GIBSONTON, Fla. – Stormy Scott raced to his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory on Thursday night at East Bay Raceway Park.
The 31-year-old New Mexico native took the lead on lap seven and never yielded the point in winning the 40-lap main event. It was the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series’ 100th-sanctioned event at East Bay dating back to 2005.
Scott, who started ninth in the field, came to the front quickly by passing Brian Shirley for the lead. Scott then held serve for the remainder of the feature to become the fourth different winner in four series races this season.
Kyle Bronson caught Scott in traffic, but kept his line to finish second. Tim McCreadie earned his first podium finish of the year in third. Frank Heckenast Jr. was fourth, with Shirley taking fifth.
“I can’t thank everybody enough for helping us get here, especially all of our sponsors and all of my crew,” said Scott. “We have probably had the roughest two years in late models that anyone could ever have. We started at the highest level and everybody thought were fools for doing that. I just can’t stand defeat and every time we got kicked in the side we just kept going. I want to thank my grandparents for this opportunity. During the race, I knew when I moved up the track a little bit I couldn’t steer, and I started watching in front of me and nobody up there could steer as well. I stayed on the bottom and if somebody got by me then they deserved it more than me.”
Bronson finished second at his home track.
“I think it was the hardest thing to do in my life to not leave that bottom,” Bronson said. “I feel like McCreadie is the best in the sport at hooking that bottom. I knew if I got off the bottom he [McCreadie] was going to get past me. Stormy did a heck of a job, he did everything he needed to do out there. I am pretty excited to see him win tonight, he has worked hard the last two years.”
McCreadie earned his best finish of the season in third.
“We just kind of persevered out there,” McCreadie said. “We were unbalanced. This is our second car. This is hard to do. You spent a lot of the night adapting to the way the track is. For us, we haven’t had a lot of side-bite and traction.”
The finish:
Stormy Scott, Kyle Bronson, Tim McCreadie, Frank Heckenast Jr., Brian Shirley, Mike Marlar, Ricky Thorton Jr., Ross Bailes, Brandon Overton, Ashton Winger, Tanner English, Brandon Sheppard, Tyler Erb, Devin Moran, Hudson O’Neal, Bobby Pierce, Tyler Bruening, Jimmy Owens, Michael Brown, Mason Zeigler, Billy Moyer Jr., Gregg Satterlee, Jonathan Davenport, Earl Pearson Jr., Josh Richards, Boom Briggs, Shane Clanton, Rick Eckert, Chase Junghans, Wil Herrington.