2.9.21 Volusia Speedway Park Results

After a dominating heat race, Bobby Pierce said he was gonna win it; and he did just that.

The Smooth Operator led all 30 laps on Tuesday night at Volusia Speedway Park, earning the first-ever gator trophy of his career by checking off a victory at the 50th DIRTcar Nationals.

“I was pretty nervous there,” Pierce admitted. “Devin [Moran] and I are good buddies and that was probably one of the funnest races we’ve had together. At the end, I saw he was in second on the board and Cody [Mallory’s] sticks were getting closer and closer. I kept thinking if I’m cut out for this stuff, surely I can handle ten more laps, and thankfully we held on.”

Earning the pole position over a 51-car field of DIRTcar Late Models, Pierce claimed the hole shot in his #32 and held on to lead all 30 laps at the Barberville, FL half-mile. It wasn’t without a firm challenge from his good buddy, Devin Moran, though.

The slightest bobble off turn four on the 16th circuit opened the door for Moran and he came through with a massive slidejob into turn one. He slid his #9 Longhorn Chassis in front of Pierce’s nose, but the the Oakwood, IL native was locked and loaded to counter his move with a perfect crossover move.

“I really don’t know how I pulled off that crossover in the slick,” Pierce thought. “I timed it just right, but I think about took his left front off making that move work. I don’t know if he had to lift or what. I heard him going under me down the front stretch, and figured something was probably coming into turn one. I tried to set it up to counter and it worked perfectly.

From there, Pierce survived and crossed the finish line with a 0.828-second advantage over Moran to claim his first-career gator trophy from Volusia’s DIRTcar Nationals.

Moran, a native of Dresden, OH, continued his excellent week with his second-straight podium. He finished third in Monday’s opener and bettered that with a runner-up bid on Tuesday.

“I had it free enough to where I could get that high, but tight enough to where I could turn down off of it,” Moran detailed on his setup. “I messed up off turn four there and I just couldn’t get Bobby. Hopefully we can hit the pill draw just a little bit better tomorrow.”

Rounding out the podium behind Pierce and Moran was fellow young gun, Hudson O’Neal.

“Overall, it was a really good night,” O’Neal said. “I think we were better than what we showed there. We just didn’t take full advantage of it. It was a good first night, but we’ve still got a long week here. Hopefully the speed carries over.

Closing out the top ten in Tuesday’s 30-lapper was Brandon Sheppard, Darrell Lanigan, Brandon Overton, Ricky Weiss, Ricky Thornton Jr., Tim McCreadie and Rick Eckert.

The 50th DIRTcar Nationals continues on Wednesday, February 10 with a dose of the Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds and the first of four nights with the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series.

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce [1]; 2. 9-Devin Moran [4]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal [6]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard [2]; 5. 29V-Darrell Lanigan [14]; 6. 76-Brandon Overton [5]; 7. 7-Ricky Weiss [12]; 8. 20RT-Ricky Thornton [3]; 9. 39-Tim McCreadie [23]; 10. OE-Rick Eckert [7]; 11. O-Scott Bloomquist [11]; 12. 8-Kyle Strickler [24]; 13. 44-Chris Madden [17]; 14. 40B-Kyle Bronson [10]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb [26]; 16. 58-Ross Bailes [25]; 17. 14B-John Baker [18]; 18. 3S-Brian Shirley [16]; 19. B1-Brent Larson [20]; 20. 5-Mark Whitener [13]; 21. 76N-Blair Nothdurft [19]; 22. 17M-Dale McDowell [8]; 23. 25-Shane Clanton [22]; 24. 14-Josh Richards [9]; 25. 56-Tony Jackson [21]; 26. 16-Tyler Bruening [15]. Lap Leader(s): Bobby Pierce 1-30. Hard Charger Award: 39-Tim McCreadie[+14]

BARBERVILLE, FL — “Daddy, do we get an alligator?”

Yes, Parker Friesen, you do after your Dad, Stewart Friesen, held off a hard-charging Peter Britten to win the 30-lap DIRTcar Nationals Super DIRTcar Series opener Tuesday night at Volusia Speedway Park.

Britten, from Brisbane, Australia, in a brand new Ryder Racing-sponsored Bicknell chassis Big Block Modified, threw everything he had at Friesen in a mad duel through lapped traffic. Friesen held off the #21A machine for the checkered flag with an aggressive line around the top side of The World’s Fastest Half-Mile, and delivered that Gator Trophy to his young son in Victory Lane.

“It was a very technical race track,” said Friesen, now of Sprakers, NY. “That’s the closest I’ve ever driven a Big Block Modified to a wingless sprint car, I just backed it in. There’s not much grip on the right front.”

Britten and Friesen battled hard throughout the first half of the race. After a long green-flag run during the midpoint of the 30-lapper, Friesen caught the rear of the field. What ensued was a memorable duel where both drivers crisscrossed from top to bottom trying to find the fastest way around the lapped cars and each other.

“I was trying to get through the lapped cars as quick as I could, but it was tough because it was so slick,” Friesen noted. “I kept losing the right front. I felt Peter [Britten] give me a shot out of four one time but the Halmar team prevailed.”

With 19 laps to go, Britten got under Friesen on restart and drove by the #44 in Turn 1, but a caution flag flew for a hard crash involving multiple cars including Jim Britt, Tyler Jashembowski, and Dave Rauscher. Unfortunately for Britten, the pass was nullified as the lap was incomplete.

“If I hadn’t gotten that caution and gone out ahead, Friesen was fast but we were right there with him,” Britten said. “It would have been interesting to see if we could have held him off. But I’m just tickled to be there.”

Expectations are high for Britten as he moved to a Bicknell-built chassis for the first time in his career. With an all-new all-black paint scheme, it’s hard to avoid the Batmobile comparisons given his nickname “Batman.” But it hasn’t all been good luck for Britten in Florida this year.

“We wrecked a car and it’s been a thrash since then,” Britten said. “A lot of people helped me to get to where I am even to just make it back to the race track. Me and Dylan [Zacharias] thrashed on this thing day and night basically to get it ready. It’s a good feeling to be up here for sure.”

Friesen, who also competes in the NASCAR Truck Series, is now an eight-time DIRTcar Nationals Feature winner after the $4,000 victory. But the native of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, was racing with a heavy heart following news coming out of his native province.

“I’m thinking about my friends in St. Catharines, Ontario, Doug and Todd Gordon at Concept 1 Fabrication,” Friesen said. “They had a big fire. They lost a lot, if not everything. They are diehard racers who I grew up with. When I first started racing I could go and see “Flash” and he’d fix me up. We’re going to work hard to get him fixed up again.”

Rounding out the podium was the Gypsum Racing #91 of Billy Decker. The “Franklin Flyer” passed Max McLaughlin for third on the last lap. Decker and McLaughlin traded sliders in the closing stages of the Feature, but the veteran came out on top.

“The Gypsum Wholesaler car was really good,” Decker said. “It was a tough track tonight. We were blazing around the top. I got to third on a restart and hit lapped traffic and Max [McLaughlin] got by us. Then we hit more lapped traffic we got back by him on the last lap. I’m happy to come out of here with a top-three tonight and we’ll see what we can scrounge up tomorrow.”

CG Morey, of Rutland, VT, advanced 13 positions for the hard charger award. After starting 28th, Morey survived to finish 14th.

Heat Race winners were Friesen, Britten, Jimmy Phelps, and McLaughlin.

All 32 Big Block Modifieds on the property started the Feature.

Derrick Mcgrew Jr. found himself on his roof in Turn 1 after a short wall ride. The young driver got out of the stricken #26 under his own power looking no worse than disappointed.

Friesen picked up the first Billy Whittaker Cars Fast-Time Award with a 17.463 lap around The World’s Fastest Half-Mile.

The action continues on Wednesday night with another 30-lap, $4,000-to-win Super DIRTcar Series Feature plus the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models.

Follow the Super DIRTcar Series on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram plus bookmark SuperDIRTcarSeries.com for race reports, features, and more.

If you can’t make it to the race track be sure to watch live with DIRTVision.

Feature (30 Laps)
1. 44-Stewart Friesen [2][$4,000]; 2. 21A-Peter Britten [3][$2,000]; 3. 91-Billy Decker [6][$1,000]; 4. 32C-Max McLaughlin [4][$800]; 5. 88-Mat Williamson [7][$700]; 6. 9S-Matt Sheppard [8][$650]; 7. 25-Erick Rudolph [18][$600]; 8. 1D-Tyler Dippel [11][$550]; 9. 4-Billy VanInwegen [9][$500]; 10. 16X-Dan Creeden [5][$450]; 11. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [1][$400]; 12. 19-Tim Fuller [15][$375]; 13. 7MM-Michael Maresca [16][$350]; 14. 23-Kyle Coffey [19][$325]; 15. 14-CG Morey [28][$300]; 16. 8-Rich Scagliotta [21][$300]; 17. 17-Rob Pitcher [22][$300]; 18. 1-Darwin Greene [17][$300]; 19. 46-Jeremy Smith [23][$300]; 20. 17D-Marcus Dinkins [32][$300]; 21. 30-Ryan Godown [10][$300]; 22. 20-Brett Hearn [14][$300]; 23. 48T-Dave Rauscher [20][$300]; 24. 19M-Jessey Mueller [24][$300]; 25. 26-Derrick McGrew [25][$300]; 26. B52-Brandon Hightower [30][$300]; 27. 88T-Tyler Jashembowski [29][$300]; 28. 2-Jack Lehner [12][$300]; 29. 6-Matt Stangle [13][$300]; 30. 118-Jim Britt [26][$300]; 31. 33T-Cass Bennett [31][$300]; 32. 01W-Justin Wright [27][$300]

KSE Hard Charger Award: 14-CG Morey[+13]

Qualifying Flight-A
1. 98H-Jimmy Phelps, 17.873; 2. 16X-Dan Creeden, 18.165; 3. 4-Billy VanInwegen, 18.232; 4. 19M-Jessey Mueller, 18.404; 5. 17-Rob Pitcher, 18.497; 6. 6-Matt Stangle, 18.498; 7. 1-Darwin Greene, 18.601; 8. 26-Derrick McGrew, 19.024

Qualifying Flight-B
1. 44-Stewart Friesen, 17.463; 2. 30-Ryan Godown, 17.926; 3. 91-Billy Decker, 17.962; 4. 20-Brett Hearn, 18.037; 5. 8-Rich Scagliotta, 18.485; 6. 25-Erick Rudolph, 18.496; 7. B52-Brandon Hightower, 18.512; 8. 118-Jim Britt, 18.515

Qualifying Flight-C
1. 21A-Peter Britten, 17.701; 2. 88-Mat Williamson, 18.142; 3. 1D-Tyler Dippel, 18.282; 4. 19-Tim Fuller, 18.34; 5. 23-Kyle Coffey, 18.613; 6. 17D-Marcus Dinkins, 18.838; 7. 46-Jeremy Smith, 19.112; 8. 33T-Cass Bennett, 19.919

Qualifying Flight-D
1. 2-Jack Lehner, 17.792; 2. 32C-Max McLaughlin, 17.968; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 18.06; 4. 7MM-Michael Maresca, 18.075; 5. 01W-Justin Wright, 18.529; 6. 14-CG Morey, 18.53; 7. 48T-Dave Rauscher, 18.775; 8. 88T-Tyler Jashembowski, 19.234

Heat #1 – Flight (A) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [1]; 2. 16X-Dan Creeden [2]; 3. 4-Billy VanInwegen [3]; 4. 6-Matt Stangle [6]; 5. 1-Darwin Greene [7]; 6. 17-Rob Pitcher [5]; 7. 26-Derrick McGrew [8]; 8. 19M-Jessey Mueller [4]

Heat #2 – Flight (B) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. 44-Stewart Friesen [1]; 2. 91-Billy Decker [3]; 3. 30-Ryan Godown [2]; 4. 20-Brett Hearn [4]; 5. 25-Erick Rudolph [6]; 6. 8-Rich Scagliotta [5]; 7. 118-Jim Britt [8]; 8. B52-Brandon Hightower [7]

Heat #3 – Flight (C) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. 21A-Peter Britten [1]; 2. 88-Mat Williamson [2]; 3. 1D-Tyler Dippel [3]; 4. 19-Tim Fuller [4]; 5. 23-Kyle Coffey [5]; 6. 46-Jeremy Smith [7]; 7. 17D-Marcus Dinkins [6]; 8. 33T-Cass Bennett [8]

Heat #4 – Flight (D) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. 32C-Max McLaughlin [2]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard [3]; 3. 2-Jack Lehner [1]; 4. 7MM-Michael Maresca [4]; 5. 48T-Dave Rauscher [7]; 6. 01W-Justin Wright [5]; 7. 14-CG Morey [6]; 8. 88T-Tyler Jashembowski [8]

Last Chance Showdown 1 (10 Laps) – Top 12 Transfer
1. 8-Rich Scagliotta [2][]; 2. 17-Rob Pitcher [1][]; 3. 46-Jeremy Smith [3][]; 4. 19M-Jessey Mueller [9][]; 5. 26-Derrick McGrew [5][$75]; 6. 118-Jim Britt [6][$75]; 7. 01W-Justin Wright [4][$75]; 8. 14-CG Morey [8][$75]; 9. 88T-Tyler Jashembowski [12][$75]; 10. B52-Brandon Hightower [10][$75]; 11. 33T-Cass Bennett [11][$75]; 12. 17D-Marcus Dinkins [7][$75]