Two Top-Fives Highlight Pierce’s Weekend!

GRAND FORKS, ND (July 20) – Last weekend Austin Pierce and the Highland Excavating/Vollrath Farms team were set for a grueling three race swing, which began last Friday night at River Cities Speedway.

Austin started at the tail of his heat at the Grand Forks bullring, but charged through the field and claimed the win in dominating fashion.

Anticipation built for the feature as the crew knew they had a fast Ostrich/Schnee machine, but unfortunately the night was washed out as torrential rains came in shortly after Austin’s heat.

Saturday night brought the team down to Glyndon, MN for NOSA’s second appearance at Buffalo River Race Park. Austin drove from eighth to fifth in heat race three, which put him back in 11th for the 25-lap Thunder Seed main event.

Despite a tricky racing surface, Austin charged all the way up into the top five in the closing laps.

“We had a car that could run the top of turns one and two so that is where we picked up a lot of positions in the beginning,” said Austin.

“Then we got in behind Thomas [Kennedy] and Casey [Mack] in the rubber and they got to racing pretty hard and decided to jump out of the groove. I was able to squeeze in underneath and pass both of them.”

Austin took the checkers in the runner-up spot.
Sunday evening marked the first Sprint Car race at Red River Valley Speedway in four years as Buffalo Wild Wings and the Red River Valley Fair presented the NOSA/NLRA double-header.

Once again Austin made an impressive charge in his heat race as he drove from seventh to finish second. The track changed drastically from the heat to feature, where Austin was only able to advance from fifth to fourth.

“The race went ok,” said Pierce. “The track was kind of one-laned and really slick. We set up for it to take rubber, but it never really took any rubber so we were a little bit too free. All in all it was a good night.”

Next up for the Opp Construction/Lithia Ford #2Awill be the annual visit to Ada, Minnesota’s Norman County Raceway where Austin will shoot for that elusive first victory of the season.
Season Stats:

Races: 17
Wins: 0
Top 5’s: 9
Top 10’s: 11
Heat Wins: 4

Upcoming Events:
July 21: Norman County Raceway
July 22: River Cities Speedway