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Minnesota’s Sorensen & Timm garner Late Model top-10s

By Meghan Diemel
ATD Editor

VADO, NM (January 5) - Different track conditions made for an interesting Sunday night in Vado, New Mexico January 5, as drivers gathered at Vado Speedway Park for the second night of action during the Wild West Shootout.

Winners when the final checkered flag flew included two repeat winners in Bobby Pierce and Rob Moseley in the Super Late Models and X-Mods, respectively, while Jake Gallardo broke through for his first win of the miniseries in the Modifieds.

Minnesota racers Dustin Sorensen and Jake Timm landed top-10 finishes in the Late Models, an effort Sorensen repeated in the Modifieds. Joseph Thomas also nailed down a top-10 in the Mods. In the X-Mods, North Dakota’s Scott Bintz, Wisconsin’s Blake Adams, and South Dakota’s Duke Erickson all had top-10 finishes to show for their efforts.

Collen Winebarger was the early leader to kick off the Super Late Model feature, as Mike Marlar and Bobby Pierce fought hard for second, with Garrett Alberson close behind in fourth.

As the front-runners completed lap three, Pierce slid by Marlar into second down the frontstretch, as Alberson also drove by Marlar on the bottom to third heading into turn one. Cade Dillard was fifth.

Winebarger continued to lead out front with seven laps in, while Pierce, Alberson and Marlar held the remaining top four spots. Brandon Sheppard got by for fifth, but Dillard fought back, and the two continued to battle for the spot as the laps clicked by.

With 10 laps complete, Pierce began to quickly cut into Winebarger’s advantage, as Winebarger began to work through lapped traffic. The yellow then flew for former WISSOTA National Champion Don Shaw, who had jumped the cushion and hit the wall hard coming out of turn four; he was done for the night.

Winebarger held the lead back under green with 10 laps in the books, while Pierce, Alberson and Marlar were nearly three wide for position down the backstretch; Alberson shook out into second, Marlar was third, and Pierce was shuffled back to fourth, while Sheppard was fifth. Dillard left the track with mechanical issues.

Winebarger held the lead with 25 to go, as Marlar rallied back into second with a slider on Alberson. Pierce and Shepperd were close behind in fourth and fifth, with Sheppard making moves into fourth shortly after.

With 20 laps to go, the top six were fighting each other for position and trading spots – and lanes – seemingly in each turn; as the field completed the lap, Winebarger had a narrow advantage at the start-finish line, while Sheppard drove by Marlar on the bottom to second and Alberson was fourth. Sheppard’s bottom-side momentum swung him past Winebarger in turn four as Winebarger bobbled on the berm to take the lead to complete lap 22. A caution brought the field back under yellow.

Sheppard led the field back to green, with Pierce getting a great restart and moving to second. Behind them, Alberson was third along the bottom, Marlar raced the middle groove, and Winebarger fell back to fifth along the high side; Winebarger battled back into fourth past Marlar behind a side-by-side battle heading into turn four between Pierce and Alberson. Alberson used a slider to briefly gain second out of turn four, but Pierce shot back by a lane down the track and held second at the stripe to complete lap 23.

Sheppard continued to lead with 24 laps complete, while Pierce, Alberson, Junghans and Winebarger continued to hold top-five spots.

Sheppard, who was racing the low side, came under fire a few laps later from Pierce, who was launching himself around the top groove; Sheppard moved up to the top and stymied Pierce’s momentum temporarily, and both continued to search the track – chock full of character – for the advantage.

With under 10 to go, Sheppard and Pierce began to close in on the backmarkers, and Pierce grabbed the top spot with seven to go. Sheppard got back past him one lap later as they raced through the back of the field.

With five to go, Sheppard led along the high side, as Pierce moved to the bottom; the lapped traffic was thick ahead of them. Pierce closed in to Sheppard’s deck lid with two to go down the backstretch, as Sheppard couldn’t effectively split the lapped racers in each lane.

As the duo came to the white flag, Sheppard was directly behind a lapped car in the top lane, with Pierce right behind. Pierce dove to the inside lane into turn one, as Sheppard was hung up behind the lapped car. Pierce had a slight advantage as they barreled into turns three and four, with Sheppard sliding the lapped car coming out of turn four. Sheppard’s momentum took him up and over the cushion, and Pierce was home free to the checkered flag. Sheppard had to settle for second, Junghans was third, Tyler Erb was fourth, and Ethan Dotson completed the top five.

There were several WISSOTA-area racers who also made the feature in the Late Models. Dustin Sorensen finished ninth, Jake Timm was 10th, Sam Mars finished 20th, and Don Shaw was scored 24th.

Rob Moseley was the early leader of the X-Mod feature, while Jamestown, North Dakota’s Scott Bintz was close behind in second. As the field headed into turn two on the second lap, Bintz took over out front, with Moseley comfortably in second. Justin Allen, Kale Murphrey, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s Duke Erickson battled for top-five spots before a caution on lap two for a Craig Walker spin regrouped the field.

Bintz and Moseley were side by side for the lead following the restart; Moseley inched ahead for the top spot, with Murphrey third, Gorham fourth and Allen fifth. With five laps complete, Moseley continued to lead, though Bintz kept close behind. Two laps later the field was back under yellow once again for a stalled Deuce Teague.

Moseley shot back out to the lead under green, as Murphrey slipped by Bintz for second. Craighead and Gorham held top five spots, and former WISSOTA National Champion Jake Smith threatened to break into the top five close behind. Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s Duke Erickson was ninth.

Moseley had a healthy lead ahead of Murphrey, with Bintz close by in third with 14 laps to go. Craighead was fourth, and Jake Smith cracked the top five. A caution fell for a Hunter Sandy spin and the field was regrouped.

The field was back under green with 13 to go; Moseley led the field, followed by a side-by-side battle among Murphrey and Bintz for second; Bintz took command about two laps later. Farther back Smith briefly took fourth, before falling back a bit to seventh behind Erickson, who was sixth.

With 10 laps to go Cameron, Wisconsin’s Blake Adams continued to move his way forward from his 14th starting spot, as he raced into the top 10 and was in ninth before a spin by Cody King brought the field to a halt. Under caution, Smith left the track with mechanical issues.

Blake Adams finished fifth in the X-Mods on January 5 at Vado. (Contributed Photo)

Back under green with eight laps to go, Moseley led the field back to green, as Bintz and Murphrey fought for second. Craighead was fourth, Erickson was fifth and Adams worked his way into sixth.

Adams then raced into fifth, and looked to the outside of Craighead in fourth; as Craighead moved in to fight Murphrey for third, Adams settled back into fifth.

Out front, Bintz began to close back in on Moseley as the laps wound down, but Moseley had enough to hang on along the bottom side of the track during the remaining laps and took the win once again, his second-straight at his home track. Bintz, Craighead, Murphrey and Adams completed the top five.

Of the other WISSOTA-region drivers on hand in the top 10, Duke Erickson finished seventh.

In the Modifieds, Jake Gallardo led the field early, as Terry Phillips, Troy Gemmill, Nathan Smith and Dustin Sorensen completed the top five, with Rodney Sanders close behind in sixth. The action was short-lived, as a caution with three laps complete for Gary Christian making hard contact with Jimmy Ray, spinning him into the infield, regrouped the field.

Gallardo continued to lead back under green, while Terry Philips was second and Rodney Sanders made his way into third. Smith was fourth and Gemmill was fifth. With 18 to go Sanders took second from Philips, though Phillips remained tight to his bumper for a lap before Sanders was able to drive off. Phillips then came under fire from Sorensen for third; Sorensen took the spot with 14 to go, and set out after Sanders in second. Out front Jake Gallardo had a healthy lead of nearly two seconds.

Two laps later Jake Gallardo began to make his way through the back of the field, and Sanders began to cut into the lead quickly; Sorensen joined the fight with nine to go and made the pass for second a lap later.

With six to go, Gallardo’s lead was in jeopardy through lapped traffic, with Sorensen closing quickly. Sorensen used a slide job to briefly gain the lead with four to go, but Gallardo fought back and regained the top spot. The two were side by side, and then nose to tail, as they worked their way through heavy lapped traffic with two to go. Sanders then rolled to a halt and the yellow came out.

Back under green the restart was marred when Cade Dillard spun by himself in turn four; the field was regrouped once again.

With the field under green once again, Sorensen pulled into the lead along the backstretch with a lap and a half to go, before Gallardo fought back on the top lane and back into the lead. In the final turn on the final lap, Gallardo’s top-side momentum net him the narrow victory by .002 ahead of Sorensen. Strickler, Phillips and Ahumada, Jr. were top-five finishers.

Behind them, Minnesota’s Joseph Thomas finished ninth from his 17th starting spot.

SUMMARY

Super Late Models:

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[7]; 3. 18-Chase Junghans[15]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[8]; 5. 74X-Ethan Dotson[11]; 6. 58-Garrett Alberson[4]; 7. 22*-Drake Troutman[9]; 8. 86-Kyle Beard[17]; 9. 19-Dustin Sorensen[21]; 10. 49-Jake Timm[19]; 11. 14S-Collen Winebarger[2]; 12. 2S-Stormy Scott[14]; 13. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[16]; 14. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 15. 8-Dillon McCowan[24]; 16. 55C-Chad Mahder[23]; 17. 28M-Sam Mars[20]; 18. 82-Eston Whisler[5]; 19. 13-Bricen James[18]; 20. 10S-Garrett Smith[22]; 21. 69-Ross Bailes[13]; 22. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[10]; 23. 97-Cade Dillard[6]; 24. 42S-Don Shaw[12]

Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. J17-Jake Gallardo[2]; 2. 19-Dustin Sorensen[6]; 3. 8-Kyle Strickler[9]; 4. 75-Terry Phillips[1]; 5. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[14]; 6. 88-Nathan Smith[3]; 7. 58X-Gary Christian[11]; 8. 16-Chris Henigan[16]; 9. 51T-Joseph Thomas[17]; 10. 65-Tyler Davis[20]; 11. 721-Troy Gemmill[4]; 12. 19K-Kyle Slader[13]; 13. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[12]; 14. 44-Christy Barnett[19]; 15. 111-Bumper Jones[10]; 16. 71-Chad Melton[22]; 17. 9R-Jimmy Ray[5]; 18. 97-Cade Dillard[15]; 19. 420-Rodney Sanders[8]; 20. J7-Jake Boles[21]; 21. 117-Toby Herring[23]; 22. 3J-Josh Cain[7]; 23. 18JR-Ricardo Olague Jr[24]; 24. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[18]

X-Mods:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. M17-Rob Moseley[1]; 2. 1S-Scott Bintz[3]; 3. G3-Brian Craighead[7]; 4. 25-Kale Murphrey[6]; 5. 40D-Blake Adams[14]; 6. 12-Mike Rosales[19]; 7. 57-Duke Erickson[5]; 8. 44JT-Jaime Torres[10]; 9. 07-Donavon Flores[17]; 10. 22-Keenan Glasser[20]; 11. 5-Steve Holzkamper[23]; 12. 33-Justin Allen[2]; 13. 4-Chris Hooper[21]; 14. 12I-Isiah Mendoza[8]; 15. 562-Craig Walker[24]; 16. 510-Cody King[12]; 17. 21-Jake Smith[11]; 18. 93-Greg Gorham[4]; 19. 81-Devon Jobin[18]; 20. 7S-Hunter Sandy[13]; 21. 10-Bryan Bennett[16]; 22. 23B-Israel Ortega[9]; 23. 02-Deuce Teague[15]; 24. 7-Shayne Bailey[22]