Bobby Pierce Wins FloRacing Night in America Opener at La Salle Speedway

Press Release
1 day ago
4 min read

LA SALLE, Illinois (May 6, 2025) — The 2025 season for FloRacing Night in America presented by Kubota stormed to life on Tuesday night with the grand reopening of La Salle (Ill.) Speedway, and it was the 2023 miniseries champion, Bobby Pierce who emerged victorious.

The 50-lap feature was brought to the green flag by Ryan Gustin and Drake Troutman with Gustin capturing the lead for the first three laps. Troutman pursued Gustin until lap 4 when he rocketed to the top spot.

Through both open track and lapped traffic Troutman held the top spot as Bobby Pierce marched from the sixth spot up to the second position. The Oakwood, Illinois racer progressively began reeling Troutman in and as the leaders completed lap 27, Pierce used the high line to take the lead.

As Troutman slipped backwards the battle between Pierce and the seventh-starting Ricky Thornton Jr. began to heat up for the lead before a Midwest Sheet Metal caution flew with 8 laps remaining. On the ensuing restart Pierce motored away from the field to claim his first miniseries win of the year and his all-time series best eighth win.

“(Promoter) Tony Izzo (Jr.) did a great job, the track was phenomenal. I know the infield tires got knocked down here in (turns three and four), it got a little dusty and stuff,” Pierce said in Victory Lane. “If you could hit a good lap on the top, it was really fast. You could go to the bottom and kinda make some passes down there, too. Pretty cool to see a racetrack come back to life like this. You know there’s a lot of good fans in this area, they deserve a good track here so that’s cool to see.”

Ricky Thornton Jr., Nick Hoffman, Brandon Sheppard, and Jonathan Davenport completed the Top-5 finishers.

On Wednesday, May 7 the 2025 Illinois Speedweek continues at Spoon River Speedway (Banner, Ill.) the pit gate opens at 2 p.m. CT with the grandstand gate opening at 5 p.m., the driver’s meeting at 5:30 p.m., hot laps at 6 p.m. and racing action to follow.

On Thursday, May 8 at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway the pit gate opens at 12 p.m. CT with the grandstand gate opening at 3 p.m., the driver’s meeting at 5:30 p.m., hot laps at 6 p.m. and racing action to follow.

2025 FloRacing Night in America presented by Kubota Standard Purse

1)$20,000 2)$10,000 3)$5,000 4)$4,000 5)$3,000 6)$2,750 7)$2,500 8)$2,300 9)$2,200 10)$2,000 11)$1,500 12)$1,250 13)$1,100 $14)1,050 15-24)$1,000

Total - $68,650

Entry Fee: $100 | Non-Qualifier Money: $50

FloRacing Night in American presented by Kubota Tire Rule for May 7, 8:

Left Front Tire: Open

Right Front Tire: NLMT2, NLMT3

Left Rear Tire: NLMT2, NLMT3

Right Rear Tire: NLMT3, NLMT4

For more information on the facilities, please visit www.SpoonRiverSpeedway.com and www.LincolnSpeedwayIL.com.

The three-race, season-opening swing precedes the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) Illinois Speedweek events at Farmer City Speedway and Fairbury Speedway, which are set for Friday and Saturday, May 9 – 10.

For more information on FloRacing Night in America presented by Kubota sponsors, visit the company websites at www.kubotausa.com; www.integrashocksandsprings.com; www.k1racegear.com; www.buzzeracing.com; www.eibach.com; www.sweetmanufacturing.com; www.md3race.com; www.deatherageopticians.com; www.sunocoracefuels.com; www.coltmanfarms.com; www.poske.com; www.rocketchassis.com; www.dirtdraft.com; www.impactracegear.com; www.hoosiertire.com; www.msmfab.com; www.allgaierperformance.com; and www.fkrodends.com.

For complete FloRacing Night in America presented by Kubota details, visit the series website at www.FloSeries.com. For other questions, contact Ben Shelton at msrmafia@gmail.com or 901-335-3037.

FloRacing Night in America presented by Kubota

La Salle (Ill.) Speedway (May 6, 2025)

A Feature (50 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[7]; 3. 9H-Nick Hoffman[9]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport[11]; 6. 3S-Brian Shirley[5]; 7. 157-Mike Marlar[3]; 8. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[12]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson[10]; 10. 22*-Drake Troutman[2]; 11. 111-Max Blair[19]; 12. 9-Tim McCreadie[18]; 13. 1T-Tyler Erb[14]; 14. 58-Garrett Alberson[8]; 15. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 16. 76-Brandon Overton[15]; 17. 96-Tanner English[21]; 18. 81-Jason Riggs[16]; 19. 18D-Daulton Wilson[24]; 20. (DNF) 40B-Kyle Bronson[17]; 21. (DNF) 99-Devin Moran[13]; 22. (DNF) 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[20]; 23. (DNF) 2-Cody Overton[23]; 24. (DNF) 89-Mike Spatola[22]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 111-Max Blair[1]; 2. 96-Tanner English[2]; 3. 2-Cody Overton[4]; 4. 25-Jason Feger[3]; 5. 32S-Chris Simpson[9]; 6. 31-Tyler Millwood[6]; 7. 27-Rodney Melvin[13]; 8. 15D-Justin Duty[5]; 9. 51-Dean Carpenter[12]; 10. D1-Turk Letizia[8]; 11. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[10]; 12. M27-Mike Provenzano[11]; 13. 10N-Rob Sanders[15]; 14. 24-Ryan Unzicker[7]; 15. 25W-Allen Weisser[16]; 16. (DNS) 18-Shannon Babb

B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[2]; 2. 89-Mike Spatola[3]; 3. 18D-Daulton Wilson[5]; 4. 15-Clay Stuckey[1]; 5. 21B-Rich Bell[6]; 6. 75-Mike McKinney[7]; 7. 93-Carson Ferguson[11]; 8. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[4]; 9. 6-Clay Harris[8]; 10. 09-Michael Leach[13]; 11. 17A-Austin Howes[12]; 12. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[9]; 13. 60-Dan Ebert[10]; 14. 3-Dale Markham[14]; 15. 55X-Mike Lofgren[15]

Entries: 49

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Lap: Brandon Sheppard (12.468 sec.)

Sunoco Race Fuels Fast Qualifier Group A (& Overall): Ricky Thornton Jr. (12.437 sec.)

Sunoco Race Fuels Fast Qualifier Group B & Overall: Tyler Erb 12.531 sec.)

Integra Racing Shocks Heat Race #1 Winner: Ryan Gustin

K1 Race Gear Heat Race #2 Winner: Mike Marlar

Buzze Racing Heat Race #3 Winner: Brian Shirley

Eibach Springs Heat Race #4 Winner: Drake Troutman

Sweet Manufacturing Heat Race #5 Winner: Brandon Sheppard

Dave Poske Performance Race #6 Winner: Bobby Pierce

Coltman Farms B-Main Winners: Max Blair, Frank Heckenast Jr.

Lap Leaders: Ryan Gustin (1-3), Drake Troutman (4-26), Bobby Pierce (27-50)