornton as Ebert pitted for a new tire.
With Thornton out front, a tight battle for second developed between Jonathan Davenport, who started 10th, and Hudson O’Neal. The two went back and forth for the runner-up spot, with O’Neal finally clearing Davenport on lap 17.
Thornton was able to breathe easier after a lapped car cleared his path in the waning laps, and he took the checkered flag by 1.004 seconds.
In Wieland Victory Lane for the 61st time in his career, the Chandler, Arizona, native set his sights on his first Topless 100 victory Saturday night.
“I feel like I have won a bunch of prelims, but we’ve never been able to win the Topless. I really didn’t know what I needed to do there. I felt like the top was slowing down, which usually means it starts to rubber down from the middle to the bottom,” Thornton said. “I moved down and got tight. I really didn’t know if I wanted JD to be second or Hud to be second. I knew both of them passed a good amount of cars to get to second. I figured their stuff was pretty good; otherwise, I didn’t know what to do. Every time I get here, I am too tight on entry and it kind of kills us. When I stayed free there, I was okay, but it kind of hurt me in other spots. Pretty awesome to see Max win as well. Hopefully tomorrow goes well for us.”
O’Neal, who won the Topless 100 in 2021 and will be looking for the $50,000 payday Saturday night, finished in the runner-up spot to Thornton.
“I felt really good. I was able to drive up through there,” Thornton said. “I had a couple of breaks with some people getting flats, but I felt like we were pretty competitive there at the end in the last few laps. I think Ricky started getting a little tight, and we were able to kind of come back to him just a little bit. But when JD threw that slider on me, I knew his car was pretty good and maybe a little better than mine. I was just fortunate enough that it was starting to clean up down there, and I could steer hard and come back down the racetrack and not lose any grip and drive back by him. So, yeah, we have had a past of throwing some sliders here at this place.”
Davenport, who won last year’s Topless 100 for the second time, will try to become the first driver in the event’s 34-year history to win it in back-to-back years. He rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third in the second 25-lapper.
“We made what could have been a bad situation into something good there. I felt like we had a pretty good car. We would have liked to run more green-flag laps, but it just wasn’t in the cards tonight. There were a lot of flat tires. It’s just part of it, really. I never really ran the top in the heat race and had a flat, but like I said, we rebounded and passed a lot of cars. I felt like we had pace with Ricky there, especially before the leader (Ebert) had a flat. We’ve got a few tweaks to make to the car, but I think we will be OK.”
The Results
Race One
Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Earnings
1 – 6 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $5,000
2 – 4 – 93F – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $3,000
3 – 11 – 2 – Charlie Cole – Wynne, AR – $2,000
4 – 8 – 17SS – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – $1,500
5 – 5 – 17M – Dale McDowell – Chickamauga, GA – $1,250
6 – 13 – 75 – Terry Phillips – Springfield, MO – $1,000
7 – 15 – 15 – Clay Stuckey – Shreveport, LA – $950
8 – 3 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $900
9 – 2 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $850
10 – 17 – 90 – Brian Rickman – Columbus, MS – $800
11 – 1 – 22F – Chris Ferguson – Mt. Holly, NC – $700
12 – 10 – 11 – Josh Rice – Crittenden, KY – $600
13 – 7 – 40B – Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – $600
14 – 14 – USA1 – Devon Andrews – Wynne, AR – $600
15 – 16 – 88 – Chance Mann – Newport, AR – $600
16 – 9 – 8 – Dillon McCowan – Urbana, MO – $600
17 – 12 – 12 – Scott Crigler – Alton, MO – $550
18 – 18 – 13N – Derrick Nichols – Warren, AR – $500
19 – 19 – 7 – Jerry Andrews – Wynne, AR – $0
20 – 20 – 997 – Travis Ashley – Batesville, AR – $0
Race Two
Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Earnings
1 – 3 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton, Jr. – Chandler, AZ – $5,000
2 – 12 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $3,000
3 – 10 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $2,000
4 – 2 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $1,500
5 – 11 – 74x – Ethan Dotson – Bakersfield, CA – $1,250
6 – 8 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $1,000
7 – 6 – 86 – Kyle Beard – Trumann, AR – $950
8 – 1 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $900
9 – 15 – 17SR – Brody Smith – Dade City, FL – $850
10 – 13 – 32c – Cam Harris – Columbus, MS – $800
11 – 17 – 15ss – Shane Stephens – Arlington, TN – $700
12 – 5 – 16s – Sam Seawright – Fort Payne, AL – $600
13 – 7 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $600
14 – 20 – 3s – Brian Shirley – Chatham, IL – $600
15 – 9 – 11K – Jon Kirby – Russellville, AR – $600
16 – 18 – 27 – Garrett Taylor – Jacksonville, AR – $600
17 – 19 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – $550
18 – 16 – 6K – Dillon Knight – Burlison, TN – $500
19 – 14 – 1G – Bryan Glaze – Little Rock, AR – $500
20 – 4 – 20 – Jimmy Owens – Newport, TN – $500
