DirtonDirt Dispatches

Dispatches: La Salle keeps Pierce humming

May 29, 2025, 1:26 pm

From series, staff, track and other reports

Bobby Pierce displays his $25,000 winner's check. (Josh James)

Among the latest notes and quotes from around Dirt Late Model racing the last weekend in May, including MARS Champion Series coverage from La Salle (Ill.) Speedway among other weekend special events (look for coverage of Northern Allstars action in Brownstown, Ind., elsewhere on the site). Also find a listing of live-streaming video from specials around the country:

Rolling along

Bobby Pierce’s 2024 season was spectacular. His ’25 campaign, though, is shaping up to be even better.

The 28-year-old sensation from Oakwood, Ill., continued outpacing his ’24 returns with another sublime performance on Saturday, winning the inaugural MARS Championship Series-sanctioned Illinois Valley Showdown finale at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway.

Largely controlling the 75-lap feature once he grabbed the lead on lap 11 after Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill., slipped over the turn-four cushion, Pierce beat Ryan Unzicker of El Paso, Ill., to the finish line by 2.356 seconds to run his overall victory total for the current season to 16. After also capturing the first of Friday’s Twisted Twin 25 preliminary features, the weekend left him just three checkered flags shy of being halfway to his career-high win total of 38 he achieved last year.

Pierce claimed he was “a bit worried” as the race wound down and Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, was chasing him, but he kept his Longhorn Chassis perched solidly on the quarter-mile oval’s outside lip and didn’t face a serious challenge.

“You give Terbo (Erb) second and not really much to lose, I know he’s going to go for it on on an Illinois bullring and blast the cushion,” Pierce said. “So I was doing my best to just maintain the lead, not make any mistakes, but still try to drive hard.

“That’s the fun thing about racing dirt — you got the leader out there trying to not to make mistakes and the guy in second’s just trying everything he can. So luckily we held on.”

Pierce is certainly having plenty of fun this year as he looks to top a 2024 season that saw him earn over $1.2 million. Reaching 16 triumphs by the end of of May has him significantly ahead of his pace in ’24 when he entered June with 12 victories and didn’t tally his 16th win until July 6’s NAPA Gopher 50 at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn.

There are other signs that Pierce is on a path to more success this season. Most notably, the $25,000 first-place check he secured at La Salle marked his seventh win worth $20,000-or-more so far this year — a stark contrast to 2024 when he closed May with only one such victory (the $20,000 Illini 100 finale at Illinois’s Farmer City Raceway).

What’s more, Pierce also has two wins this season that have paid at least $50,000 (April 26’s 50-grand Alabama Gang 100 at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala., and May 24’s $75,000 Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.), again putting him ahead of ’24 when the NAPA Gopher 50 was his first of eight triumphs worth $50,000-or-more.

Pierce even has himself positioned to win the two national touring series championships he failed to capture last year as he leads the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series and FloRacing Night in America points standings.

Unzicker offered an appropriate summation of his pal Pierce’s strength after he took advantage of Erb’s final-lap trouble with the turn-two cushion to finish second.

“Bobby does what Bobby does,” Unzicker said. — Staff and series reports

Searing’s exemption

When series director Chris Stepan realized that Cole Searing’s emergency appendectomy on Saturday morning would keep him out of action the final two days of a four-day weekend on the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series, he decided to ask Searing’s fellow drivers if they’d be willing to cut Searing a break.

After all, the two-time and reigning series champion had won two of the first five series races and missing Saturday’s event at Madison (Minn.) Speedway and Sunday’s race at Casino Speedway in Watertown, S.D., would effectively eliminate the 30-year-old Searing’s chances for his third title.

So taking a page out of the national tours’ playbook, Stepan decided to query 10 series regulars to see if they’d grant Searing hardship points for the rest of the weekend. The first driver to answer? Series points leader Shane Sabraski, Friday’s series winner at Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo, Minn.

“Hell yeah,” Sabraski texted Stepan, willing to keep his rival’s hopes alive for the championship.

Already feeling ill Thursday, Searing had captured the weekend opener at KRA Speedway in Willmar, Minn., but he could barely manage to get in the car in finishing eighth at Fiesta City. After Friday’s race, he headed for the Montevideo hospital and underwent an appendectomy Saturday morning.

Along with Sabraski, nine other drivers made it unanimous in granting hardship points to Searing. He’ll receive showup points for two missing races — last-place heat race finishing points and last-place feature finishing points — and maintain provisional and contingency status for the tour’s ServPro Star program among drivers with perfect attendance.

Sabraski, who discussed the situation on Saturday with Stepan and series announcer Scott Tiefs on Facebook Live, had no reservations about lending a helping hand to Searing. After all, Sabraski last July suffered a mild heart attack in his rookie Late Model season and wasn’t able to get such a provision in his chase for a weekly title.

“I guess it kind of hit me because last year that happened to me in that KME deal and they wouldn’t allow anything for us to miss a night. It is what it is,” Sabraski said. “I feel bad with Cole and my thoughts are with him. I hope everything goes well with him.”

Searing had a narrow points lead on Sabraski heading to Fiesta City, but Sabraski’s victory put him in the driver’s seat.

“We sure didn’t want to take the lead this way,” Sabraski said. “I wish he could be here battling with us. Hopefully he heals up quick and he’ll be back.” — Series reports

Twisted victors

After Friday night’s Twister Twin 25 features were completed at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway, the $5,000 winners — Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., and Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas — shared the victory stage with their cars pointed directly at each other.

Pierce’s No. 32 was to the left. Erb’s No. 1 was on the right. They both climbed out of their cockpits and simultaneously stood on the roofs of their machines in celebration of their triumphs.

The moment was not lost on Erb. He couldn’t help recalling another time nearly five years ago when they had their cars positioned similarly but in that case on the racetrack and under much more tense circumstances.

“I’ve never been, nose-to-nose in victory lane,” Erb said with a grin. “I think the last time me and him were like this we were trying to kill each other.”

Erb thought back to the August 2020 USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. On lap 85 of that crown jewel 100-lapper, Erb spun out of fifth place and blamed Pierce for causing it with contact from behind. Erb’s ensuing retaliation culminated with him driving backwards on the track under caution to face off nose-to-nose with Pierce in turn one.

There were only smiles flashing between the two 28-year-olds this time as their front bumpers sat inches apart following the opening night of the MARS Championship Series-sanctioned Illinois Valley Showdown.

“Hats off to Bobby,” Erb said, sounding nothing like the disgruntled driver who had no warmth for Pierce on that controversial Cedar Lake evening. “Obviously his car’s really fast, so we definitely gotta work on this thing to be better. But, you know, we’ll take it.”

Pierce kicked off the weekend’s preliminary program by winning the first 25-lap feature, which was aligned under the usual MARS qualifying format. He led from flag-to-flag off the pole position to easily outdistance Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., for his 15th overall victory of the 2025 season.

Erb, meanwhile, finished ninth in the first 25-lapper, which put him on the outside pole through the 10-car inversion for the nightcap that was run immediately after Pierce drove to his checkered flag. The front row starting spot helped propel Erb to the top prize in the second 25-lapper, though Ryan Unzicker of El Paso, Ill., drew close in the final circuits and finished just 0.189 of a second behind.

Finding the proper path around the quarter-mile oval to keep his Best Performance Motorsports Rocket Chassis in front for the entire distance was a chore for Erb.

“I felt like the top was getting better,” Erb said. “I think the first race was kind of won on the bottom, and I just kept looking at it and I was on the outside pole and I was like, ‘Well, I have no choice but to at least try it.’ I honestly felt better in (turns) three and four in the top than one and one … one and two is just a little treacherous.

“Then I know the caution (on lap 22), I could see Unzicker next to me in the bottom, but we were about to catch lapped traffic and they were in the bottom so I was like, ‘Well, I’ll run it a little harder here,’ and I went down on the bottom in one and two and I couldn't turn on a 50-acre field. I just had to kinda move around and do all kinds of crazy stuff and keep them scared from trying to get next to me I guess.

“But yeah, it worked out. It was cool,” he added. “The format really really helped me today, so just take them any way you can get it.”

Pierce managed to climb to a fourth-place finish from the 10th starting spot in the second 25-lapper, earning him the most points in the Twisted Twin 25s and a pole starting spot in Saturday’s first heat race. He said he “stuff was a little burned up” by the end of the second feature, but he was satisfied with his Longhorn mount’s performance.

“It was a really good night,” said Pierce, who will chase a $25,000 first-place prize in Saturday’s 75-lapper less than one month after collecting $20,000 for capturing the FloRacing Night in America event that served as La Salle’s grand reopening following nearly four years of inactivity. “We kinda know now what to do for tomorrow for the 75 laps. That’s a lot of laps.” — Staff and series reports

Last-lap winner

The race is never decided until the checkered flag waves, no matter how it may seem. Just ask Brandon Conkwright, whose two career Ross Foundation Sooner Late Model Series victories have come on the last lap.

Kyle Berck seemed to have Friday's Sooner feature in hand at Humboldt (Kan.) Speedway with only a lap remaining when Conkwright made his move. Conkwright pushed underneath Berck in turn one of the final lap to take away the lead and pick up the victory by a 0.401 second margin.

“I made a really good corner in (turns) one and two,” Conkwright said. “It was real slick up there in one and two where Berck was running and I just got fortunate enough to not miss my mark and get side-by-side with him down the backstretch. I knew if I got beside him then in three and four I got him.”

Lapped traffic also played a part in the pass for the lead.

“He got the lapped traffic at the wrong time and he had two cars he had to split and I was fortunate enough to get by him,” Conkwright said. “He was up on the top and he was down on the bottom and the middle. it looked like he was searching for the best line. Usually when you are out front you don’t know where the line is.”

Conkwright, who called Berck “the best Dirt Late Model driver in the Midwest,” last season won his first career Sooner Series event with a final lap move around Dan Smith at 81 Speedway.

“It is just being in the right place at the right time,” Conkwright recalled. “Last year when I got around Dan Smith he had issues and got a right rear flat and got into the wall and I was in the right place at the right time.

“I am fortunate enough to have what I have, my mom and dad, crew guy Brad, my girlfriend and daughter. I just drive it and they work their tails off to get this going.”

If Berck had it to do all over again he would have chose a different line.

“I would have ran it lower,” said Berck of his line through turn one. “I knew he was there. I felt him bump me lightly. I was trying to plug up the middle of the racetrack but you can’t plug up three lanes. The last three or four laps I was losing traction. The tires were going away fast. Once he got underneath me there in (turns) one and two I knew I was done. The outside of three and four did not have enough grip.” — John Rittenoure

Stewart's switch

Garret Stewart was one of Florida’s most successful drivers in the modified ranks, but then shocked many when he sold his modified halfway through the season in 2022. In place of it, he purchased a Longhorn Chassis to compete in the 604 Crate Late Model division.

The reason? More laps for the regular at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.

“We wanted to race more,” Stewart said. “Only Seth (Geary) and I, at the time, ran between the big three of East Bay (Raceway Park), Volusia, and Ocala (Speedway). We knew East Bay was closing, then Volusia scaled back, and Ocala was hardly open. So, we went from racing 18-20 times to almost once a month.

“We just decided to take the leap, and I don’t know that we’ve always thought that it was the right decision. But I’m pretty happy with what we’re doing,” Stewart said.

Three years later, the five-time Volusia modified champ is building a new reputation as a Late Model driver. And even though he has 17 years of racing experience, life in a Late Model has taught him new lessons.

“I’ve had to change a ton with my driving style,” Stewart said. “I had to get a lot more aggressive, especially in the first couple of years. My stuff was really good in the mod, so I could let things play out five to eight laps in and start maneuvering through the field. Whereas the Late Model, when they throw the green flag, you gotta go.

“So, it’s been a bit of a hurry up for me to get aggressive and learning how different the two drive. You have to really be able to rotate the (Late Model) for the corner, because you can’t just drive straight through it. You could sometimes take a Modified where it wasn’t exactly where it needs to be, but you could still be able to run through your lines straight through.”

Stewart posted two top-five finishes in the Crate Late Model division the second half of the 2022 season. He’s won Crate races each of the past two seasons at Volusia along with the 2023 title at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla. He’d like to add the 2025 title at Volusia and he’s 15 points behind Trynt Lloyd heading into June 14’s Firecracker Classic.

“The titles were something we never really thought about,” Stewart said. “We always just raced as much as we could, and then it just ended up with all these titles that didn’t really plan on. We just race as much as we can, and it works out. At All-Tech currently, I missed the first race for a cruise, but you look at it now, and we’re second in points.

“Winning at Volusia would be huge for us, because it would show that we rose to the occasion, we’re running a lot better, I understand the car a lot more, and it’s definitely a goal of mine. I don’t want to be known as ‘The Modified Guy’ because I hear (announcer) Bob (Stoekel) say it, and I just wanna be known as Garret. But it’d really mean a lot for me and my family.” — Matt Skipper