DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: WVMS oval impresses red-hot Pierce
Bobby Pierce celebrates No. 10. (Emily Schwanke/woolms.com)
Notes and quotes from various Dirt Late Model specials during the June 12-13 (look for Saturday’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series action at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, W.Va., elsewhere):
Solid debut
After making West Virginia Motor Speedway the latest track he’s conquered in his first-ever visit, Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., couldn’t have been more complimentary of the shortened 3/8-mile oval in Mineral Wells, W.Va.
The 29-year-old superstar had to battle hard for his $12,000 triumph in Friday’s well-attended 40-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature to kick off the Racefest Summer Championship. It had him bubbling over with enthusiasm in victory lane.
“It’s awesome, man, (winning) in front of this big crowd,” Pierce said. “This hillside’s really cool. I wish more tracks had that (for seating). It’s an awesome view, I’m sure, from up there. I walked it last night and it looked pretty cool. They got some nice backstretch stands too. There's some cool things about this track that I really like.”
That includes the racing itself. Pierce wasn’t really sure what to expect from the track, which owner Mike Hurley reopened last year after reconfiguring it from its sprawling 5/8-mile layout to a more manageable bullring size. Friday marked Pierce's debut at WVMS and the first event there for the WoO circuit since August 2013 when Josh Richards was victorious on a 4/10-mile oval that was the short-lived first attempt to make the speedway smaller.
Pierce said Hurley told him after he arrived on Thursday night that “you kind of gotta get up on the wheel” to circle the new WVMS, “and, you know, yeah, that’s definitely what it was tonight. You had to get up on the wheel and get it done. It was a lot of fun.”
Pierce overtook Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., for the lead on lap 22 but lost it to Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill. — twice — on laps 30 and 32 before coming out on top of the slider battle with the driver of the Rocket1 machine based in Shinnston, W.Va. Then Pierce had to keep the low-running Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., at bay over the final circuits to win by 0.681 of a second.
“Had some hellacious racing there between Hudson and Brandon, and Dennis on the bottom there,” Pierce said. “I told Dennis before the race, I said, ‘Hey, this is right down your alley, right?’ And he’s like, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s on the bottom.’ ”
Erb, 53, stuck to the low line to take second from Sheppard on a lap-34 restart and kept Pierce in his crosshairs but couldn’t make a winning move. It was still Erb’s best finish of a frustrating 2026 season that has seen him finish no better than seventh since he recorded two top-five runs in January’s season-opening tripleheader at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.
“We were just trying to, you know, run the bottom to the middle there, just trying to keep some speed up,” Erb said. “That top was good for them guys to launch off of, so we just had to keep circling there (on the inside) and make good speed. We tried there on a restart, but like I said, there was just a little bit too much up on the top there for them to get going.”
Pierce didn’t think the top was overly dominant, though.
“Towards the end, I think, you probably could have been about anywhere,” Pierce said. “It was a big difference from the heat race and even qualifying. The feature felt a lot like just a slightly bigger Gateway (the fifth-mile indoor track in St. Louis). I was talking about it with Hudson before the race and a couple other drivers … you really got to back it into the corner here to run the top. You’re really back-steering a lot.”
Pierce’s WVMS breakout was his 10th WoO victory of 2026 — giving him four straight seasons with a double-figure win total on the tour — and 15th overall checkered flag of another prolific campaign. He’s now won four straight starts over the past eight days, including a $130,000 sweep of the Dream’s prelim and finale at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and a $20,000 triumph in Wednesday’s inaugural Shale Crescent Dirt Cup at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio.
Saturday’s 60-lap, $30,000-to-win Racefest finale will give Pierce a chance to add even more to his bank account.
“Just really excited to race this track tomorrow and come back for other races,” Pierce said. “So they got a good, good racetrack here, and I’m kind of excited to see what happens tomorrow. If the middle comes around, the bottom might be there, top. I don’t know, the corners are so wide, it’s kind of hard to know where to go. You see a guy on the bottom and it kind of wants to make you get down there and I did, and that’s when Brandon passed me (for the lead).” — From DIRTvision and staff reports
Bullring battle
Jason Feger said he hated throwing a slide job to take command of Friday’s DIRTcar Summer Nationals debut at Coles County Speedway. Runner-up Ryan Unzicker hated it, too.
Bloomington, Ill.’s Feger, the two-time and reigning series champion, came alive at halfway, dogged the race-long leader Unzicker in the second half and clinched the win with a lap-35 slider at the tiny track for a $10,000 payday.
“Me and Ryan, we've been battling for years,” Feger said in victory lane. “I hate throwing sliders like that, but hell, it's $10,000-to-win on a little bullring … he would have done the same. We just raced each other so hard but clean at the same time. He’s been really fast all year.”
Unzicker, settling for a runner-up finish after leading 33 of 40 laps, was disappointed in failing to capture his first Summer Nationals victory since 2024.
“When you're leading, it's just hard to figure out where to go, but I don't know. I mean, I pretty well had to lift pretty good there or stick it in the fence, you know, one of the two. So I figured (it was) better off to lift instead of junk my (car),” the El Paso, Ill., driver said. "I just feel a little bit dejected, you know? You lead a lot. My crew’s good and my car’s good. I don't know, just kind of pissed off, really.”
Feger, winning his first series event since July 4, 2025, at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, Ill., wasn’t in the mix until halfway, then survived frontstretch contact with Billy Moyer before moving up to challenge Unzicker.
"I didn't know if I had a car good enough to win early in the race,” Feger said. “It took off really good, and then it like just kind of stalled out, but I was really good on the restarts, and I just kinda had to keep changing the way I was driving. I got put on that outside on that one restart. I was just trying to be really patient on the bottom and bide my time (figuring) there'd be some late yellows.”
All in all, it worked out for Feger, who loves the tight action.
“Man, we just love bullring racing,” he said. “It’s so awesome." — From DIRTVision and staff reports
Streaming schedule
Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:
Friday, June 12
• World of Outlaws-Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series at West Virginia Motor Speedway (DIRTVision)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Coles County Speedway in Mattoon, Ill. (DIRTVision)
• Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss. (Hunt the Front TV)
• Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series at Cochran (Ga.) Motor Speedway (ArrowVision Live)
• Selinsgrove Ford Appalachian Mountain Speedweek at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• The Masters Limited Late Models at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. (Racin Dirt)
• Malvern Bank East Series at Lafayette County Speedway in Darlington, Wis. (RaceON)
• Repairable Vehicles.com Tri-State Late Model Series at Murray County Speedway in Slayton, Minn. (IMCA TV)
Saturday, June 13
• World of Outlaws-Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series at West Virginia Motor Speedway (DIRTVision)
• Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss. (Hunt the Front TV)
• The Masters Limited Late Models at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. (Racin Dirt)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway (DIRTVision)
• Save A Lot American Crate All-Star Series at Natural Bridge (Va.) Speedway (Dirt Rich TV)
• Northern Allstars Late Model Series at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway (Hunt the Front TV)
• Southern All Stars Dirt Racing Series at Senoia (Ga.) Raceway (ArrowVision Live)
• Rogers-Dabbs Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series at Modoc (S.C.) Speedway (Crate Racin’ USA TV)
• Selinsgrove Ford Appalachian Mountain Speedweek at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa. (FloRacing)
• American Crate Late Model Series at RPM Speedway in Crandall, Texas (RaceON)
Sunday, June 14
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Sycamore Speedway in Maple Park, Ill. (DIRTVision)
Monday, June 15
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Wilmot (Wis.) Raceway (DIRTVision)
Tuesday, June 16
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at West Liberty (Iowa) Raceway (DIRTVision)
Wednesday, June 17
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Davenport (Iowa) Speedway (DIRTVision)
