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Pierce Dominates at Fairbury

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Burbank, IL (September 7, 2020) – Saturday night the Mars Racing Series presented by Rip It Energy Fuel closed out the three day race weekend at Fairbury Speedway with the biggest payday of the season so far in the Super Nationals.

Thirty-four late models signed in for Mars Racing Series competition on Saturday night chasing the $10,000 payday in Fairbury. The Labor Day weekend event has become a tradition accompanying the $10,000 modified race.

In qualifying Taylor Scheffler from the state of Wisconsin put down the quickest lap in qualifying with a lap of 12.936 seconds. Jason Feger was quickest in group B at 13.162 seconds. Qualifying set the stage for the four heat races to start setting the field for the nights 50 lap main event.

In heat race number one Bobby Pierce used his outside front row starting spot to take the lead early and never look back. After starting third Brian Shirley took the runner up spot. Taylor Scheffler slipped back and finished third with Allen Weisser in the fourth and final transfer spot.

During heat race two Frank Heckenast Jr, the current Mars points leader drove to the win. The Silver Shark, Scott James came from the fourth starting spot to finish second. Mike Spatola charged from the sixth starting spot to claim third. The final transfer spot went to Derek Chandler who was able to continue after an opening lap spin.

Heat race number three was an exciting one. Jason Feger was able to hold off a charging Ryan Gustin for the win. Tim Manville came home third and Kent Robinson slipped back from his second starting spot to hold on to fourth and make the feature event.

The final heat race of the night went to Hall of Famer Billy Moyer with the win. Shannon Babb came home second. The all-time winningest driver at Fairbury, Kevin Weaver came home third and Rich Bell made the late race pass on McKay Wenger to move on to the feature in the final transfer spot.

The redraw once again was a friend to Bobby Pierce. For the second time in three nights Bobby drew the one and started on the pole Saturday night. Billy Moyer was the final driver to draw but pulled out the two and lined up on the outside of the front row.

In B-Main action driver Mike Provenzano was able to take home the win in B-Main #1. Eric Smith rallied from the fourth starting spot to finish second and transfer to the feature. Ryan Unzicker who failed to transfer in his heat race started on the pole and won B-Main #2. Mitch McGrath from Wisconsin was able to hold off Fairbury regular McKay Wenger for the last transfer into the main event. The final two spots in the twenty-two-car field were filled by provisionals awarded to Mike Chasteen Jr and McKay Wenger.

Three car battle at Fairbury Speedway, (from bottom to top) Allen Weisser, Jason Feger, Billy Moyer. (Ryan Roberts Photo)

Bobby Pierce led the field to green and took the lead on lap one. Pierce never looked back after that in his dominate 50 lap performance on the quarter-mile oval in Fairbury, IL. Frank Heckenast Jr and Brian Shirley were the only two that gave any sort of challenge to Bobby. Heckenast Jr closed in on Bobby passed the halfway point as Pierce dealt with lap traffic but the caution came out when third place running Scott James made contact with the infield tire off turn two with thirteen laps to go.

On the final restart Pierce sped away from the field like he had all evening long. In his post-race interview Bobby said he kept waiting for something to happen to keep him from victory lane at Fairbury. In the last several big money races at Fairbury Bobby has had bad luck strike. Last summer Bobby looked to have the $30,000 Prairie Dirt Classic in hand but loss of power steering and a late slider from Brandon Sheppard kept him from victory lane. Pierce’s new chassis dubbed “Lucky� has two wins and a runner up finish so far in the first three nights out.

Mars points leader Frank Heckenast Jr came home in the runner up position. Brian Shirley rounded out the podium Saturday night. Tim Manville who started back in the tenth position came up to finish fourth and Friday night winner Jason Feger came home in fifth.

Bobby Pierce crosses the finish line for this $10,000 payday at Fairbury. (Rich Labier Photo)

A Feature (50 Laps) 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[3]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[5]; 4. 33-Tim Manville[10]; 5. 25-Jason Feger[4]; 6. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[9]; 7. 24-Ryan Unzicker[18]; 8. 25W-Allen Weisser[13]; 9. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[2]; 10. 21B-Rich Bell[16]; 11. 74-Mitch McGrath[20]; 12. 42-Mckay Wenger[21]; 13. 89-Mike Spatola[11]; 14. 9-Eric Smith[19]; 15. (DNF) B12-Kevin Weaver[12]; 16. (DNF) 83-Scott James[7]; 17. (DNF) 35-Derek Chandler[15]; 18. (DNF) 18B-Shannon Babb[8]; 19. (DNF) 19R-Ryan Gustin[6]; 20. (DNF) 2-Mike Chasteen Jr[22]; 21. (DNF) M27-Mike Provenzano[17]; 22. (DNF) 7R-Kent Robinson[14]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps) 1. M27-Mike Provenzano[1]; 2. 9-Eric Smith[4]; 3. 10-Scott Schmitt[5]; 4. 3-Dale Markham[3]; 5. 1W-Donny Walden[7]; 6. 18-Jeffrey Ledford[6]; 7. 56-Brandon Pralle[8]; 8. 28M-Jake Miller[9]; 9. (DNF) 30-Mark Voigt[2]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps) 1. 24-Ryan Unzicker[1]; 2. 74-Mitch McGrath[5]; 3. 42-Mckay Wenger[2]; 4. 2-Mike Chasteen Jr[7]; 5. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[4]; 6. 77M-Jay Morris[3]; 7. 111-Steven Roberts[9]; 8. 76-Titus Sneed[8]; 9. (DNF) 12-Jeff Curl[6]

Heat 1 (10 Laps) 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 3. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[1]; 4. 25W-Allen Weisser[5]; 5. M27-Mike Provenzano[4]; 6. 3-Dale Markham[7]; 7. 10-Scott Schmitt[8]; 8. 1W-Donny Walden[6]; 9. (DNF) 28M-Jake Miller[9]

Heat 2 (10 Laps) 1. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[2]; 2. 83-Scott James[4]; 3. 89-Mike Spatola[6]; 4. 35-Derek Chandler[1]; 5. 30-Mark Voigt[5]; 6. 9-Eric Smith[3]; 7. 18-Jeffrey Ledford[7]; 8. 56-Brandon Pralle[8]

Heat 3 (10 Laps) 1. 25-Jason Feger[1]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[3]; 3. 33-Tim Manville[4]; 4. 7R-Kent Robinson[2]; 5. 24-Ryan Unzicker[7]; 6. 77M-Jay Morris[5]; 7. 74-Mitch McGrath[6]; 8. 2-Mike Chasteen Jr[8]; 9. 111-Steven Roberts[9]

Heat 4 (10 Laps) 1. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[1]; 2. 18B-Shannon Babb[2]; 3. B12-Kevin Weaver[3]; 4. 21B-Rich Bell[7]; 5. 42-Mckay Wenger[5]; 6. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[4]; 7. 12-Jeff Curl[8]; 8. 76-Titus Sneed[6]

Qualifying Group 1 (2 Laps) 1. 10S-Taylor Scheffler, 00:12.936[10]; 2. 35-Derek Chandler, 00:13.076[2]; 3. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:13.101[1]; 4. 99JR- Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:13.140[5]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:13.141[11]; 6. 9-Eric Smith, 00:13.162[15]; 7. M27-Mike Provenzano, 00:13.178[13]; 8. 83-Scott James, 00:13.277[14]; 9. 25W-Allen Weisser, 00:13.368[6]; 10. 30-Mark Voigt, 00:13.391[16]; 11. 1W-Donny Walden, 00:13.477[9]; 12. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:13.526[4]; 13. 3-Dale Markham, 00:13.553[12]; 14. 18-Jeffrey Ledford, 00:13.724[17]; 15. 10-Scott Schmitt, 00:13.874[7]; 16. 56-Brandon Pralle, 00:14.002[8]; 17. 28M-Jake Miller, 00:14.212[3]

Qualifying Group 2 (2 Laps) 1. 25-Jason Feger, 00:13.162[4]; 2. 21-Billy Moyer Sr, 00:13.186[1]; 3. 7R-Kent Robinson, 00:13.244[10]; 4. 18B-Shannon Babb, 00:13.263[11]; 5. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:13.273[7]; 6. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:13.282[13]; 7. 33-Tim Manville, 00:13.373[2]; 8. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh, 00:13.374[14]; 9. 77M-Jay Morris, 00:13.401[6]; 10. 42-Mckay Wenger, 00:13.427[15]; 11. 74-Mitch McGrath, 00:13.500[17]; 12. 76-Titus Sneed, 00:13.508[3]; 13. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:13.508[9]; 14. 21B-Rich Bell, 00:13.528[8]; 15. 2-Mike Chasteen Jr, 00:13.607[5]; 16. 12-Jeff Curl, 00:13.747[12]; 17. (DNS) 111-Steven Roberts

For more information and news concerning the Rip It Energy Fuel Mars Racing Series, please visit us at www.marsracingseries.com

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