PIERCE SCORES PODIUM FINISH AT BLAZIN’ CHALLENGE
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (August 23, 2023) – Returning to the seat of the Opp Construction / Nelson Auto Center No. 2A for the first time in nearly a month, Austin Pierce took to River Cities Speedway last Friday night for the annual running of the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin’ Challenge, an event Pierce had won three-times coming into this season’s edition of the event.
Pierce started in the eighth and final position in his heat race and charged all the way up to second. This put Pierce in the King of the Hill qualifying tournament. Getting to wait until the semi-finals, Pierce beat Mark Dobmeier but finished second to Brendan Mullen to end up receiving the 14th starting spot in the 35-lap main event.
It took Pierce a couple laps to start making up ground after starting second to last in the event. But Pierce, who restarted ninth on a lap four restart, went side-by-side with Dobmeier at the drop of the green.
Pierce passed Dobmeier and Travis Strandell and then followed Brendan Mullen past Zach Omdahl into the fifth spot at the conclusion of lap six.
Pierce’s next big move was passing both Blake Egeland and Mullen heading into turn three on the seventh lap which put him in the final spot on the podium.
Just before the midway point, with the leaders working lapped traffic, Pierce moved his way past early leader Gage Pulkrabek to move into the second spot.
Pierce didn’t have as much luck in lap traffic as new leader Jade Hastings did but continued to run second until the final caution with eight laps to go.
Dobmeier slipped past Pierce on the restart, but Pierce was able to come home with a third-place run.
This Friday, Pierce heads back to River Cities for the second appearance by the World of Outlaws at the track this season. Pierce finished 14th in June but will be looking for redemption as it was during last August’s event that Pierce took a tumble off of turn four which caused him to miss a week of action.
The 14th place run in June was the fifth time he’s finished in that spot with the ‘Greatest Show on Dirt,’ tied for the second best of his career after a tenth place run in June 2016.
The entire APR crew would like to thank their sponsors for their continued support!
Opp Construction
Nelson Auto Center of Grand Forks & Fergus Falls
Highland Excavating
Dahlstrom Motors Inc.
Bun Lounge
InVision Ag
Auggie’s Flying Service
AJ’s Sandblasting & Painting
Solem Farms
Vollrath Farms
Hillesland Farms
All Pro Electric LLC
Danielle’s Cleaning Service
The Hub Pub
Curt D. Johnson Auction Company-K-BID.com Indpendent Affiliate
Grand Forks Abstract & Title
EMi – Eagle Motorsports, Schnee, Henchcraft, Stallard
2023 Stats:
Races: 9
Wins: 1
Top 5’s: 6
Top 10’s: 6
