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Terbo Time: Last Corner Pass Lifts Erb to Mars Opener Win

Photo: Rich Labrier (Dirtman Photography)

May 13, 2022 (Farmer City Raceway) - The 2022 Mars Racing Series kicked off with a bang on Friday night at Farmer City Raceway. The highly anticipated Farmer City 74 to kick off the season did not disappoint. The pits filled up with 52 cars as the Illinois Speedweeks continued through the Land of Linclon.

In Allstar Performance qualifying it was Ricky Thornton Jr who laid down the quickest overall lap at 13.058 seconds. In group B it was Martinsville, IN driver Hudson O'Neal who was quickest with a lap at 13.248 seconds. This set the stage for 6 heat races to start setting the field for the 47 lap $15,000 to win event.

In Arizona Sport Shirts Heat Race #1 fast qualifier Ricky Thornton Jr took the win win Devin Moran and Cade Dillard also transferring.

Heat Race #2 presented by Dirt Track Bank went to defending series champ Brian Shirley. Josh Putnam and Lincoln, IL driver Myles Moos moved on the feature event.

In Oriley's  Heat Race #3 Tyler Erb picked up the win with Spencer Hughes and Ashton Winger moving on to the main.

Hudson O'Neal found himself out front at the end of Hoosier Tire Midwest Heat #4. Brandon Sheppard and Frank Heckenast Jr were your other two transfer drivers.

Heat Race #5 sponsored by Allgaier Performance Parts went to McKay Wenger. Former Farmer City 74 winner Shannon Babb and Garrett Alberson also transferred.

In the 6th and final Heat Race presented by Hoker Trucking went to Mike Marlar. Dennis Erb Jr and Ryan Unzicker took the final two spots from heat race action.

It took a pair of B-mains to set the final four spots. Taylor Sheffler and Bobby Pierce took the wins with runner up finishers Bob Gardner and Tanner English claiming the final two starting spots. This made our 22 car starting field complete.

The 47 lap $15,000 to win feature was full of side by side racing. Drivers throughout the field swapped spots every corner as the best wheelmen in the country battled on the high banks. Ricky Thornton Jr led most of the way with Hudson O'Neal in the runner up spot. In the middle stages we seen several drivers bid to make a run to the front. Dennis Erb Jr, Brandon Sheppard and Brian Shirley all made their presence known. But in the final laps it was Tyler Erb who was able to mount the charge. Tyler and Ricky put on a show for the fans as they battled it out the last five laps. Erb got a killer run off of turn four on the final lap and nipped Thornton Jr at the line. 

Tyler Erb was fired up as he did donuts in front of the crowd in turn 1 for the crowd and jumped with excitement on top of his car in Go Lithium victory lane. Hudson O'Neal who ran up front all night settled for the final podium spot. The Keyser Manufacturing Hard Charger was Bobby Pierce who came from the 20th starting spot to finish 4th. Last year's Farmer City 74 winner Brandon Sheppard rounded out the top 5.

The Mars Racing Series moves on Saturday to the Fairbury Speedway for the $30,000 to win Spring Shootout presented by Titan Industries. Hot laps slated around 5:30pm today. All the action can be seen LIVE on FloRacing as the Illinois Speedweeks comes to a close.

FULL RESULTS:

A Feature 1 (50 Laps): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 3. 71-Hudson O'Neal[2]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[20]; 5. 1-Brandon Sheppard[8]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[12]; 7. 9-Devin Moran[7]; 8. 81E-Tanner English[22]; 9. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 10. 97-Cade Dillard[13]; 11. 58-Garrett Alberson[16]; 12. 11-Spencer Hughes[11]; 13. 42W-Mckay Wenger[4]; 14. 84-Myles Moos[15]; 15. 24-Ryan Unzicker[18]; 16. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[19]; 17. 212-Josh Putnam[9]; 18. 4G-Bob Gardner[21]; 19. 89-Ashton Winger[17]; 20. 18B-Shannon Babb[10]; 21. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[14]; 22. 157-Mike Marlar[6]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[1]; 2. 4G-Bob Gardner[2]; 3. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[3]; 4. 45-Kyle Hammer[5]; 5. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[4]; 6. 11H-Jeff Herzog[6]; 7. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[8]; 8. 14M-Morgan Bagley[10]; 9. 33H-Roben Huffman[9]; 10. 35-Derek Chandler[14]; 11. 19X-Cody Bauer[11]; 12. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[7]; 13. 28M-Jake Miller[13]; 14. 31-Paul Stubber[12]; 15. 02-Kent Rosevear[16]; 16. (DNF) 74-Russ Adams[15]; 17. (DNS) J12-Jason Wagner

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[7]; 3. 25-Jason Feger[3]; 4. 19-Ryan Gustin[6]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott[9]; 6. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr[5]; 7. B12-Kevin Weaver[4]; 8. 36-Logan Martin[8]; 9. 21B-Rich Bell[12]; 10. 21N-Logan Nickerson[10]; 11. 15B-Bob Sidener[16]; 12. (DNF) 89S-Mike Spatola[13]; 13. (DNF) 51F-Matt Furman[15]; 14. (DNF) 56-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 15. (DNS) 42-Chad Finley; 16. (DNS) 10-Daryn Klein; 17. (DNS) 130-Chase Osterhoff

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 9-Devin Moran[2]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard[3]; 4. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[5]; 5. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[6]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[7]; 7. 14M-Morgan Bagley[4]; 8. 28M-Jake Miller[9]; 9. 02-Kent Rosevear[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 2. 212-Josh Putnam[1]; 3. 84-Myles Moos[3]; 4. 4G-Bob Gardner[4]; 5. 45-Kyle Hammer[6]; 6. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[7]; 7. 19X-Cody Bauer[5]; 8. 35-Derek Chandler[8]; 9. (DNS) J12-Jason Wagner

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 11-Spencer Hughes[2]; 3. 89-Ashton Winger[3]; 4. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[4]; 5. 11H-Jeff Herzog[6]; 6. 33H-Roben Huffman[7]; 7. 31-Paul Stubber[5]; 8. 74-Russ Adams[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Hudson O'Neal[1]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 3. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[3]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 5. B12-Kevin Weaver[4]; 6. 81E-Tanner English[7]; 7. 21N-Logan Nickerson[8]; 8. 89S-Mike Spatola[5]; 9. 15B-Bob Sidener[9]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 42W-Mckay Wenger[3]; 2. 18B-Shannon Babb[1]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[4]; 4. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 5. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr[6]; 6. 36-Logan Martin[5]; 7. 42-Chad Finley[8]; 8. 10-Daryn Klein[7]; 9. 130-Chase Osterhoff[9]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[2]; 3. 24-Ryan Unzicker[4]; 4. 25-Jason Feger[3]; 5. 19-Ryan Gustin[6]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott[7]; 7. 21B-Rich Bell[5]; 8. 51F-Matt Furman[8]

Qualifying 1: 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:13.058[11]; 2. 212-Josh Putnam, 00:13.090[13]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:13.120[15]; 4. 9-Devin Moran, 00:13.121[10]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:13.172[25]; 6. 11-Spencer Hughes, 00:13.228[12]; 7. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:13.241[8]; 8. 84-Myles Moos, 00:13.276[16]; 9. 89-Ashton Winger, 00:13.309[20]; 10. 14M-Morgan Bagley, 00:13.378[7]; 11. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:13.500[3]; 12. 11G-Gordy Gundaker, 00:13.556[14]; 13. 10S-Taylor Scheffler, 00:13.580[6]; 14. 19X-Cody Bauer, 00:13.683[17]; 15. 31-Paul Stubber, 00:13.685[4]; 16. 11T-Trevor Gundaker, 00:13.710[5]; 17. 45-Kyle Hammer, 00:13.758[21]; 18. 11H-Jeff Herzog, 00:13.815[26]; 19. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:14.057[24]; 20. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr, 00:14.102[22]; 21. 33H-Roben Huffman, 00:14.125[1]; 22. 02-Kent Rosevear, 00:14.310[18]; 23. 35-Derek Chandler, 00:14.365[19]; 24. 74-Russ Adams, 00:14.591[9]; 25. 28M-Jake Miller, 00:14.634[23]; 26. (DNS) J12-Jason Wagner, 00:14.310

Qualifying 2: 1. 71-Hudson O'Neal, 00:13.248[3]; 2. 18B-Shannon Babb, 00:13.463[7]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:13.464[19]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard, 00:13.529[9]; 5. 56-Tony Jackson Jr, 00:13.592[1]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:13.596[26]; 7. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:13.632[4]; 8. 42W-Mckay Wenger, 00:13.645[23]; 9. 25-Jason Feger, 00:13.679[6]; 10. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:13.710[11]; 11. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:13.778[24]; 12. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:13.845[17]; 13. 89S-Mike Spatola, 00:13.888[8]; 14. 36-Logan Martin, 00:13.917[12]; 15. 21B-Rich Bell, 00:13.932[5]; 16. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:14.039[25]; 17. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr, 00:14.042[18]; 18. 19-Ryan Gustin, 00:14.051[10]; 19. 81E-Tanner English, 00:14.105[14]; 20. 10-Daryn Klein, 00:14.120[20]; 21. 2S-Stormy Scott, 00:14.154[15]; 22. 21N-Logan Nickerson, 00:14.289[16]; 23. 42-Chad Finley, 00:14.364[22]; 24. 51F-Matt Furman, 00:14.557[21]; 25. 15B-Bob Sidener, 00:14.622[2]; 26. (DNS) 130-Chase Osterhoff

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