World of Outlaws Prairie Dirt Classic • night 1

The 35th annual Prairie Dirt Classic got underway Friday night with a quartet of 25-lap Showdown Features for the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.

Brian Shirley, Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard and Hudson O’Neal headlined the list of 16 drivers who punched their ticket into Saturday’s 100-lap, $50,000-to-win, main event.

Showdown Feature 1

Simpson Quick Time Award winner Garrett Alberson battled side-by-side with Jonathan Davenport on the opening lap, with Davenport prevailing on the low side. Five laps later, Alberson lost second to Brian Shirley, who pulled the crossover down the frontstretch and slid up to complete the move in Turns 1 and 2.

Shirley wasn’t done there, as he quickly closed in on Davenport and got to his inside entering Turn 3. The pair crossed back and forth for the top spot, but a strong run off the Turn 4 cushion was all Shirley needed to prevail in that battle.

The No. 3S kept banging the boards in the second half and held off a late charge from Davenport on the bottom for his first PDC Showdown victory.

“They would slide out a little bit coming off the corner there and I would get a pretty good run on them,” Shirley said. “It was definitely 25 laps up on the wheel.”

Davenport, Dennis Erb Jr. and Josh Rice earned the final three Feature transfer spots.

Showdown Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 2. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 4. 11R-Josh Rice[7]; 5. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 6. 81F-Jadon Frame[6]; 7. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[11]; 8. 51-Matt Furman[9]; 9. 14-Caden McWhorter[4]; 10. T2-Brayton Wallace[10]; 11. 5S-Kyle Hammer[12]; 12. 44-Blaze Burwell[17]; 13. 11-Austin Smith[8]; 14. 2-Cody Overton[13]; 15. 10-Daryn Klein[15]; 16. 14C-Doug Carls[19]; 17. 130-Chase Osterhoff[18]; 18. K67-Braiden Keller[14]; 19. 95-Jerry Bowersock[16]; 20. M27-Mike Provenzano[20]

Showdown Feature 2

Reigning PDC champion Bobby Pierce started on the pole and fended off Daulton Wilson and Brandon Overton to take command in the opening laps. Unlike Shirley in the race before him, Pierce stuck to the bottom to cruise to a one-second lead after half a dozen circuits.

While he watched Pierce drive away, Wilson slotted into second until Mike Marlar came knocking on his door past halfway. A big run off Turn 4 allowed Marlar to get to the inside of Wilson down the frontstretch, and the spot was his in the next set of corners.

Out front, slower traffic didn’t do anything to hinder Pierce, as he crossed the line first by two seconds to claim his spot in the Saturday Feature.

“It’s awesome to have a top-four starting spot,” Pierce said. “Really want to draw the pole or the front row in the Redraw to get that lap money. Me and my sponsor Gary, we were talking about it, I was like, ‘I loved winning that race last year in dramatic fashion,’ but he was like ‘yeah, you should just try to lead every lap and get that lap money.’ And I agree.”

Marlar, Jason Feger and Wilson also earned spots in the 100-lapper.

Showdown Feature 2 (25 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[8]; 3. 25F-Jason Feger[6]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[2]; 5. 9M-Tim McCreadie[9]; 6. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 7. 1T-Tyler Erb[12]; 8. 99B-Boom Briggs[4]; 9. 12-Doug Drown[16]; 10. 26M-Myles Moos[5]; 11. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[11]; 12. 8L-Jeffrey Ledford[7]; 13. 74X-Ethan Dotson[13]; 14. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[14]; 15. 49-Jake Timm[10]; 16. 17A-Austin Howes[15]; 17. 38-Thomas Hunziker[18]; 18. Z61-Alex Wilson[17]; 19. 7-David Payne[19]

Showdown Feature 3

Brandon Sheppard started his quest for a sixth Showdown win on the pole alongside Jason Jameson, who was making his first PDC appearance since 2018. Jameson and Chris Simpson held strong on the bottom on the opening lap, but Sheppard’s momentum around the top was enough to prevail.

It would be smooth sailing from there for Sheppard, but the same couldn’t be said for 13th-starting Nick Hoffman. It took the Tye Twarog Motorsports driver eight laps to crack the top 10, but he found another gear at that point. Ten laps later, the No. 9 was on Shane Clanton’s bumper in the battle for the fourth and final transfer spot, and he powered through the middle to take the position.

Hoffman was able to get one more spot before the finish, as Simpson tagged the Turn 3 wall with two to go and allowed Hoffman to slip by down low.

Timmy Dick and Donny Walden got together and brought out the yellow on the white flag lap to rerack the field, but that didn’t change the order out front as Sheppard took the checkers over Jameson and Hoffman.

“Knew we had to have a good restart, keep setting my consistent pace like I was doing,” Sheppard said. “My crew guy was showing me I was gaining a little bit of a lead as we went, so I wasn’t really pushing it overly hard. I think we made a good call on tires right there, the guys have done a phenomenal job with this thing.”

Simpson held onto fourth to make his seventh PDC Feature.

Showdown Feature 3 (25 Laps): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 12J-Jason Jameson[2]; 3. 9-Nick Hoffman[13]; 4. 32S-Chris Simpson[3]; 5. 18-Shannon Babb[4]; 6. 25-Shane Clanton[7]; 7. 25W-Allen Weisser[5]; 8. 22*-Drake Troutman[6]; 9. 24-Ryan Unzicker[10]; 10. 0-Jake O’Neil[11]; 11. 1*-Chub Frank[9]; 12. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[14]; 13. 50-Kayden Clatt[17]; 14. 19-Dustin Sorensen[15]; 15. 09-Michael Leach[16]; 16. 122-Timmy Dick[18]; 17. 75-Dillon McCowan[8]; 18. 1W-Donny Walden[19]; 19. 48-Hunter Kohn[20]; 20. 33-Mike Harrison[12]

Showdown Feature 4

The front row of Hudson O’Neal and Gordy Gundaker ran a full-speed pace lap on the first circuit, with O’Neal riding the cushion to eventually pull ahead.

The vast majority of the field stuck to the low and middle lanes throughout the final 25-lapper, but O’Neal was too far ahead to get that memo. Lap after lap, the No. 6 bounced off the cushion exiting the corners to extend the gap to the field to north of five seconds.

Traffic forced him to change things up in the closing stages, but O’Neal stayed equally strong on the bottom to maintain the advantage through to the end.

“I feel really, really good,” O’Neal said. “I feel like we’ve got a little work to do if we’re going to win 100 laps around here. But it’s so cool, anytime you can be standing here in Victory Lane at Fairbury for the PDC weekend, even if it’s just a prelim, it’s so cool. The atmosphere here is unbelievable and these are some of the best fans in the world.”

Max Blair, Gundaker and Tanner English also solidified their starting spots in Saturday’s Feature.

Showdown Feature 4 (25 Laps): 1. 6-Hudson O’Neal[2]; 2. 111-Max Blair[3]; 3. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[1]; 4. 96-Tanner English[17]; 5. 6H-Clay Harris[5]; 6. 15-Justin Duty[8]; 7. 42-Mckay Wenger[6]; 8. 19R-Ryan Gustin[13]; 9. 16-Tyler Bruening[9]; 10. 89-Mike Spatola[11]; 11. 18J-Chase Junghans[10]; 12. B1-Brent Larson[12]; 13. 17SR-Brody Smith[19]; 14. 38J-Jake Little[16]; 15. 81-Jason Riggs[14]; 16. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[7]; 17. 17SS-Brenden Smith[4]; 18. 17KN-Brock Morris[18]; 19. 9Z-Lyle Zanker[15]

UP NEXT: The Prairie Dirt Classic wraps up on Saturday, July 26, with three Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns, the Prairie Dirt Shootout and the 100-lap, $50,000-to-win, Feature. Tickets will be available at the gate.

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