Story and photo by Patrick Reynolds

Rossburg OH- Billy Moyer and Brandon Sheppard won their respective Twin 25-lap A-Mains in Eldora Speedway’s World 100 preliminary action that was postponed from Friday night to Saturday afternoon.

In the first A-Main, Jon Henry grabbed the lead ahead of pole sitter Moyer from his front row starting position. The caution flew quickly with one lap complete for dual spins by Josh Richards and Kent Robinson in turn four. Richards suffered damage to the car’s nose, pitted for repairs, and rejoined the field in the back.

On the restart, Tim McCreadie spun in turn two to slow the pace for a second time.

Moyer took the lead from Henry on the next green flag and drama was soon to follow again by Richards.
Richards crashed into the turn one wall and flipped, bring out the red flag and stopping the race. Richards was uninjured, however the car was badly hurt. The damage from the first crash was speculated to have caused the second accident.

When the race went green once again, Henry was forced into the turn four wall by Don O’Neal. Henry’s pace was slowed and he dropped out of the top-ten.

Moyer led until he was caught and challenged by Mike Marlar. The pair traded the lead multiple times over the final eight laps. Marlar passed Moyer for the lead with a slide job in turn three on the final circuit. Moyer executed a perfect crossover underneath Marlar in turn four and made it to the checkered flag first.

Behind the first pair were Shannon Babb, O’Neal, and Jonathon Davenport who came from the 20th starting position. Devin Moran was sixth, sixteenth-starting Scott Bloomquist was seventh, followed by Robinson, Shane Clanton, and Jimmy Owens.

In A-Main number two, Brandon Sheppard took the early lead from his second starting position and controlled the pace.

Matt Westfall, Doug Drown, and Jared Landers battled for second while Sheppard led. Drown bounced off of the turn two wall on lap 10 and dropped back.

With Sheppard controlling the pace and the white flag ready to wave, Steve Casebolt came to a rest against the turn four wall and brought out the yellow flag.

Sheppard continued to show his speed when the green waved again and lead to the checkered flag. He also won a Thursday night A-Main to make this his second feature win of the weekend.

Westfall, Darrell Lanigan, Steve Francis, and Landers rounded out the top-five. Sixth through tenth were Bobby Pierce, Jeep VanWormer, Dustin Linville, Ricky Weiss, and Jason Feger.

Preliminary Notes

Twelve heats were won by Robinson, Weiss, Babb, Landers, Richards, RJ Conley, Henry, Sheppard, Billy Moyer Jr., Drown, Moyer, and Westfall.

Four B-Mains were won by Dennis Erb Jr., Josh Rice, Davenport, and Thursday A-Main winner Dale McDowell.

Odd numbered qualifying races set the field for the first A-Main. The even numbered races set the second A-Main field.

Chris Ferguson set a new track record during qualifications with a 14.866 lap time.

Chub Frank came back from contact with Garrett Albertson in the twelfth heat to transfer into his A-Main. Frank’s left side sheet metal and door were ripped off and his left rear tire blew on the restart after the Albertson incident. His crew cleared the damage, changed the tire, and Frank then came from last to third.

Each driver’s average finish for the Thursday and Friday programs set the heat lineups for Saturday night’s World 100. Ferguson spun a “five” invert for those heats with the Eldora roulette wheel.

Patrick Reynolds is a former professional NASCAR mechanic who hosts Motor Week LIVE! Mondays 7pm ET/ 4pm PT on www.racersreunionradio.com