WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa — Garrett Alberson and teammate Jeremiah Hurst delivered a one-two punch on Saturday night at the 34 Raceway for car owner Ken Roberts.
The back-and-forth battle for the win saw Alberson collecting his first career Lucas Oil Midwest Late Model Racing Ass’n victory, worth $5,000.
For the second night in a row, Billy Moyer Jr. dominated the early part of the night by collecting the Illini Racing & Supply Fast Time Award along with his heat race to start him on the pole for the 40-lap feature.
MLRA point leader Tony Jackson Jr. started alongside on row number one, but it was again Moyer Jr. darting to the lead at the drop of the green.
This time around Moyer Jr’s. time at the point would be short lived, as Jackson Jr. took to the top shelf and quickly took away the race lead on lap three. Jackson’s time on top would be just about as short as this time it was third-starting Garrett Alberson diving to the bottom on lap number six to become the races third leader.
Alberson would continue to show the way until the race’s only caution waved on lap eleven when Tim Simpson spun exciting turn four directly in front of Jackson who narrowly avoided disaster.
Back under the green, Alberson would enjoy a comfortable advantage during the long green flag run, but the lapped traffic would eventually start to take its toll on the race leader as he would at times struggle to find separation.
With Alberson maintaining the advantage, it was teammate Jeremiah Hurst making the moves from his fifth-starting spot to slide past Moyer and into second with just over 10 laps to go.
Hurst chased down his teammate setting up a fierce battle for the elusive first career MLRA win. On lap 36, Hurst snuck by off the exit of turn four to take the top spot as the duo work lapped traffic. Hurst would maintain the top spot for a pair of laps before Alberson was again able to sneak back by for the race lead with just two laps to go.
Alberson won by .615 seconds over Hurst while Moyer Jr. held on for third.
Tad Pospisil scored the Casey’s Hard Charger Award finishing in fourth while Jackson Jr. claim fifth at the line.
“Last time I ran way too conservative here in the Slocum, and I knew I just had to go for it from the beginning and it worked out right there at the beginning getting some clean air,” Alberson said. “I actually liked racing in that traffic because the sticks were pretty big while we were in the traffic and I thought that might keep us all separated. I really didn’t want that caution because after that I didn’t know where to run. It was an awesome job on the track, it was just phenomenal and you could run all over it.”
Hurst collected his second MLRA runner-up finish of the year.
“We have got speed,” said Hurst. “I just can’t thank Ken (Roberts) enough for giving us this opportunity. There ain’t no better car owner like I say than Ken Roberts.”
The finish:
Feature (40 laps): 1. 59-Garrett Alberson[3]; 2. 41-Jeremiah Hurst[5]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[1]; 4. 04-Tad Pospisil[11]; 5. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 6. 15-Justin Duty[9]; 7. 25-Chad Simpson[7]; 8. 93-Mason Oberkramer[10]; 9. 32S-Chris Simpson[15]; 10. 91T-Tony Toste[16]; 11. 91P-Jason Papich[12]; 12. 11H-Jeff Herzog[4]; 13. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[6]; 14. 76-Blair Nothdurft[8]; 15. 14M-Reid Millard[19]; 16. 12B-Brandon Queen[18]; 17. 17-Tim Simpson[24]; 18. 3W-Brennon Willard[20]; 19. 75-Terry Phillips[13]; 20. (DNF) 99-Dylan Hoover[17]; 21. (DNF) 3X-Skip Frey[22]; 22. (DNF) 11R-Justin Reed[14]; 23. (DNF) 33-Brandon Rothzen[23]; 24. (DNF) 33F-Rickey Frankel[21]