GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Bobby Pierce has finally figured out River Cities Speedway.
Going into Friday’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision event, the bullring had been one of Pierce’s worst tracks on the tour. In three prior visits, he recorded finishes of 11th, 19th and sixth.
The rest of the field was hopeful that one of Pierce’s weak tracks would be the place where his incredible hot streak cooled down. Instead, it only continued to heat up, as Pierce got to the lead on Lap 11 and never looked back for his fourth World of Outlaws win in a row.
“It’s awesome to finally win here and just have a good car,” Pierce said. “We thought long and hard about it yesterday. We studied lots of film and just thought about what to do to the race car. The attributes to this racetrack, how it kind of bleeds back as the night goes on. We’ve kind of got to do different stuff than what we normally do.”
Polesitter Ethan Dotson led the field to green, while Pierce got by second-starting Sam Mars on the bottom on the start. Dotson got caught in the fluff at the top of Turn 1 on the second lap, allowing Pierce to briefly get side-by-side before Dotson regained momentum and held him off.
However, Pierce remained right behind Dotson until the duo caught the back of the field, giving Pierce another chance to pounce. When Dotson had to check up for Brent Larson and Laela Eisenschenk racing side-by-side in front of him, it opened the door for Pierce to clear him in Turns 1 and 2 before Tyler Erb followed him through for second.
From that point forward, it was all Pierce. Erb remained in his tire tracks and was only a half-second back at the end, but that wasn’t quite close enough to try a last-corner move on the No. 32.
Pierce crossed the line first to add another $15,000 victory to what’s been an unforgettable summer, as he has now won eight of his last nine starts since the Dirt Late Model Dream and pocketed more than $230,000 more than that three-week span.
“Car stuck on the bottom for the first couple laps, got me to second,” Pierce said. “Realized it was time to get up. Honestly, I couldn’t see my signal guy at all, it was so dark on the backstretch. I didn’t really know where second place was at all, every time I’d come off the corner, the board never showed me or anything. I was pretty blind out there. Ran out of tear-offs about halfway through the race, so the last couple laps, I was really struggling. I was trying my best to wipe my shield, but the mud was just sticking to it.
“Last lap got pretty interesting, I thought I might have gave it up. Feel like if ‘Terbo’ was a little closer on the last corner, he probably could have snuck in there because I kind of got hung out in the middle.”
Erb settled for second in his first River Cities start since 2018, while Dotson finished third for his first World of Outlaws podium since February at Hendry County Motorsports Park. Behind them, Nick Hoffman and Dennis Erb Jr. rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 2. 1-Tyler Erb[8]; 3. 74X-Ethan Dotson[1]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[4]; 5. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[6]; 6. 49-Jonathan Davenport[12]; 7. 9M-Tim McCreadie[9]; 8. 22*-Jake Timm[5]; 9. 58V-Daulton Wilson[11]; 10. 19R-Ryan Gustin[17]; 11. 14-Trey Mills[13]; 12. 13-Dallon Murty[10]; 13. 55E-Eli Johnson[7]; 14. 28M-Sam Mars[2]; 15. 16-Tyler Bruening[15]; 16. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 17. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[23]; 18. B1-Brent Larson[24]; 19. 1Z-Logan Zarin[20]; 20. 1E-Amelia Eisenschenk[18]; 21. 7P-Joey Pederson[19]; 22. 15-Laela Eisenschenk[22]; 23. 44*-Cole Schill[14]; 24. 11-Gordy Gundaker[21]
