Make it three-straight trips to Victory Lane for the reigning champion.
Twenty-two years after father Bob took the checkers in the DIRTcar Summer Nationals’ debut at Shadyhill Speedway in July of 2000, son Bobby Pierce has done the same, winning the Hell Tour’s return to the 1/4-mile for the first time since 2018 Thursday night.
From the drop of the green, Pierce had the car to beat. He grabbed the lead from the pole on Lap 1, but not without some good fortune prior to the first lap.
On the initial start, outside polesitter Chad Finley, of St. Johns, MI, got a great run on the outside of Turn 2 and appeared to have the advantage on Pierce heading into Turn 3. But as Devin Moran and Thomas Hunziker tangled in Turn 2 behind them, the caution flag waved, forcing the field to restack and try it again – much to Pierce’s delight.
“I was probably going to have to race [Finley] for a while if I was going to try and pass him,” Pierce said. “I got that second start going and made sure I got to the top as soon as I could, and got it done.”
Now with a second chance at the start, Pierce got the jump he needed on Finley the second time around. He quickly took the lead and headed right for the top side, which caught-on with the rest of the field behind him as well.
“Track had a top side there early on and it was pretty fun for a few laps, but I knew it was only a matter of time before it started to move down,” Pierce said.
When the preferred lane came in around the middle, Pierce and the other leaders moved down to use it for the remainder of the race. Several caution flags dotted throughout the rest of the race forced Pierce to stay vigilant on the restarts, which was no issue for the four-time champion.
Pierce crossed the line, having led all 40 circuits, largely unchallenged for his 47th career victory with the tour, seventh of the season and third in-a-row, going back to last Sunday at Tri-State Speedway.
Fifteen-year-old Tristan Chamberlain scored his best career finish on tour in second with Finley right on his tail in third. Joe Godsey earned his second top-five finish of the season in fourth, while Brian Shirley rounded out the top-five.
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models are back in action Friday night, July 15, at Farmer City Raceway for the final stop of the season in Illinois. If you can’t be there in person, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Feature 40 Laps | 00:20:12.929
1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[4]; 3. 42-Chad Finley[2]; 4. 14G-Joe Godsey[3]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley[6]; 6. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[12]; 7. 91-Rusty Schlenk[8]; 8. 9-Devin Moran[7]; 9. 27-Eric Spangler[14]; 10. 21A-Nick Allen[11]; 11. F1-Payton Freeman[21]; 12. 80-Rich Dawson[10]; 13. 17SS-Brenden Smith[18]; 14. 757-Bradley Jameson[15]; 15. 31AUS- Paul Stubber[20]; 16. 38-Thomas Hunziker[5]; 17. 22-Jace Owens[17]; 18. 14R-Jeff Roth[9]; 19. 92-Lynn Johns[13]; 20. 15- Justin Duty[16]; 21. 1M-Mike Mataragas[22]; 22. (DNS) 23NZ-Mick Quin
WORKED FOR IT: McKinney Beats Hoffman in Epic Duel at Shadyhill
Since joining Team Longhorn Chassis for the start of the 2021 season, Mike McKinney has put every ounce of time and effort he’s spent on the racetrack into bettering himself and the new racecar. Thursday night might just be the biggest reflection of those efforts – beating UMP Modified titan Nick Hoffman in a memorable showdown at Shadyhill Speedway.
Mike and father/crew chief David McKinney took down Hoffman, the four-time and defending DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals champion form Mooresville, NC, holding him off for all 25 laps en route to his 14th career Summit Modified victory.
“It might not mean I’m the best car here, and I might not go win the next 20, but tonight, we won,” McKinney said. “We came to get the check, and we’re bringing it home.”
Only three times in the last two seasons has Hoffman competed in a Summit Modified event and not won the Feature. McKinney now becomes the fourth different driver to win a Feature on the tour when Hoffman is in the field since the start of the 2021 campaign.
While it’s Feature wins they’re chasing, Hoffman has been a thorn in the side of many UMP Modified drivers in the past several seasons with his dominant presence, and McKinney has been aiming to change that as well with his efforts.
“Last year was the hardest we’ve ever worked in our lives, and this year’s been even harder,” McKinney said. “We’ve got to get better.
“Nick’s obviously stepping the Modified deal up to a whole other level, and if we want to win a race, we better get to work.”
The two wheelmen started their race-long game of cat-and-mouse from the drop of the green, breaking away from the pack several times on the green flag stretches as they blasted around the 1/4-mile track. Hoffman looked low on McKinney several times throughout the first half of the race but could never get close enough to make a move. But it wasn’t until the closing laps until the battle reached its boiling point.
Barreling into Turn 3 at full speed with only three laps left, McKinney came up on a group of spun-out cars right in his lane. It was all he could do to keep from piling-in, but McKinney found himself spinning in and making contact.
“They called the yellow going into Turn 3, but I was going so fast,” McKinney said. “I was on the brakes, and I knew I was gonna run right into those guys, they had the whole track blocked. I was just trying to figure out the best way to not knock any suspension parts out.
“I just tried to spin it sideways and hit ‘em with that door – there’s not really anything you’re gonna mess-up there other than the door bar.”
McKinney drove away with mostly cosmetic body damage and was granted his spot back at the head of the field after spinning to avoid the original incident. He took the green once more on the restart and drove it back home to the checkered, despite Hoffman’s best efforts to steal the win in the final corners.
Though he crossed the line with a runner-up finish, Hoffman was not the most pleased with the result. He felt he had the car to beat, especially in traffic.
“I wish we could have got into heavy lapped traffic because [McKinney] couldn’t maneuver like I could,” Hoffman said.
The middle-top lane looked as though it was the place to be Thursday night, and with his pole starting spot, Hoffman did not get there as quickly as he would have liked to.
“It all comes down to the [redraw], basically,” Hoffman said. “[McKinney] was in the preferred line on the start and was able to get by me in Turns 1-2.”
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summit Modifieds are back in action Friday night, July 15, at Farmer City Raceway for the final stop of the season in Illinois. If you can’t be there in person, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Feature 25 Laps | 00:25:58.395
1. 96M-Mike McKinney[2]; 2. 2-Nick Hoffman[1]; 3. 36L-Jamie Lomax[6]; 4. 21A-Kyle Cooper[5]; 5. 5CS-Curt Spalding[4]; 6. 19B-Chad Bauer[8]; 7. 35-David Stremme[9]; 8. 28M-Frank Marshall[17]; 9. 8A-Austin Holcombe[3]; 10. 65-Todd Sherman[7]; 11. 82-Darren Wireman[16]; 12. 3W-Dylan Woodling[18]; 13. 10-Garrett Jameson[15]; 14. 7-Brad Deyoung[11]; 15. 15-TJ Larson[21]; 16. 1W-Jesse Bitterling[22]; 17. 26-Anthony Carter[19]; 18. 1S-Brian Shaw[12]; 19. 27- Beau DeYoung[14]; 20. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[13]; 21. 25S-Jake Straka[10]; 22. 4G-Bill Griffith[20]
DIRTcar Series PR
