Billy Moyer Survives West Liberty for Wire to Wire MLRA Win
Photos by Mike Ruefer
West Liberty, IA (June 14, 2020) – Sunday nights Lucas Oil MLRA feature event at the West Liberty Raceway came down to do one key element-“smooth“, as in Billy Moyer Sr. The Veteran driver was the class of the field in the series annual return to the fast half-mile facility on the grounds of the Muscatine County Fairgrounds.
Moyer by virtue of his qualifying effort and heat race win started the thirty lap affair from the DirtonDirt.com pole position alongside of Iowa ace Brian Birkhofer. The two veteran drivers battled for the low line into turn number one on the events opening lap with Moyer holding down the top position as they excited turn two. The race would quickly slow on lap number three as the cautioned waved for the first time in the event.
Back under green Moyer again jumped out to a large lead pacing the field along the bottom grove of the speedway until the first of a barrage of cautions flew on lap 17 as Jeremy Grady slowed down the back stretch. With the speedway beginning to take rubber on the low line and tire wear starting to show among the race leaders, it was forth running Bobby Pierce that would be the first to fall victim just one lap later ending his shot at a repeat win from one year ago.
With Moyer still in control on lap twenty the event would quickly slow yet again on the restart, as both third place Birkhofer and forth running and Slick Mist Quick Time winner Chad Holladay both fell victim to flat right rear tires. The races final caution waved with just two laps to go as Jonathan Brauns right rear gave way after the Muscatine driver spent the majority of the feature well inside the top five.
| Moyer in hot lap action at West Liberty, prior to capturing his fifth career Lucas Oil MLRA win. Lloyd Collins- FastTrack Photos. |
At the drop of the green flag, Moyer jumped to the point one final time and cruised to a 1.4 second victory over Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular Tyler Bruening. Sixth starting Tony Jackson Jr. moved up to third at the line. Sunoco Race Fuels Rookie of the year candidate Tony Toste grabbed a career best MLRA finish in fourth just ahead of the defending MLRA series runner-up Mitch McGrath.
The $5,000 win for Moyer was his first with the MLRA since 2017 and second with the series at the West Liberty Raceway, the first coming in 2015. Moyer survived the event commenting in Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Victory Lane, “The tires were a real big deal tonight. We knew it in the heat race that there were going to be some issues in the main, so we tried to do our tires a little bit different and for sure drive the car real gentle and not spin the tires. The car was real good, so I didn’t think I would have any tire troubles and as easy I was being on them it all just turned out.”
Breuning, who made the overnight haul from Smokey Mountain Speedway to race in front of his home state fans said, “The car was really good all night long and I really didn’t want to do anything crazy there. Something was going to have to happen there for one of us to get out of the rubber and I just wasn’t going to do anything foolish. It’s a real strong finish, Capital was one-two, so we are real happy with that. We have been good, it’s just you have to get positioned right for these things to be there at the end. I was trying to ride a little bit and make sure I didn’t end up with a flat tire.
Next up for the Lucas Oil MLRA is a critical four-night swing June 24th – 27th. Action starts on Wednesday night at the Lucas Oil Speedway with the first annual “Mid-Week Mayhem” followed by a Thursday night visit to Outlaw Motor Speedway in Oktaha, Ok under the direction of Club 91 Productions. The weekend will conclude on Friday and Saturday at the Salina Highbanks Speedway in Pryor Creek, OK with the running of the Annual Freedom Classic. Friday will pay $3,000 to the winner with Saturday’s victor capturing a $5,000 pay day.
West Liberty Raceway Contingencies 6/14/20
Allgaier Motorsports Racing Shocks Award – Tyler Bruening
Casey’s General Store’s “Hard Charger of the Race” – Jason Papich
DirtonDirt.com “Pole Award” – Billy Moyer Sr.
Dynamic Drivelines “Crew Chief of the Race” – Steve Norris
Hooker Harness “11th Place Finisher” – Will Vaught
Midwest Sheet Metal “Points Leader Spoiler Challenge” – Chris Simpson
Performance Bodies “Performer of the Race” – Billy Moyer Sr.
Slick Mist “Fast Time Award” – Chad Holladay
RacingJunk.com “Hard Luck Award” – Jeremy Grady
Sunoco “Rookie of the Race” – Tony Toste
Lucas Oil Racing TV A Feature (30 Laps): 1.Billy Moyer Sr. 2.Tyler Bruening 3.Tony Jackson Jr. 4.Tony Toste 5.Mitch McGrath 6.Chris Simpson 7.Ryan Gustin 8.Jason Papich 9.Spencer Diercks 10.Payton Looney 11.Will Vaught 12.Chad Simpson 13.Jeremiah Hurst 14.Justin Duty 15.Mike Spatola 16.Garrett Alberson 17.Jeremy Conaway 18.Matt Furman 19.Jonathan Brauns 20.Brian Birkhofer 21.Chad Holladay 22.Bobby Pierce 23.Jeremy Grady 24.Andy Eckrich
Allgaier Motorsports Racing Shocks B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1.Payton Looney 2.Matt Furman 3.Justin Duty 4.Jeremy Conaway 5.Jeremy Grady 6.Cliff Morrow 7.Brennon Willard 8.Reid Millard 9.Mike Guldenpfenning (DNS) 10.Joel Callahan (DNS)
MAV TV Motorsports B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1.Will Vaught 2.Garrett Alberson 3.Andy Eckrich 4.Dennis Erb Jr. 5.Nick Marolf 6.Daniel Hilsabeck 7.Skip Frey 8.David Webster 9.Dave Eckrich
Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1.Billy Moyer Sr. 2.Chad Holladay 3.Tony Toste 4.Jeremiah Hurst 5.Matt Furman 6.Payton Looney 7.Joel Callahan 8.Mike Guldenpfenning 9.Reid Millard (DNS)
Casey’s General Stores Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1.Tyler Bruening 2.Jonathan Brauns 3.Chris Simpson 4.Spencer Diercks 5.Jeremy Grady 6.Justin Duty 7.Jeremy Conaway 8.Cliff Morrow 9.Brennon Willard
Midwest Sheet Metal Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1.Brian Birkhofer 2.Tony Jackson Jr. 3.Mike Spatola 4.Chad Simpson 5.Will Vaught 6.Andy Eckrich 7.Dennis Erb Jr. 8.Nick Marolf 9.David Webster
Sunoco Race Fuels Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1.Bobby Pierce 2.Ryan Gustin 3.Mitch McGrath 4.Jason Papich 5.Garrett Alberson 6.Dave Eckrich 7.Skip Frey 8.Daniel Hilsabeck
Category: Iowa
