Cade Dillard Doubles Down In ’24 Wild West Shootout Opener; Nick Rivera Victorious In X-Mods

Story By: BEN SHELTON / WILD WEST SHOOTOUT – VADO, NM – The 18th annual Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts saw the opening round of the mega miniseries come to life on Saturday afternoon at FK Rod Ends Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park.

With 144 entries in the pit area Louisiana’s Cade Dillard headlined the night’s program by emerging victorious in both the Dirt Track Bank Super Late Models presented by Black Diamond Race Cars and the Mesilla Valley Transportation/ Border Tire Modifieds presented by Rancho Milagro, while New Mexico’s Nick Rivera snared top honors in the ShockerHitch.com X-Mods presented by Border Tire competing in action.

“A lot of great people a have helped me get to this point in my career, and it’s just a surreal experience to win two features against this caliber of field in one night. (In the Super Late Model feature) I knew Bobby (Pierce) would be coming there once the (track) got pretty top dominant and I knew he went a little harder on tires,” Dillard said. “There about lap 28 or 30, (crew chief) Donnie (Pederson) told me (Pierce) is closing a little, so I just tried to use up what I had left, and I’d say he was probably getting better at the end with the tire choice. Man, what an awesome race car and an awesome facility. I love racing at this place.”

The Dirt Track Bank Super Late Model presented by Black Diamond Racecar saw Bobby Pierce starting in the Gorsuch Performance Solutions Pole Position with Cade Dillard alongside. Dillard bolted to the lead as the 40-lap feature went green. He fended off early race challenges from Garrett Alberson before having to outduel Bobby Pierce.

Pierce threw a slider and briefly nosed ahead on lap 34 before Dillard edged him at the line by 0.048 of a second and pulled away slightly to win by 0.289 of a second at the checkers. Dillard collected $11,000 for his winning performance.

Hometown racer Garrett Alberson settled for third.

Dillard double down on the night by topping the Mesilla Valley Transportation / Border Tire Modifieds presented by Rancho Milagro. After starting sixth he charged past early race leader, Jacob Hobscheidt on the eighth circuit and went on to win by over five seconds in the $2,000-to-win main event. Johnny Scott, Terry Phillips, 12th-starting Dan Ebert, and Hobscheidt completed the Top-5 finishers.

In Shocker Hitch X-Mod division action presented by Border Tire, Las Cruces’ racer Nick Rivera wired the field in the 25-lap feature to snare the $1,000 victory. J.C. Morton charged from seventh to finish second with sixth-place starter, Josh Cain in third. Greg Gorham advanced from 10th to finish fourth with Mike Rosales passing seven racers to finish fifth.

Action continues with Round #2 of the miniseries on Sunday, Jan. 7 at FK Rod Ends Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park with complete shows for Super Late Models ($11,000-to-win), Modifieds ($2,000-to-win), and X-Mods ($1,000-to-win).

The pit gate opens at 1 p.m. MT with the driver’s meeting at 2 p.m. and hot laps at 3 p.m.. The grandstand gate opens at 3 p.m.

Daily general grandstand admission on Sunday, Jan. 7 is $25 for adults, $10 for children (ages 6-12) and free for kids (ages 5-and-under). Reserved seats are $30.  Pit admission is $45.

18th annual Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts: Round #1
FK Rod Ends Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park
Jan. 6, 2024

Dirt Track Bank Super Late Models presented by Black Diamond Racecars
A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[6]; 5. 6-Kyle Larson[14]; 6. 157-Mike Marlar[10]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 8. 18-Chase Junghans[9]; 9. 2-Tyler Stevens[4]; 10. 10-Kaden Honeycutt[5]; 11. 73-Rodney Sanders[17]; 12. 14S-Collen Winebarger[20]; 13. 18B-Shannon Babb[18]; 14. 2S-Stormy Scott[8]; 15. 14M-Morgan Bagley[24]; 16. 77-Preston Luckman[19]; 17. 7-Ricky Weiss[15]; 18. 82-Eston Whisler[25]; 19. E85-Jason Strand[22]; 20. 86-Kyle Beard[21]; 21. 7T-Drake Troutman[12]; 22. 101-Forrest Trent[13]; 23. 32B-Cody Laney[7]; 24. 1R-BJ Robinson[11]; 25. 28M-Sam Mars[23]

Mesilla Valley Transportation / Border Tire Modified presented by Rancho Milagro
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[6]; 2. 1ST-Johnny Scott[5]; 3. T75-Terry Phillips[2]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[12]; 5. 01-Jacob Hobscheidt[1]; 6. J17-Jake Gallardo[16]; 7. G17-Fito Gallardo[10]; 8. 24X-Xavier Ortega[8]; 9. 189-Steven Whiteaker Jr[11]; 10. 65-Tyler Davis[19]; 11. 71-Philip Houston[9]; 12. 4W-Tyler Wolff[13]; 13. 02-Tanner Mullens[18]; 14. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[14]; 15. 89-AJ Diemel[20]; 16. 3J-Lewis Jackson[7]; 17. 85-Austin Adams[4]; 18. 45-Chase Holland[22]; 19. 69-Lucas Schott[3]; 20. 58X-Gary Christian[17]; 21. 28-Tom Georges[21]; 22. 88-Chad Wheeler[15]; 23. 16-Chris Henigan[24]; 24. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[23]

Shocker Hitch X-Mods presented by Border Tire
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. AOS-Nick Rivera[2]; 2. 18-JC Morton[7]; 3. 3J-Josh Cain[6]; 4. 93-Greg Gorham[10]; 5. 12-Mike Rosales[12]; 6. 71-Nate Reinke[9]; 7. 5-Reece Solander[3]; 8. 23H-Hector Barraza[18]; 9. 44-Christy Barnett[17]; 10. M17-Rob Moseley[15]; 11. 21X-Tanner Kade[19]; 12. 5M-Eric McNutt[16]; 13. 07-Donavon Flores[20]; 14. 15A-Mike Anderson[13]; 15. 88-Andrew Fanning[14]; 16. 24-Shane McNutt[8]; 17. 44JT-Jaime Torres[23]; 18. M77-Cameron Martin[4]; 19. 21K-Brian Kleine[24]; 20. 65-Dustin Smith[11]; 21. 14J-Jacob Hodges[5]; 22. X15-Jesse Haynie[21]; 23. J2-Kris Jackson[1]; 24. 7C-John Carney[22]