Race Story

RICE WINS A THURSDAY THRILLER

(COURTESY DIRTCAR PR)
The front row of the second Feature of the night featured a pair of drivers seeking their first Eldora triumph in Carson Ferguson and Wil Herrington. Ferguson’s race lasted less than half a lap, as he got into the wall in Turns 1 and 2, flipped over and got pounded by Chris Simpson. Both drivers emerged unhurt.

Herrington jumped out to the lead on the restart, while Max Blair, Tyler Erb and Bobby Pierce raced three-wide down the backstretch for the runner-up position. Erb emerged from that battle on top, putting himself in position to chase down Herrington.

The Hawkinsville, GA pilot led the first nine circuits, but one misstep in Turn 4 was all it took to send Herrington up and over the cushion and Erb into the lead. Before Herrington could get back up to speed, Rice slipped by for second and instantly set his sights on the General Lee throwback out front.

Ten laps later, Erb had company as Rice was ripping the low lane to get alongside the reigning DIRTcar Summer Nationals champion. Rice was unable to capitalize on his first bid for the lead, and before he knew it, third-place runner Bobby Pierce was on his back bumper.

The battle for second suddenly turned into the battle for the win when Erb got over the cushion and into the wall in Turn 3 with 20 to go. The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision points leader slid Rice for the lead in Turn 2 but had to check up to avoid a pair of lap cars, opening the door for Rice to pull the crossover.

At that point, one of the most thrilling battles for the lead in the seven-decade history of Eldora Speedway was on. Pierce repeated the same move into Turn 3 one lap later, and this time he made it stick. Rice didn’t let Pierce go far though, as he kept the margin under a second until retaking the lead on the bottom in Turns 1 and 2 with 11 to go. Pierce immediately tried to take it back in the next set of corners, but couldn’t clear Rice with the slider and had to back out.

A pair of cautions for Hudson O’Neal and Wil Herrington put the action on pause, but a perfect final restart by Rice allowed him to set sail towards the $30,000 top prize. Ten perfect laps later, one of the most talented regional racers in the country became a winner at the mecca of dirt racing.

“I thought Brownstown was hard to win at, this place is damn near impossible to win at. Especially to do it over the 32, he wins every damn weekend,” Rice said in Victory Lane. “We’ve been good here recently. Good thing we Hot Lapped again, I’m glad it rained out because I probably would have never won this deal. We Hot Lapped there and wasn’t very good, threw what we knew was going to be close. Honestly, we didn’t know if it was going to be close or not, but it worked.”

Pierce beat Erb in a drag race to the flag stand for second with Nick Hoffman and Daulton Wilson competing the top five.

Race Results

Event Box Score

06-05-2025

Late Models – Qualifying
1. 18X-Michael Page, 15.239; 2. 10-Joseph Joiner, 15.309; 3. 17M-Dale McDowell, 15.436; 4. 93-Carson Ferguson, 15.461; 5. 111-Max Blair, 15.485; 6. 22-Chris Ferguson, 15.546; 7. 15K-Wil Herrington, 15.547; 8. 11-Austin Smith, 15.682; 9. 20-Jimmy Owens, 15.733; 10. 71-Hudson O’Neal, 15.823; 11. 32S-Chris Simpson, 15.834; 12. 10S-Garrett Smith, 15.869; 13. 2X-John Henderson, 15.901; 14. 28B-Carson Brown, 16.087; 15. 17SS-Brenden Smith, 16.175; 16. 101-Forrest Trent, 16.201; 17. 55-Eli Johnson, 16.247; 18. 6H-Clay Harris, 16.265; 19. 22X-Drake Troutman, 16.288; 20. 71R-Rod Conley, 16.341; 21. 25Z-Mason Zeigler, 16.344; 22. 4G-Kody Evans, 16.411; 23. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 16.422; 24. 57-Zack Mitchell, 16.901; 25. 32-Bobby Pierce, 15.114; 26. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 15.144; 27. 11R-Josh Rice, 15.259; 28. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 15.369; 29. O9-Michael Leach, 15.383; 30. O1-Tyler Erb, 15.400; 31. 4-Kale Green, 15.434; 32. 17-Zack Dohm, 15.452; 33. 9-Nick Hoffman, 15.452; 34. 99-Devin Moran, 15.495; 35. 28C-Tyler Carpenter, 15.514; 36. 93L-Cory Lawler, 15.633; 37. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 15.674; 38. 81-Jason Riggs, 15.707; 39. 7-Montana Dudley, 15.720; 40. 12R-Ryan Payne, 15.882; 41. C6-Oakley Johns, 15.930; 42. 114E-Evan Koehler, 15.950; 43. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 15.959; 44. 89-Mike Spatola, 15.977; 45. OO-Justin Cooper, 16.142; 46. O7-Ben Sukup, 16.212; 47. 95-Jerry Bowersock, 16.317

Heat #1 – (10)Laps – Top 5 Transfer
1. 15K-Wil Herrington[1]; 2. 111-Max Blair[2]; 3. 20-Jimmy Owens[5]; 4. 17M-Dale McDowell[3]; 5. 32S-Chris Simpson[6]; 6. 22X-Drake Troutman[10]; 7. 17SS-Brenden Smith[8]; 8. 2X-John Henderson[7]; 9. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[11]; 10. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[12]; 11. 55-Eli Johnson[9]; 12. 18X-Michael Page[4]

Heat #2 – (10)Laps – Top 5 Transfer
1. 11-Austin Smith[1]; 2. 22-Chris Ferguson[2]; 3. 93-Carson Ferguson[3]; 4. 10S-Garrett Smith[6]; 5. 10-Joseph Joiner[4]; 6. 71-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 7. 101-Forrest Trent[8]; 8. 28B-Carson Brown[7]; 9. 6H-Clay Harris[9]; 10. 57-Zack Mitchell[12]; 11. 71R-Rod Conley[10]; 12. 4G-Kody Evans[11]

Heat #3 – (10)Laps – Top 5 Transfer
1. O9-Michael Leach[2]; 2. 4-Kale Green[1]; 3. 11R-Josh Rice[3]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 5. 9-Nick Hoffman[5]; 6. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[10]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[7]; 8. 7-Montana Dudley[8]; 9. OO-Justin Cooper[11]; 10. 95-Jerry Bowersock[12]; 11. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[6]; 12. C6-Oakley Johns[9]

Heat #4 – (10)Laps – Top 5 Transfer
1. O1-Tyler Erb[2]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[4]; 3. 99-Devin Moran[5]; 4. 89-Mike Spatola[10]; 5. 93L-Cory Lawler[6]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson[3]; 7. 81-Jason Riggs[7]; 8. 114E-Evan Koehler[9]; 9. O7-Ben Sukup[11]; 10. 12R-Ryan Payne[8]; 11. 17-Zack Dohm[1]

B-Feature #1 – (12)Laps – Top 3 Transfer
1. 22X-Drake Troutman[1]; 2. 71-Hudson O’Neal[2]; 3. 101-Forrest Trent[4]; 4. 2X-John Henderson[5]; 5. 17SS-Brenden Smith[3]; 6. 28B-Carson Brown[6]; 7. 6H-Clay Harris[8]; 8. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[7]; 9. 57-Zack Mitchell[10]; 10. 55-Eli Johnson[11]; 11. 71R-Rod Conley[12]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[9]; 13. 18X-Michael Page[13]; 14. 4G-Kody Evans[14]

B-Feature #2 – (12)Laps – Top 3 Transfer
1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 2. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[3]; 3. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[1]; 4. 81-Jason Riggs[4]; 5. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[11]; 6. 7-Montana Dudley[5]; 7. 95-Jerry Bowersock[9]; 8. O7-Ben Sukup[8]; 9. 114E-Evan Koehler[6]; 10. OO-Justin Cooper[7]; 11. 12R-Ryan Payne[10]; 12. 17-Zack Dohm[12]; 13. C6-Oakley Johns[13]

A-Feature – (50)Laps
1. 11R-Josh Rice[5]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 3. O1-Tyler Erb[4]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[16]; 5. 18D-Daulton Wilson[8]; 6. 17M-Dale McDowell[9]; 7. 111-Max Blair[3]; 8. 10S-Garrett Smith[17]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson[22]; 10. 22-Chris Ferguson[10]; 11. 10-Joseph Joiner[11]; 12. 20-Jimmy Owens[14]; 13. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[24]; 14. 101-Forrest Trent[25]; 15. 89-Mike Spatola[20]; 16. 11-Austin Smith[12]; 17. O9-Michael Leach[7]; 18. 4-Kale Green[13]; 19. 93L-Cory Lawler[19]; 20. 15K-Wil Herrington[1]; 21. 71-Hudson O’Neal[23]; 22. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[26]; 23. 22X-Drake Troutman[21]; 24. 99-Devin Moran[15]; 25. 93-Carson Ferguson[2]; 26. 32S-Chris Simpson[18]

Photos

Images from the Event

Photos by Tyler Carr