Pierce Sees Promising Night Go Upside-Down

CRARY, ND (May 17) – The Lithia Ford/Opp Construction team rolled into Devils Lake Speedway Saturday night for the NOSA Sprint Car special, presented by Buffalo Wild Wings. The event scheduled for River Cities Speedway on Friday, May 13th was cancelled due to the cold and windy conditions.

The night got off to a good start for Austin as he capitalized on his front row starting spot to grab the win in heat race number two.

“We drew a good pill so we got to start on the front row of the heat. We had a really good car, it was probably the easiest car I have driven all year,” said Austin.

The driver of the AllPro Electric #2A would then start sixth for the 25-lap main event.

“We got up to fourth fairly quick and were running down the leaders,” said Austin. “Then the yellow came out.”

On the ensuing restart, Pierce was involved in an incident that would put an end to his strong run.

“I got stuck behind a car and I had two other cars behind me that were kind of pushing me into the back of [Casey Mack],” recalled Austin. “I got hung up on Casey’s right rear tire or bumper and I tried to turn off of him, but the cars from behind pushed me too much to where I got sideways and tipped over.”

The damage on the car was too severe to continue, which gave Austin a disappointing 22nd place finish.

“We had to pull the motor out of it and do some welding on the top wing post, but we’ve got it all ready to go now,” continued Pierce. “Other than that it was just wing damage, a couple shocks and the Jacobs Ladder.”

With three races on the schedule this weekend, the Austin Pierce Racing (APR) team is all revved up to come out and rebound from last weekend.

“With three nights of racing on the schedule this weekend, I’d like to come away with at least one win. It would sure be nice to pick up where we left off last year at Buffalo River Race Park.”

With another week in the books for the new crew members of APR, things are continuing to get smoother as the team gains more chemistry together.

“We’ve come a long ways in the last couple weeks. We are getting our new shock package figured out with Kyle Kozel so we’re all starting to gel finally. I’m definitely looking to pick up a couple wins here in the near future” concluded Pierce.

SEASON STATS:
Races: 3
Wins: 0
Top 5’s: 1
Top 10’s: 2
Heat Wins: 2

UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 20th – River Cities Speedway – Grand Forks, ND
May 21st – Badlands Motor Speedway – Brandon, SD
May 22nd – Buffalo River Race Park – Glyndon, MN