Bobby Pierce Completes Perfect Night in Connor Bobik Memorial at Marion Center

📸 Trent Gower

MARION CENTER, PA (May 18, 2025) – Saturday night at Marion Center Raceway was proof why Bobby Pierce is the top dirt Late Model driver in the country in 2025.

The 2023 champion of the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision started the night by setting the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap. He followed that up by winning the Simpson Quick Time Award by more than three tenths of a second. Pierce then led green to checkered in his Heat Race before capping the night off by spending all 60 circuits out front for his first Connor Bobik Memorial victory.

“To already have 13 wins this year, that’s incredible,” Pierce said following his fourth World of Outlaws score of the season. “Really wanted to win tonight. We’ve struggled here, and knowing it was $30,000-to-win this year, it was more prize money, so everyone wanted it pretty badly.”

Starting alongside Bilstein Pole Award winner Ryan Gustin on the front row, Pierce barreled into Turn 1 on the opening lap and went straight to the cushion. Gustin got tight on the bottom in the first set of corners, giving Pierce the opening he needed to rocket away down the backstretch.

Once he took over the top spot, the “Smooth Operator” went to work on building an insurmountable gap over the competition. Pierce’s margin was up to 1.5 seconds after five laps and grew to as large as five seconds in the second half of the 60-lap Feature. A handful of yellows gave the field their chances at Pierce, but the No. 32 was able to power out of range time and time again on his way to the checkered flag.

Mother Nature threw teams a curveball in the form of a passing shower hours before Hot Laps, creating a much wetter racing surface than teams are used to at Marion Center. While that may have thrown off some teams, Pierce said it played right into his wheelhouse.

“It made the racetrack definitely more wet and tacky, helped me out in Qualifying,” Pierce said. “That’s kind of the stuff that I like, I hit my marks right there. It started rutting up in Turn 1 and I got that really good and the top was there in three and four. Typically in the past, this place was always really slick, really smooth, no traction really anywhere. It gave the track some character.”

The next stop on tour brings the Oakwood, IL driver to Bedford Speedway, where he won in his debut at the track one year ago. Even though the track is nearly double the size of Marion Center at 5/8 of a mile, Pierce is confident in his chances to be just as fast.

“I think we’re pretty good on big tracks like that,” Pierce said. “Kind of reminds me a little bit of Volusia, but it’s definitely a little more narrow, and then last year it slicked off a lot for the Feature. In Qualifying, you’ve got to be on the gas. It’s a really, really big track, but I think we’ve got a really good package for that, I think we were Quick Time there last year and won the Feature. If we can repeat that, that would be awesome.”

More than three seconds behind Pierce, Nick Hoffman wrestled the second spot away from Gustin with two to go to earn his third podium in his last four Series starts.

“I felt like my car was pretty good, Bobby just got out front and was pretty good there in the beginning and middle part of the race, obviously drove away from us,” Hoffman said. “Me and Ryan got to battling there, there was a couple times when I got a run down the back and I decided to wait until pretty late in the race to finally slide him. I was scared to slide him earlier, with him running the bottom, I would have just wiped him out and probably wiped both of us out. It was fun battling back and forth there.”

While Gustin came out on the losing end of the race with Hoffman, his third-place effort was still enough for his best result since his Swainsboro Raceway triumph nearly two months ago.

“I went down in there, I didn’t get a very good start, I was going to try to slide Bobby but I hit that hole and about wrecked us both,” Gustin said. “Appreciate Nick running me clean, he was a lot faster than we were. We were honestly just hanging on, we definitely weren’t near as good as we needed to be to win that race.”

Brian Shirley finished fourth to reset his career-best at Marion Center while Ethan Dotson took MD3 Rookie of the Race honors with his fifth-place effort.

RACE NOTES:

Bobby Pierce set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap and won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Bobby Pierce won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Nick Hoffman won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Ryan Gustin won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Cody Overton won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Dustin Sorensen and Gregg Satterlee won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Ryan Gustin won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Jake Timm won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Ethan Dotson was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Nick Hoffman won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Brian Shirley was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Ethan Dotson was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Cody Overton was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Ashton Winger was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Gregg Satterlee was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Mason Zeigler was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Tristan Chamberlain was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision will wrap up the OH-PA swing with the Billy Winn Classic at Bedford Speedway on Sunday, May 18. Tickets will be available at the gate.

If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

Feature (60 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 3. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[12]; 5. 74X-Ethan Dotson[8]; 6. 2-Cody Overton[4]; 7. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[19]; 8. 12-Ashton Winger[7]; 9. 22-Gregg Satterlee[18]; 10. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[16]; 11. 49-Jake Timm[24]; 12. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[15]; 13. 22*-Drake Troutman[20]; 14. B1-Brent Larson[11]; 15. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[25]; 16. 11-Austin Smith[26]; 17. 1C-Alex Ferree[9]; 18. 111-Max Blair[13]; 19. 9M-Tim McCreadie[14]; 20. 19-Dustin Sorensen[17]; 21. 66-Justin Kann[10]; 22. 5L-Jon Lee[21]; 23. 99B-Boom Briggs[6]; 24. 96-Tanner English[23]; 25. 12M-Ryan Montgomery[22]; 26. 72-Michael Norris[5]