Earl Pearson, Jr. recorded his 40th career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory on Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway. Photo: LOLMDS/Twitter
Earl Pearson, Jr. raced to the top position on lap 10 and held on for his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win since July of 2020 on Saturday night at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway.
Pearson held off Ricky Thornton, Jr. to earn a $50,000 payday in the Rumble by the River main event.
Thornton finished in second, just .612 seconds behind Pearson. Gregg Satterlee followed in third, with Blairsville, Georgia’s Jonathan Davenport in fourth, and Daulton Wilson in fifth.
Thornton took the lead at the start of the race as Pearson, who started fourth, started making his move early and had climbed to second by lap five. Pearson then outdueled Thornton in the race for the lead to grab the top position on lap 10.
Pearson looked to be in control until Thornton started to close the gap with less than 10 laps to go. The green flag stretch of racing reached 44 consecutive laps before a caution with six to go set-up a shootout between the lead duo.
When the race restarted, Thornton made every effort to get by Pearson, but the 50-year-old Jacksonville, Florida native was able to hold on to take his 40th career series victory.
Pearson dedicated his win to his father who passed away last year.
“It’s awful emotional for me, I lost my dad last year and this is for him and my mom and everybody up in Heaven looking down on me today,” Pearson said. “There’s no doubt they have been a huge part of everything I have done. This is for all of my family and friends back home and everybody that’s pulling for us. What a heck of a show that was. Thornton ran me awful clean, he got into me a little bit down there in four, but hey that was a heck of a race and I done all I could.”
“I didn’t know if I needed a caution or not,” Pearson added. “I have run good here several times. I like the big tracks and it paid off tonight. I absolutely had to change my line. I knew I had to go in low and let it drift up because he (Thornton) is a master of the slide jobs so if I didn’t block the line, I knew what he was going to do. He done a heck of a job. We were fast here in the spring and had speed last night. I love this place, it’s a beautiful place to come to. You can race all over it. They done a heck of a job with the racetrack last night after the rain. They do a heck of a job here.”
Jimmy Owens, Mike Marlar, Chris Ferguson, Brandon Sheppard, and Hudson O’Neal rounded out the top 10.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series returns to action on Saturday, September 3 at Ohio’s Portsmouth Raceway Park. Visit LucasDirt.com for more information.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, PA
Rumble by the River – August 27, 2022
1. 46-Earl Pearson, Jr.
2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton, Jr.
3. 22-Gregg Satterlee
4. 49-Jonathan Davenport
5. 18D-Daulton Wilson
6. 20-Jimmy Owens
7. 157-Mike Marlar
8. 22F-Chris Ferguson
9. 1-Brandon Sheppard
10. 71-Hudson O’Neal
11. 39-Tim McCreadie
12. 58-Garrett Alberson
13. 9Z-Mason Zeigler
14. 15K-Dale Hollidge
15. 48-Colton Flinner
16. 4-Gary Stuhler
17. 1T-Tyler Erb
18. 0E-Rick Eckert
19. 11-Spencer Hughes
20. 119-Bryan Bernheisel
21. 7-Ross Robinson
22. 72-Michael Norris
23. 2JW-Justin Weaver
24. D19-Dillan Stake
25. 9M-Hayes Mattern
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