The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series visited Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, located in Pevely, Missouri, for the St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff over the weekend. The track, often called “Little Eldora”, is a high-banked 1/3-mile dirt oval located some 20 miles south of the Saint Louis metro. The track is arguably more known for sprint car racing, but the late models put on quite a show as well. The racing was so good that even summer showed up, with 105+ heat indices both days. Hot enough that hot laps were pushed back to 7 pm each night. Still, the fans persisted and were rewarded with some great action on both nights.
Friday night saw Cade Dillard take the pole, but by turn two, it was the Bobby Pierce Show. Pierce, driving a sweet throwback to his father Bob’s 1995 ride that he debuted a few weeks back in Eldora, dominated the first half of the event. The second half of the event was less smooth, though, with Ryan Gustin and Tim McCreadie both taking shifts trying to dethrone the 32. Pierce would not be denied and fended off every advance as the leaders weaved and bobbed through lapped traffic in the closing laps. The win was Pierce’s 5th of the season, 37th of his career, and his first World of Outlaws trophy at Pevely.
On Saturday, it was Mike Harrison and Jake Timms who led the field to green. Harrison led the first half of the event despite having to hold off Brian Shirley multiple times. Rookie Drake Troutman steadily moved his way forward into the 2nd position, but just as the battle started to heat up, the 33 of Harrison had a big slide in turn 3. Troutman pounced and never looked back, leading the remaining 18 laps and taking his first career World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Models victory and an equally awesome $20,000 paycheck.
Bobby Pierce leads Nick Hoffman by 102 points and Ryan Gustin by 140 in the season standings. Troutman sits 4th, just 218 back from Pierce. The series will be in action four straight nights, beginning with the Fergus Falls Showdown on June 26th at I-94 EMR Speedway in Minnesota. If you can’t attend an event in person, you can catch the full World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series schedule live on DirtVision.
Header Image: World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Models 4-wide salute: Clay Guthrie/ Seriously Fast Motorsports