By BOBBY SWEENEY
CONCORD, NC – In the modern ages of Super DIRTcar Series racing, being competitive with only a handful of starts is extremely difficult. In only his ninth start of 2021, Brett Hearn returned to victory lane, dominating the finale of the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Rocky Warner was all over early leader Hearn in the opening stages of the 30-lap feature, running the cushion as Hearn rode the middle. Warner nearly grabbed the top spot from Hearn, drawing even on lap six, but Hearn held on. Warner and Peter Britten hung close to Hearn through the next handful of laps, but soon as Warner looked to make another run on lap 13, Warner broke and slowed.
Matt Sheppard filed into third at halfway, right on Britten’s tail. As the laps clicked off, Britten started to lose ground to Hearn. The middle, Hearn’s lane from the start, became the definitive quick groove, with Hearn becoming faster as the lap counter hit 20.
As Hearn slipped away, Sheppard’s pressure on Britten grew. After laps of trying, Sheppard got under Britten and took second with a lap and a half to go. Sheppard took a solid chunk out of Hearn’s lead in the final lap, but too little and too late, as Hearn reached the checkered flag first to score win #920 of his career.
“It’s tough to find the words for this one,” Hearn said. “I’ve been on the sidelines much of the past two years, and I never really envisioned myself winning again. I was thinking to myself on the way down, if I never see myself winning again, I never will. I got to thinking and trying to visualize myself on this stage, and here we are.”
Hearn’s team was often considered the gold standard when racing regularly, and luckily Hearn had been able to keep many of the same components in tact even with his reduced schedule.
“Everything starts with a well-prepared racecar,” noted Hearn. “I’m extremely fortunate to be lucky enough to have a really great car and team waiting for whenever we decide to race, and it shows at events like this. You have to be fast right off the truck, qualifying well is so important here, and that only happens with a great team.”
With one eight-time Super DIRTcar Series champion winning the race, Sheppard became the second eight-time champion with a runner-up finish.
“I wish that one stayed 40-laps,” stated Sheppard. “We came alive at the end of that one, we almost caught him. That just goes to show how good he is, to not race hardly at all and come out and win one of these.”
Britten was one of few drivers to take the softer D400 compound tire opposed to the hard D500. Despite the third place finish, Britten was left frustrated.
“I was way too conservative with the tire,” Britten said. “I have a ton of tread left, I was worried about it all race and I could’ve ran it a lot harder. That’s just how these races can get with tire wear, I went better safe than sorry and left some on the table.”
Demetrios Drellos was fourth and Mat Williamson rounded out the top five.
THE DIRT TRACK AT CHARLOTTE WORLD FINALS RESULTS (11/5/21)
Feature 30 Laps | 00:18:57.061 – 1. 20-Brett Hearn[1]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[6]; 3. 21A-Peter Britten[2]; 4. 111-Demetrios Drellos[5]; 5. 88-Mat Williamson[3]; 6. 3-Justin Haers[9]; 7. 32CC-Max McLaughlin[30]; 8. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[10]; 9. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[8]; 10. 91-Billy Decker[14]; 11. 19-Tim Fuller[11]; 12. 2L-Jack Lehner[17]; 13. 32R-Ronnie Davis III[13]; 14. 35-Mike Mahaney[15]; 15. 8-Rich Scagliotta[29]; 16. 42P-Pat Ward[16]; 17. 28-Jordan McCreadie[19]; 18. 215-Adam Pierson[21]; 19. 2A-Mike Gular[18]; 20. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[24]; 21. 25-Erick Rudolph[25]; 22. 70A-Alex Payne[28]; 23. 28T-Michael Trautschold[27]; 24. 88D-Olden Dwyer[26]; 25. 21M-Bob Mcgannon[23]; 26. JS98-Rocky Warner[4]; 27. 11T-Jeff Taylor; 28. 17-Marcus Dinkins; 29. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher; 30. 14-CG Morey; 31. 35B-Christopher Curtis; 32. 99L-Larry Wight[7]; 33. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[22]; 34. 8A-Duane Howard[20]; 35. 66-Tim McCreadie[12]; 36. 5H-Chris Hile[31]; Hard Charger – Max McLaughlin (+23)
Qualifying 1 3 Laps | 00:00:36.139 – 1. 20-Brett Hearn, 00:17.210[1]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:17.238[6]; 3. 32R-Ronnie Davis III, 00:17.439[3]; 4. 3-Justin Haers, 00:17.445[8]; 5. 2L-Jack Lehner, 00:17.716[4]; 6. 25-Erick Rudolph, 00:17.759[7]; 7. 215-Adam Pierson, 00:17.941[10]; 8. 8-Rich Scagliotta, 00:18.066[2]; 9. 17-Marcus Dinkins, 00:18.103[5]
Qualifying 2 3 Laps | 00:00:35.447 – 1. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:17.027[9]; 2. 21A-Peter Britten, 00:17.075[1]; 3. 91-Billy Decker, 00:17.210[5]; 4. 111-Demetrios Drellos, 00:17.285[10]; 5. 2A-Mike Gular, 00:17.396[7]; 6. 21M-Bob Mcgannon, 00:17.443[8]; 7. 32CC-Max McLaughlin, 00:17.481[6]; 8. 15-Billy Pauch Jr, 00:17.709[2]; 9. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:17.815[3]; 10. 35B-Christopher Curtis, 00:17.861[4]
Qualifying 3 3 Laps | 00:00:34.496 – 1. 98H-Jimmy Phelps, 00:16.762[7]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:16.870[2]; 3. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker, 00:16.993[3]; 4. 19-Tim Fuller, 00:17.053[6]; 5. 35-Mike Mahaney, 00:17.144[4]; 6. 28-Jordan McCreadie, 00:17.243[5]; 7. 5H-Chris Hile, 00:17.336[8]; 8. 28T-Michael Trautschold, 00:17.410[1]
Qualifying 4 3 Laps | 00:00:34.895 – 1. 88-Mat Williamson, 00:17.080[8]; 2. 66-Tim McCreadie, 00:17.088[9]; 3. JS98-Rocky Warner, 00:17.163[2]; 4. 83X-Tim Sears Jr, 00:17.179[5]; 5. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher, 00:17.231[3]; 6. 42P-Pat Ward, 00:17.274[6]; 7. 8A-Duane Howard, 00:17.349[4]; 8. 88D-Olden Dwyer, 00:17.566[1]; 9. 11T-Jeff Taylor, 00:17.623[7]
Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:02:18.000 – 1. 20-Brett Hearn[1]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight[2]; 3. 3-Justin Haers[4]; 4. 32R-Ronnie Davis III[3]; 5. 2L-Jack Lehner[5]; 6. 215-Adam Pierson[7]; 7. 8-Rich Scagliotta[8]; 8. 25-Erick Rudolph[6]; 9. 17-Marcus Dinkins[9]; 10. 14-CG Morey[10]
Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:02:19.594- 1. 21A-Peter Britten[2]; 2. 111-Demetrios Drellos[4]; 3. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[1]; 4. 91-Billy Decker[3]; 5. 2A-Mike Gular[5]; 6. 21M-Bob Mcgannon[6]; 7. 32CC-Max McLaughlin[7]; 8. 70A-Alex Payne[9]; 9. 15-Billy Pauch Jr[8]; 10. 35B-Christopher Curtis[10]
Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:02:13.781 – 1. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[1]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[2]; 3. 19-Tim Fuller[4]; 4. 35-Mike Mahaney[5]; 5. 28-Jordan McCreadie[6]; 6. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[3]; 7. 28T-Michael Trautschold[8]; 8. 5H-Chris Hile[7]
Heat 4 8 Laps | 00:04:07.662 – 1. 88-Mat Williamson[1]; 2. JS98-Rocky Warner[3]; 3. 66-Tim McCreadie[2]; 4. 42P-Pat Ward[6]; 5. 8A-Duane Howard[7]; 6. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[4]; 7. 88D-Olden Dwyer[8]; 8. 11T-Jeff Taylor[9]; 9. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher[5]
Last Chance Showdown 12 Laps | 00:03:28.176 – 1. 215-Adam Pierson[1]; 2. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[4]; 3. 21M-Bob Mcgannon[2]; 4. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[3]; 5. 25-Erick Rudolph[9]; 6. 88D-Olden Dwyer[8]; 7. 28T-Michael Trautschold[7]; 8. 70A-Alex Payne[10]; 9. 8-Rich Scagliotta[5]; 10. 11T-Jeff Taylor[12]; 11. 17-Marcus Dinkins[13]; 12. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher[15]; 13. 14-CG Morey[16]; 14. 35B-Christopher Curtis[17]; 15. 32CC-Max McLaughlin[6]; 16. 5H-Chris Hile[11]; 17. (DNS) 15-Billy Pauch Jr
