BROWNSTOWN
Bobby Pierce passed race leader Jonathan Davenport, as the two headed for the white flag, and then he held off Davenport on the final circuit, to win the 39th Annual Jackson 100 on Sunday afternoon at Brownstown Speedway.
The victory marked Pierce’s third Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the year and his first at the historic quarter-mile oval a track where his Hall-of-Fame father, Bob, won a total of 16 times.
The race was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but afternoon-long rain forced the event to be postponed to Sunday.
The 100-lap event, the most prestigious race at Brownstown this season, saw four different race leaders, as Mason Zeigler, Tim McCreadie, Davenport and Pierce all took turns leading the race that paid $20,000 to win.
Zeigler led the first 15 laps until McCreadie powered to the lead.
McCreadie, who won the event back in 2008, then had the lead until lap 60 when Davenport, the current LOLMDS points leader, roared from the sixth-starting spot to take over the lead.
After a caution with 19 laps to go, Davenport started to pull away from Pierce and McCreadie, as he stretched his lead out and the race went caution-free for the remaining laps.
Pierce, who started 19th in the race, kept his low-running car glued to the bottom of the track, as Davenport saw his lead slowly evaporate.
Pierce pulled even with Davenport in the waning laps. As the two exited turn four heading for the white flag, Pierce was able to get by Davenport for the lead.
Pierce then held off any last-lap effort by Davenport.
McCreadie would cross the finish line in third.
Jimmy Owens, the winner a week ago at Knoxville, stormed through the field after pitting on lap 57 for a tire change. Darrell Lanigan, who started 14th, came home in fifth.
Pierce, in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the ninth time in his career, was breathless in his post-race interview.
“Wow, out of all of the places to win my first big race of the season I didn’t think it would happen here at Brownstown,” Pierce said. “You have to stay so focused here. It gets really slick. To finish second to JD would not have been bad. Thanks to all the fans for coming, I don’t know what to say my emotions have taken over.
“It’s been a long year, we have been so close to getting some big wins to finally get it feels really good. I have got to thank my dad and Danny Meyers. I didn’t it would work what they suggested. I think I won a kid mods race here before, but this is obviously very special this track has such a great racing history.
“On that last restart I didn’t know if I could stay with him (Davenport) but on the long-run I think I was better than him. It worked out I don’t know how it did. I can’t wait to watch the replace of this race.”
With his runner-up finish, Davenport will maintain the series points heading to Dixie and Rome next week.
“Bobby is good. No doubt about it,” Davenport said. “He gave me the Silver Dollar Nationals back in July at I-80. (Pierce) did a heck of a job. On that last restart I thought I might be in trouble because I didn’t have a lot of grip left on the tires. I think I let them cool off too much. From the way we started the weekend and after starting seventh in our heat race and to get to the front…Hats off to my crew. We are headed in the right direction and it was a good night as well.”
McCreadie, who led 41 of the 100 laps, commented afterwards on his third-place finish.
“It was a lot of fun out there today,” McCreadie said. “Hats off to Bobby and Jonathan we are happy to be competitive. We are doing it harder than anyone in the pit area, it’s great to run up front against these guys.”
The winner’s Dunn-Benson Ford Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Pro Power Engine.
Completing the top 10 were Kent Robinson, Earl Pearson Jr., Josh Richards, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Nick Hoffman.
Mike Fields of Scottsburg won his seventh super stock feature of the year over Aubrey Eagan of Bedford, Jason Hehman of Brownstown, Jeremy Hines of Seymour and Tim Eddelman of Taylorsville completed the top five drivers.
Also, on Sunday at Brownstown, it was Derek Groomer of Bloomington scoring his first open wheel modified feature of the year at the Jackson County Fairgrounds track.
Tyler Nicely of Owensboro, Kentucky who had won his last three appearances at Brownstown, finished in second followed by Earl Plessinger of Lexington, Jeremy Owens of North Vernon and Jordan Wever of Bloomington.
In Friday Night’s action Don O’Neal of Martinsville took the Bowman 50 for the Indiana Pro Late Model Series.
It was a terrific battle for the lead among several drivers, as the veteran late model pilot withstood the challenges of his older brother, Marty, to take his first win in the annual event.
Marty O’Neal of Spencer was second followed by Justin Shaw of Greenwood, Shelby Miles of Bloomington and Steven Godsey of Bedford.
Rick Gumm of Tampico won his seventh straight pure stock feature race.
Trailing Gumm across the finish line were Troy Clark of North Vernon, Zachary Stalker of Heltonville, Keaton Streeval of Edinburgh and Jim Ruddick of Seymour.
Rick Robinson of Columbus won his first UMRA King of the TQ Midget feature of the season holding off Joey Paxson of Connersville, Tate Martz of Rushville, Robbie Roland of Carthage and Jason Setser of Columbus for the victory.
Seymour’s Donnie Modesty returned to Brownstown’s victory lane as he captured the hornet division feature race. Hunter Perry was second followed by Josh Hallett, Andrew Deavers of Daniel Hobbs.