ROSSBURG, Ohio — Thursday’s preliminary feature for the 31st Dirt Late Model Dream was delayed until Friday night and it was worth the wait for Josh Rice, who picked up the biggest victory of his career.
The front row featured a pair of drivers seeking their first Eldora triumph in Carson Ferguson and Wil Herrington. Ferguson’s race lasted less than half a lap, as he got into the wall in Turns 1 and 2, flipped over and got pounded by Chris Simpson.
Herrington jumped out to the lead on the restart, while Max Blair, Tyler Erb and Bobby Pierce raced three-wide down the backstretch for the runner-up position. Erb emerged from that battle on top, putting himself in position to chase down Herrington.
The Hawkinsville, Ga., pilot led the first nine circuits, but one misstep in Turn 4 was all it took to send Herrington up and over the cushion and Erb into the lead. Before Herrington could get back up to speed, Rice slipped by for second and instantly set his sights on Erb.
Ten laps later, Erb had company as Rice was ripping the low lane to get alongside the reigning DIRTcar Summer Nationals champion. Rice was unable to capitalize on his first bid for the lead, and before he knew it, third-place runner Bobby Pierce was on his back bumper.
The battle for second suddenly turned into the battle for the win when Erb got over the cushion and into the wall in Turn 3 with 20 to go. Pierce slid Rice for the lead in Turn 2 but had to check up to avoid a pair of lap cars, opening the door for Rice to pull the crossover.
At that point, one of the most thrilling battles for the lead in the seven-decade history of Eldora Speedway was on. Pierce repeated the same move into Turn 3 one lap later, and this time he made it stick. Rice didn’t let Pierce go far though, as he kept the margin under a second until retaking the lead on the bottom in Turns 1 and 2 with 11 to go.
Pierce immediately tried to take it back in the next set of corners, but couldn’t clear Rice with the slider and had to back out.
A pair of cautions for Hudson O’Neal and Wil Herrington put the action on pause, but a perfect final restart by Rice allowed him to set sail toward the $30,000 top prize. Ten perfect laps later, one of the most talented regional racers in the country became a winner at the mecca of dirt racing.
“I thought Brownstown was hard to win at, this place is damn near impossible to win at. Especially to do it over the 32, he wins every damn weekend,” Rice said. “We’ve been good here recently. Good thing we hot lapped again, I’m glad it rained out because I probably would have never won this deal. We hot lapped there and wasn’t very good, threw what we knew was going to be close. Honestly, we didn’t know if it was going to be close or not, but it worked.”
Pierce beat Erb in a drag race to the flag stand for second with Nick Hoffman and Daulton Wilson competing the top five.
Jonathan Davenport won the Friday night preliminary feature.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 11R-Josh Rice[5]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 3. O1-Tyler Erb[4]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[16]; 5. 18D-Daulton Wilson[8]; 6. 17M-Dale McDowell[9]; 7. 111-Max Blair[3]; 8. 10S-Garrett Smith[17]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson[22]; 10. 22-Chris Ferguson[10]; 11. 10-Joseph Joiner[11]; 12. 20-Jimmy Owens[14]; 13. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[24]; 14. 101-Forrest Trent[25]; 15. 89-Mike Spatola[20]; 16. 11-Austin Smith[12]; 17. O9-Michael Leach[7]; 18. 4-Kale Green[13]; 19. 93L-Cory Lawler[19]; 20. 15K-Wil Herrington[1]; 21. 71-Hudson O’Neal[23]; 22. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[26]; 23. 22X-Drake Troutman[21]; 24. 99-Devin Moran[15]; 25. 93-Carson Ferguson[2]; 26. 32S-Chris Simpson[18]
