Pierce Collects a Pair of Fourth Place Finishes at River Cities Double-Header!
GRAND FORKS, ND (June 29) – Last weekend the Greater Grand Forks Fair was in town and along with it came a special event for the NOSA Sprints. Buffalo Wild Wings presented double features with the first one being lined up by heat races and the second being a complete invert of the first feature’s finishing order. Austin Pierce would end the night with an impressive fourth place finish in both 25-lappers.
A solid run in his heat race set the tone for the rest of the night as Austin raced from ninth to finish fourth in the 10 lap event.
That put Austin fourth on the grid for the first feature race of the evening. As the green flag dropped, the driver of the Opp Construction/Lithia Ford #2A took off and moved into second at the completion of lap one. On the following lap he made a bid for the lead with a slide job on Mark Dobmeier, but Dobmeier held him off. Pierce then went to battle with Dusty Zomer, but ultimately was filed back to the third position.
A hard charging Mitch Mack stole the final podium spot away from Pierce in the closing laps, relegating him to a still very respectable 4th place finish.
The invert put Pierce’s Dahlstrom Motors/Solem Farms machine way back in the 20th starting spot, but Austin didn’t stay back there for long.
In just five laps the Grand Forks driver had moved up to the 15thposition, right behind the #9N of Wade Nygaard. The lap 12 restart was a turning point in the race for Pierce as he passed three cars in one lap and followed that up by passing two more on the next lap to put him in sixth at the halfway point.
Pierce then followed pole sitter, Jordan Adams, until another late race caution. The caution moved Pierce up to fifth for the restart, where he moved by Adams with two to go and went on to finish fourth.
Saturday night the Austin Pierce Racing team was at Badlands Motor Speedway in Brandon, SD. Austin started and finished in fifth during his heat race, which placed him 18th on the 24-car starting grid for the A-main. At the completion of the 25-lap event, Austin took the checkers in 16th.
Austin will enter Friday night’s race at River Cities Speedway sitting third in the NOSA point standings, just 20 markers behind leader, Wade Nygaard.
Season Stats:
Races: 13
Wins: 0
Top 5’s: 6
Top 10’s: 8
Heat Wins: 3
UPCOMING EVENTS:
July 1 – River Cities Speedway
July 8 – River Cities Speedway
July 9 – Devils Lake Speedway
Recap and Photo by Mike Spieker
