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Moyer Takes Second Winternationals Win of the Week
SCOTT LOCKWOOD
Florida Short Track Report.com
GIBSONTON - Dating back to the final night of the 2006 Winternationals at
East Bay Raceway Park, there had not been a repeat winner in the Lucas Oil
Dirt Late Model Series - a span of 11 races.
However, Iowa driver Billy Moyer ended the streak with a dominating win,
leading wire-to-wire in the 50-lap feature and taking home $10,000 for winning
his 17th career race at the 1/3 mile oval.
After winning his heat race earlier in the evening, Moyer drew the second
starting spot for the feature. When the green flag flew, Moyer beat polesitter
Matt Miller into turn 1 and quickly began pulling away. Within 10 laps, Moyer
caught the back of the field and began lapping traffic. With Moyer leading,
Brady Smith worked his way up to second, with Miller in third and dealing with
seven cars right on his tail
On lap 14, Miller suddenly slowed and came to a stop in turn 4, bringing his
great night to a premature end. On the restart, Moyer and Brady pulled away,
with John Richards and defending World of Outlaws Late Models champion
Steve Francis battling for third. Francis got by Richards 2 laps later, but
couldn’t do anything with the top two cars.
Two cars on the move after starting near the rear of the field were Eric
Jacobson and B-main winner John Blankenship. By lap 30, Jacobson got
around Francis for third, with Blankenship breaking into the top 10 at the same
time. From that point, Francis would fade back and eventually finish 7th, with
Richards falling out of the top-10 for a 12th place finish.
As the leaders kept fighting their way through traffic, Smith closed right on the
back bumper of Moyer’s car. Smith got a run on Moyer coming out the fourth
turn to complete the 37th lap, only to see Moyer slam the door coming out of
turn two. Smith drew even with Moyer on the back straightaway on lap 39only
to see his efforts wiped out when the caution flew for Dan Schlieper’s stalled
car.
The final 11 laps produced a shootout between Moyer and Smith. Moyer
began inching away on the restart, only to catch traffic again five laps from the
end. This allowed Smith to catch Moyer again, and several times it looked as if
Smith would be able to pull off a pass. Coming down to receive the white flag,
Smith got to the left rear quarter panel of Moyer, but couldn’t make the pass
stick going into the first corner. With two lapped cars also fighting for position
directly in front of the leader, Moyer held off a final charge from Smith coming
off the final corner held on for the win.
“That yellow there while I was in traffic was a huge help," Moyer said. "I didn’t
know how much left rear tire I had left and that cleared the way up and we ran
back into more traffic with a few laps to go and I thought Brady might get by me
there for a moment. I want to thank the guys at Victory Circle because they’ve
really worked hard on these cars and I’ve taken a lot of my own ideas in
building these and I very happy to get a second win here this week.”
Rounding out the top 10 in the feature were Smith, Jacobson, Donnie Moran,
Blankenship, Mike Marler, Francis, Ray Cook, Terry Casey and Tim
McCreadie.
Earlier in the evening, Moyer, Smith, Richards, Bart Hartman and Dave
Tyrchniewicz won their heat races. B-main winners were Blankenship, Marler,
Cook and Tim Fuller. Thursday feature winner Dan O’neal won a thrilling
strawberry dash, charging from third to first in the final lap.
The Lucas Oil Dirt Late Models conclude their portion of Winternationals this
week with a 75 lap feature and $12,000 on the line.
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