FARMER CITY, Ill. — Farmer City Raceway will always hold a special place in Bobby Pierce’s heart, and he added an extra reason why on Saturday night.
The quarter-mile bullring is less than an hour from his hometown in Oakwood, Ill., and it’s one of the places where he learned how to drive a Late Model in the early years of his career. Fast forward to 2021, and Farmer City was the site of his first win with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.
Five years later, Pierce became a four-time Farmer City winner after getting the best of fellow Illinois native Brandon Sheppard at the front of the Illini 100 finale.
“What a race it was. Farmer City was badass,” Pierce said. “Hats off to Lance [Spieker], everyone here at Farmer City, whoever did track prep. Heat Races weren’t a lot of fun, but that’s what it took to get the Feature to be awesome. Hats off to the track prep crew, what a race it was, being able to come through the field. [Turns] 1 and 2 were all over the place for a while until it went to the bottom. They got [Turns] 3 and 4 dialed in tonight, we were making passes on the bottom, I don’t know the last time we’ve done that here.”
The first third of the race was controlled by Drake Troutman, who was in search of his first win of the year in the G.R. Smith Motorsports No. 22*. But his time out front came to an end on Lap 22, when Friday night winner Brandon Sheppard rolled the middle of Turns 1 and 2 to get alongside. Sheppard and Troutman remained side-by-side for several laps in a signature Farmer City tussle until Sheppard eventually prevailed up high.
By the time Sheppard was starting to get comfortable, Pierce had climbed from 10th in the starting order to second and was knocking on his door. With 19 laps to go, Pierce looked to Sheppard’s inside entering Turn 1, then threw a slider at the opposite end of the track to take the lead.
The race had stayed green to that point and continued to do so until Lap 49, when Tristan Chamberlain spun and collected Brian Shirley and Tim McCreadie. Shirley rolled over on his side in the pileup but climbed out of the car unhurt.
It was all Pierce on the final restart, as he cruised home to his fifth series win of 2026 and the 47th of his career, bringing him within one of Shane Clanton in fourth on the all-time wins list.
Behind Pierce, Nick Hoffman came home second to maintain his points lead by two, while Sheppard stood on the podium for the second time in as many nights in third. Daulton Wilson and Tyler Erb rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (60 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[10]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 3. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 4. 58V-Daulton Wilson[7]; 5. 1-Tyler Erb[24]; 6. 22*-Drake Troutman[1]; 7. 11R-Josh Rice[9]; 8. 89-Mike Spatola[11]; 9. 18-Shannon Babb[6]; 10. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 11. 14-Trey Mills[4]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[14]; 13. 19R-Ryan Gustin[23]; 14. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[12]; 15. 9M-Tim McCreadie[8]; 16. 74X-Ethan Dotson[25]; 17. 1Z-Logan Zarin[26]; 18. 17A-Austin Howes[22]; 19. 75-Daniel Adam[20]; 20. 24-Ryan Unzicker[15]; 21. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[5]; 22. 3S-Brian Shirley[17]; 23. 25-Jason Feger[18]; 24. 99-Devin Moran[19]; 25. 40B-Kyle Bronson[13]; 26. 38J-Jake Little[21]
