A World of Outlaws Morton Buildings feature win has plagued Bobby Pierce for years.
But in Saturday night’s Illini 100 at Illinois’ Farmer City Raceway, he finally got the monkey off his back in front of his home crowd and became the second first-time winner in a row during the prestigious Illinois event.
The home state driver took off from the start of Saturday’s 75-Lap, $20,000-to-win Feature, and never looked back.
He dominated the first 70 laps of the race, smoothly sailing through traffic on the high side. Ricky Thornton, Jr. challenged Pierce toward the end of that run, but every time Thornton dove low, Pierce easily rose to the challenge up high.
Thornton suffered an issue late in the race, bringing out the only caution of the 75-lap race.
The yellow flag set up a five-lap shootout and put Cade Dillard on Pierce’s back bumper for the single-file re-start.
“When a caution comes out, it’s kind of hard to get back into your rhythm,” Pierce said.
When the green came back out Dillard went low and snuck by the Pierce’s machine on the bottom. He pulled away by about three car-lengths before Pierce rocketed off the top once again.
When the two drivers took the white flag, Pierce carried his momentum on the cushion and nosed out ahead to lead lap 74. He held the top spot on the final lap to snag the victory.
“Luckily, I didn’t fall back to third (on the restart) and it gave me a chance to get around (Dillard),” Pierce said.
“The thing that helped me the most was (Dillard) going to the bottom every corner. When I passed him back and made a good last lap, and crossed the checkers, it was probably one of the most exciting finishes I’ve ever had.”
Brandon Sheppard finished third, with Chris Madden fourth and Rick Eckert fifth.
Up next, the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models travels to Bristol Motor Speedway April 8-10, for the Bristol Bash. For more information, visit WorldofOutlaws.com
WoO Morton Buildings Late Model Series
Farmer City Raceway – Farmer City, IL
Illini 100 – April 3, 2021
1. 32P-Bobby Pierce
2. 97-Cade Dillard
3. 1-Brandon Sheppard
4. 44-Chris Madden
5. OE-Rick Eckert
6. 18B-Shannon Babb
7. 40B-Kyle Bronson
8. 89-Mike Spatola
9. 3S-Brian Shirley
10. 99JR-Frank Heckenast
11. 28-Dennis Erb
12. 29V-Darrell Lanigan
13. 8-Kyle Strickler
14. O-Scott Bloomquist
15. 10S-Taylor Scheffler
16. 28M-Jimmy Mars
17. 7-Ricky Weiss
18. B12-Kevin Weaver
19. 16-Tyler Bruening
20. 99B-Boom Briggs
21. B1-Brent Larson
22. 11T-Trevor Gundaker
23. 20RT-Ricky Thornton
24. 19R-Ryan Gustin
25. 81E-Tanner English
26. 2-Allen Murray
27. 25-Shane Clanton
28. 6-Blake Spencer
http://accesswdun.com/article/2021/4/995118/late-pass-gives-bobby-pierce-illini-100-woo-lms-victory