CLEWISTON, Fla. — Hendry County Motorsports Park didn’t take long to make a fan out of Bobby Pierce.
In the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision’s debut race at the south Florida track, the “Smooth Operator” charged his way to the front for his first series win since August.
It’s the second year in a row that Pierce has won his first World of Outlaws race of the year at the first stop after Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals. Last year, that occasion came at Smoky Mountain Speedway in March. This year, it came in the same state six days after leaving Volusia Speedway Park.
A different red car looked like the one to beat early in the night, as Drake Troutman earned the Simpson Quick Time Award in qualifying, won his heat race and pulled the Bilstein Pole Award. The World of Outlaws sophomore outdueled Nick Hoffman early in the feature to hold the lead until the No. 32 came knocking.
After disposing of Hoffman in third and second-running Daulton Wilson, Pierce made it side-by-side for the lead on the outside of Troutman on Lap 8. A strong run off of Turn 2 the next time around put Pierce in command, and he stretched his lead to north of five seconds until Tyler Erb went around in Turn 1 to bring out the only caution of the night with five laps remaining.
Ethan Dotson emerged as Pierce’s closest challenger on the restart, but Pierce held strong on the cushion and drove home to the checkers.
“I was really nervous because the track was really getting where, I feel like the bottom and the top were the same speed,” Pierce said after the 43rd World of Outlaws win. “The lap cars, I was just staying right there with them, I wasn’t really passing them. I was pretty nervous on the restart, Dotson there on my inside. Luckily, I got a good exit off of [Turn] 2, and then from there on, it was just hit my marks, hit my marks, don’t jump the cushion. It got to the point where you had to get up on it to really get any traction because it got a black slick lane below it. Pretty hard track to drive, but a fun track, fun event.”
Dotson, Wilson and Troutman all recorded season-best finishes with the World of Outlaws in second, third and fourth, respectively, while Hoffman occupied the last spot in the top five.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 2. 74X-Ethan Dotson[7]; 3. 58V-Daulton Wilson[5]; 4. 22*-Drake Troutman[1]; 5. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 6. 9M-Tim McCreadie[4]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 8. 16-Sam Seawright[6]; 9. 19R-Ryan Gustin[12]; 10. 49-Jake Timm[11]; 11. 1-Tyler Erb[8]; 12. 99B-Boom Briggs[9]; 13. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[10]; 14. 35-Christian Augspurger[13]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[15]; 16. 49M-Luke Morey[19]; 17. B1-Brent Larson[17]; 18. 1Z-Logan Zarin[20]; 19. 14-Trey Mills[18]; 20. 8-Matthew Larson[14]; 21. 12-Ryan Montgomery[21]; 22. T1-Todd Morrow[22]; 23. 46-Doug Horton[24]; 24. 55E-Eli Johnson[23]
