After the Checkers
Instant reaction, analysis from Illini 100 headliner
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Bobby Pierce (32) and Brandon Sheppard (1) at Farmer City. (Josh James)
FARMER CITY, Ill. (April 11) — Instant reaction and analysis from Saturday's $25,000-to-win World of Outlaws Late Model Series event won by Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., that concluded the Illini 100 weekend (RaceWire):
DON’T BET AGAINST THEM: Predict a winner other than Bobby Pierce and Brandon Sheppard to win at Farmer City’s Illini 100 finale at your peril. With Pierce’s rallying victory from 10th — he overtook Sheppard on the 42nd of 60 laps — the pair have a stranglehold on the last six runnings of the event on the action-packed quarter-mile oval with three WoO-inscribed trophies apiece. Because of rainouts (and freezeouts), you have to go back 10 years to find a winner not named Sheppard or Pierce. (That 2016 winner, Josh Richards is retired, and just for kicks, Sheppard won the Illini 100 in 2015). I’ll take Sheppard and Pierce in 2027 and give you the field.
ERB CHILLS OUT: Tyler Erb was livid — full-on Terbo livid — after contact with fellow front-row starter Tristan Chamberlain in his heat sent Erb spinning out of contention, costing him a potential up-front starting spot virtually required to be in contention. But give credit to the Texas driver, who gave WoO official Matty Watkins and then series director Steve Francis an earful after the heat. We’ve seen meltdowns — and Farmer City fans on Friday saw Erb’s back-and-forth pissing match with Brent Larson that continued in barb-traded DIRTVision interviews during Saturday’s prerace show — but Erb didn’t let a potential retaliation against Chamberlain distract him. “I had to chill out,” Erb said. In an impressive rally from 24th with the aid of a single race stoppage, Erb posted a fifth-place finish. It wasn’t forgive and forget with Chamberlain (who, as Erb pointed out, caused the lap-49 red flag when he hit the turn-three wall), but Erb earned a positive mark on the maturity scale in the 60-lapper.
TURN UP THE HEAT: The Erb-Chamberlain heat-race showdown wasn’t the only dramatic moment during prelims. In the second heat, Daulton Wilson rallied from seventh to second (which helped him log an impressive fourth-place finish in the 60-lapper for a pair of weekend top-fives for the Big Frog team). In the third heat, Dan Ebert slid up the track and smashed the turn-four wall after an aggressive Pierce wedged underneath him entering turn three (without making contact). On the restart, second-running Jason Feger was clipped by Bobby Pierce in turn one, sending Feger for a spin. Feger, who initially thought Dennis Erb Jr., was the perpetrator, discovered when he got to the pits it was Pierce, who quickly arrived at the Feger pit with an accepted apology. WoO’s Steve Francis, after watching Erb dash away on his mini bike in a post-heat discussion, could only shake his head about what he’d witnessed. “It’s going to be that kind of night,” Francis said. “Welcome to quarter-mile racing.”
STAT OF THE NIGHT: Nick Hoffman and Bobby Pierce — separated by just two points leaving Farmer City (these days, that’s the difference in a pair of heat race victories) — have finished 1-2 in one order or another in four of the last nine WoO features.
NEXT UP: WoO competitors get a weekend off before heading back to the South for April 24-25 action at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala., events paying, like Farmer City, $12,000- and $25,000-to-win. Then it’s back to the Midwest for April 28’s $12,000-to-win event at Independence (Iowa) Motor Speedway and April 30-May 2 action at Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Fountain City, Wis., with a pair of $10,000-to-win prelims and $40,000-to-win Dairyland Showdown finale.
