Feb 11, 20222 min read

Speedweeks Results: Sheppard Goes Two in-a-row at East Bay

The action continued on Thursday night at East Bay Raceway Park for night #4 of the 46th Annual Wrisco Winternationals for the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series. A much better surface was provided to the 75 drivers who took time in qualifying, with Brandon Overton putting his #76 machine at the top of the board. For the second night in a row, 6 Heat races and 3 B-Mains would set the field for the 40 lap, $7,000 to win main event.

18 year old Garrett Smith was scheduled to start on the pole, next to Brandon Overton, but Smith’s #10 machine would fail technical inspection following his heat race win, disqualifying him for the remainder of the evening. That would move Max Blair to the front row next to Overton. Overton would shoot out to the early lead, bringing former World 100 winner Earl Pearson Jr with him. Only one caution flag would fly by the halfway point, with Overton leading every lap over Pearson Jr and Brian Shirley. The caution would wave on lap 21 for a Ross Robinson spin, tightening the field up.

On the restart, Brian Shirley would shoot around Overton and Pearson Jr to take over the lead, but that would be short lived. One lap later, Brandon Sheppard would roar past Shirley to take over the top spot. By lap 30, Sheppard would build a sizable lead over Pearson Jr and Devin Moran. With 5 laps remaining, Kyle Bronson would work around Moran for 3rd, charging from 16th.

With what seems to have been the theme this week at East Bay, the caution would fly with 2 laps remaining, setting up a green-white-checker shootout. Sheppard would make contact with the wall out of turn 4 coming to the white flag, allowing EPJ to close it. Sheppard would recover and claim win #2 of the week at the Tampa bullring, holding off Pearson Jr and Bronson. Moran and Hudson O’Neal would round out the top 5.

The series returns again on Friday to “The Clay by the Bay” for a 50 lap contest with $12,000 on the line.

Speedweeks - Results

Thursday, February 10th

East Bay Raceway Park - Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series

A-Main: 1) 1S Brandon Sheppard, 2) 46 Earl Pearson Jr., 3) 40B Kyle Bronson

B-Main: 44B Colton Burdette

B-Main: 58 Garrett Alberson

B-Main: 1ST Johnny Scott

Heat 1: 10 Garrett Smith

Heat 2: 46 Earl Pearson Jr.

Heat 3: 3S Brian Shirley

Heat 4: 76 Brandon Overton