Column By: ROBERT SYMONDS / RPW – ROSSBURG, OH – Last week, Ricky Thornton Jr briefly spoke about the upcoming Dirt Late Model Dream and what the SSI Motorsports 20RT needed to do to win again at the Eldora Speedway. The general statement was “we need to find more speed.” After crossing the line in first with the checkered flags flying overhead, it seems Thornton Jr found the speed and he the team have been looking for.
Setting quick time earlier in the evening and finishing second in heat race one, Ricky spun the wheel of misfortune and landed on 2 which meant that the 20RT would start on the outside pole for the 50 lap Thursday Prelim.
“I kinda took off on the start and ran as hard as I wanted to,” Thornton mentioned after Victory Lane. “But with the race being 50 laps long I didn’t want to burn my stuff up right away.”
RTJ led the opening laps as he pulled away from pole sitter Josh Rice and the rest of the field. As the race wore on, 4th place starter Bobby Pierce caught up with Ricky Thornton Jr while using the top side of the speedway that he loved to be at.
“I was running hard but hard enough to where I thought I had a good enough pace. When he got to me in traffic, we both had the same problem of sliding to get around cars and they would just cross over and drive right back by. That made it a little tough but once he (Pierce) got by me, he seemed to have a little better car than I did and got a little farther out there away from me.”
As traffic picked up, it seemed that RTJ was not done yet as not only did he catch Pierce by Josh Rice, who was running third, also came into a closing battle for the lead.
“When we were 20 or 25 laps in, I started picking up my pace up some. Trying to run harder but not put it in the fence. I felt like I was running him down and then I would make a mistake then go back and run him back down again.”
While closing in on Bobby Pierce for the lead on lap 38, Pierce ended up having a motor issue that ended his night.
“I didn’t think it was motor related because when its motor related, its blue smoke and he had some white steam. Unfortunate for him. With the restarts with Rice, I felt like I could get a decent enough start but with Hud, I felt like I didn’t get a good enough start. He kinda stayed with me and I guess tried to slide me but I didn’t see him down there. I knew that if I stayed on the cushion and didn’t put it in the fence or do something stupid, I’d have a really good shot.”
The final restart with a handful of laps to go sealed the race win for Ricky Thornton Jr and sets him up for a good start on Saturday’s 30th Dirt Late Model Dream.
“I feel like we are in a better spot this season versus last season. For a driver to beat us in points, they would have to have quick time, win their heat, and win the feature. I feel like we are set up really well for Saturday. This deal comes down to luck too, every team that comes here is really good. I feel like our team has our luck going for us and hopefully we can keep riding this wave as long as we can.”
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 2. 71-Hudson O’Neal[15]; 3. 11R-Josh Rice[1]; 4. 44-Chris Madden[14]; 5. 111-Max Blair[11]; 6. 25-Shane Clanton[19]; 7. 40B-Kyle Bronson[8]; 8. 97-Cade Dillard[6]; 9. 1-Tim McCreadie[5]; 10. 76-Brandon Overton[7]; 11. 0-Scott Bloomquist[10]; 12. 18D-Daulton Wilson[3]; 13. 93-Carson Ferguson[12]; 14. 96-Tanner English[13]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[22]; 16. 18-Shannon Babb[23]; 17. 79-Donald McIntosh[20]; 18. 10-Joseph Joiner[17]; 19. 6L-Dustin Linville[21]; 20. 31AUS-Kye Blight[16]; 21. 17SS-Brenden Smith[18]; 22. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 23. 22-Chris Ferguson[9]; 24. 95-Jerry Bowersock[24]
B-Main 1 (12 Laps): 1. 6L-Dustin Linville[1]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 3. 36V-Cory Hedgecock[2]; 4. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[13]; 5. 18B-Brad Dyer[5]; 6. 5-Mark Whitener[6]; 7. 25B-Mike Benedum[4]; 8. 6H-Clay Harris[8]; 9. C6-Oakley Johns[14]; 10. 15-Ethan Hunter[7]; 11. 12E-Jamie Elam[10]; 12. B4U-Bradley Eitniear[12]; 13. 79B-Kyle Bryant[9]; 14. (DNS) 71M-Pierce McCarter; 15. (DNS) 4G-Kody Evans
B-Main 2 (12 Laps): 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[2]; 2. 95-Jerry Bowersock[4]; 3. 126-Kaede Loudy[1]; 4. 388-Jackson Hise[3]; 5. 74X-Ethan Dotson[14]; 6. 22GR-GR Smith[7]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[8]; 8. C8-Cole Perine[10]; 9. 111S-Steven Roberts[12]; 10. 28M-Sam Mars[5]; 11. 39-Mike Hildebrand[11]; 12. 8A-Rob Anderzack[9]; 13. 5D-Bryant Dickinson[13]; 14. 99-Dylan Thompson[6]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 11R-Josh Rice[3]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 3. 0-Scott Bloomquist[2]; 4. 44-Chris Madden[5]; 5. 96-Tanner English[1]; 6. 6L-Dustin Linville[7]; 7. 18-Shannon Babb[9]; 8. 18B-Brad Dyer[6]; 9. 15-Ethan Hunter[11]; 10. 79B-Kyle Bryant[12]; 11. 71M-Pierce McCarter[8]; 12. 28C-Tyler Carpenter[13]; 13. 4G-Kody Evans[10]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 93-Carson Ferguson[1]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[4]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 4. 31AUS-Kye Blight[5]; 5. 79-Donald McIntosh[11]; 6. 36V-Cory Hedgecock[8]; 7. 25B-Mike Benedum[2]; 8. 5-Mark Whitener[7]; 9. 6H-Clay Harris[10]; 10. 12E-Jamie Elam[9]; 11. B4U-Bradley Eitniear[12]; 12. C6-Oakley Johns[6]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 2. 1-Tim McCreadie[3]; 3. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 4. 10-Joseph Joiner[6]; 5. 17SS-Brenden Smith[7]; 6. 126-Kaede Loudy[8]; 7. 388-Jackson Hise[10]; 8. 28M-Sam Mars[11]; 9. 22GR-GR Smith[9]; 10. 8A-Rob Anderzack[12]; 11. 74X-Ethan Dotson[5]; 12. 111S-Steven Roberts[2]
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 111-Max Blair[1]; 2. 22-Chris Ferguson[2]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard[4]; 4. 71-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 5. 25-Shane Clanton[8]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[6]; 7. 95-Jerry Bowersock[9]; 8. 99-Dylan Thompson[3]; 9. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[7]; 10. C8-Cole Perine[11]; 11. 39-Mike Hildebrand[10]; 12. 5D-Bryant Dickinson[12]
Qualifying | Group A: 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:15.239[21]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:15.264[19]; 3. 11R-Josh Rice, 00:15.299[22]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:15.385[15]; 5. 0-Scott Bloomquist, 00:15.422[14]; 6. 25B-Mike Benedum, 00:15.497[10]; 7. 96-Tanner English, 00:15.569[6]; 8. 93-Carson Ferguson, 00:15.617[7]; 9. 44-Chris Madden, 00:15.712[24]; 10. 31AUS-Kye Blight, 00:15.724[13]; 11. 18B-Brad Dyer, 00:15.725[3]; 12. C6-Oakley Johns, 00:15.772[4]; 13. 6L-Dustin Linville, 00:15.785[5]; 14. 5-Mark Whitener, 00:15.793[1]; 15. 71M-Pierce McCarter, 00:15.797[8]; 16. 36V-Cory Hedgecock, 00:15.813[25]; 17. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:15.827[23]; 18. 12E-Jamie Elam, 00:15.864[17]; 19. 4G-Kody Evans, 00:15.935[12]; 20. 6H-Clay Harris, 00:15.986[20]; 21. 15-Ethan Hunter, 00:16.078[2]; 22. 79-Donald McIntosh, 00:16.078[11]; 23. 79B-Kyle Bryant, 00:16.109[9]; 24. B4U-Bradley Eitniear, 00:16.607[16]; 25. (DQ) 28C-Tyler Carpenter, 00:15.430[18]
Qualifying | Group B: 1. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:15.291[8]; 2. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:15.296[4]; 3. 1-Tim McCreadie, 00:15.570[9]; 4. 99-Dylan Thompson, 00:15.759[13]; 5. 111S-Steven Roberts, 00:15.796[3]; 6. 22-Chris Ferguson, 00:15.811[10]; 7. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:15.813[18]; 8. 111-Max Blair, 00:15.901[11]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson, 00:15.937[19]; 10. 71-Hudson O’Neal, 00:15.937[23]; 11. 10-Joseph Joiner, 00:15.979[7]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:16.008[16]; 13. 17SS-Brenden Smith, 00:16.030[1]; 14. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:16.092[2]; 15. 126-Kaede Loudy, 00:16.177[6]; 16. 25-Shane Clanton, 00:16.178[21]; 17. 22GR-GR Smith, 00:16.207[24]; 18. 95-Jerry Bowersock, 00:16.248[17]; 19. 388-Jackson Hise, 00:16.300[15]; 20. 39-Mike Hildebrand, 00:16.302[5]; 21. 28M-Sam Mars, 00:16.354[22]; 22. C8-Cole Perine, 00:16.359[20]; 23. 8A-Rob Anderzack, 00:16.590[12]; 24. 5D-Bryant Dickinson, 00:17.570[14]
Hot Laps | Group A (2 Laps): 1. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:16.079[15]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:16.229[21]; 3. 36V-Cory Hedgecock, 00:16.259[25]; 4. 44-Chris Madden, 00:16.559[24]; 5. 12E-Jamie Elam, 00:16.741[17]; 6. 96-Tanner English, 00:16.744[6]; 7. 28C-Tyler Carpenter, 00:16.818[18]; 8. 6H-Clay Harris, 00:16.852[20]; 9. 0-Scott Bloomquist, 00:16.876[14]; 10. 79B-Kyle Bryant, 00:17.010[9]; 11. 4G-Kody Evans, 00:17.171[12]; 12. 31AUS-Kye Blight, 00:17.367[13]; 13. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:17.415[19]; 14. 71M-Pierce McCarter, 00:17.518[8]; 15. B4U-Bradley Eitniear, 00:17.543[16]; 16. 11R-Josh Rice, 00:17.635[22]; 17. 18B-Brad Dyer, 00:17.736[3]; 18. 93-Carson Ferguson, 00:17.891[7]; 19. 6L-Dustin Linville, 00:17.987[5]; 20. 25B-Mike Benedum, 00:18.055[10]; 21. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:18.077[23]; 22. 79-Donald McIntosh, 00:18.941[11]; 23. 15-Ethan Hunter, 00:19.009[2]; 24. C6-Oakley Johns, 00:19.583[4]; 25. 5-Mark Whitener, 00:19.583[1]
Hot Laps | Group B (2 Laps): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal, 00:15.511[23]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:15.532[8]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:15.594[4]; 4. 111-Max Blair, 00:15.668[11]; 5. 74X-Ethan Dotson, 00:15.714[19]; 6. 99-Dylan Thompson, 00:15.721[13]; 7. 25-Shane Clanton, 00:15.760[21]; 8. 22-Chris Ferguson, 00:15.875[10]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:15.890[18]; 10. 10-Joseph Joiner, 00:15.958[7]; 11. 17SS-Brenden Smith, 00:16.138[1]; 12. 111S-Steven Roberts, 00:16.166[3]; 13. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:16.221[16]; 14. 95-Jerry Bowersock, 00:16.295[17]; 15. 28M-Sam Mars, 00:16.390[22]; 16. 1-Tim McCreadie, 00:16.409[9]; 17. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:16.420[2]; 18. 388-Jackson Hise, 00:16.515[15]; 19. 126-Kaede Loudy, 00:16.594[6]; 20. 22GR-GR Smith, 00:16.661[24]; 21. 39-Mike Hildebrand, 00:17.125[5]; 22. 5D-Bryant Dickinson, 00:17.303[14]; 23. 8A-Rob Anderzack, 00:17.432[12]; 24. C8-Cole Perine, 00:18.794[20]