Pierce Picks Up 1st Win of 2016!
GRAND FORKS, ND (July 26) – It may have taken until the end of July, but the Austin Pierce Racing crew now has a tally in the win column. Thursday night at Norman County Raceway in Ada, Minnesota, Austin topped the field of 22 NOSA Sprints to not only pick up his first win of the season, but his first career win at the high-banked three-eighths mile oval.
“It feels greats,” said Austin in KRJB/KRJM Victory Lane. “We’ve had a lot of top three’s and top five’s, but it feels good to finally get our first win of the year. Hopefully there will be more to come.”
The driver of the Opp Construction/AJ’s Sandblasting #2A started fourth on the field for the 25-lap main event, but moved into the second spot after the lap three restart. Pierce then rode behind Jordan Adams before taking the lead with 12 to go.
In the closing laps, a hard charging Cory Mack made things interesting as he completed a big slide job on Pierce to momentarily take the lead. Pierce countered with a crossover move, which put him back in the lead and ultimately won him the race.
“I saw that [Mack] had come from a ways back so I knew he was going to be fast,” continued Pierce. “He came into turn three, gave me the slide job, but luckily I could hear and see him coming so I prepared myself to turn back underneath him and luckily it worked out.”
Friday night the team was back in action at River Cities Speedway for another night of racing at the Bullring.
After starting 10th in the feature, Austin methodically moved his way forward and was able to crack the top five with 10 laps to go. A late race restart bunch the field back up and gave Austin one last chance to pick up a few more positions.
As the green flew, Austin tried to take full advantage of the opportunity as he went three wide with the Mack brothers of Casey and Cory. That battle lasted for the remainder of the event as Austin crossed the line with a very respectable fourth place finish.
Austin currently sits third in both the River Cities Speedway and NOSA point standings entering this weekend’s Grand Forks/Greenbush double-header.
Season Stats:
Races: 19
Wins: 1
Top 5’s: 11
Top 10’s: 13
Heat Wins: 6
Upcoming Events:
July 29: River Cities Speedway
July 30: Greenbush Race Park
