Brian Shirley Breezes to River Cities Victory

Brian Shirley competing at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota. (Photo: Emily Schwanke | World Racing Group)

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — After the originally scheduled race was canceled on Friday, the World of Outlaws Late Models returned to River Cities Speedway for their 40-lap main event.

Brian Shirley and Devin Moran led the 24-car field to the starting area and almost immediately, it was a hard battle between the two leaders. One spot back though, Ryan Gustin was moving up quickly as well.

On Lap 3, Nick Hoffman was involved in a gnarly wreck on the front stretch, completely ruining his front end. While the caution was out, Hoffman turned into the pit area to get some cosmetic repairs done to the right front corner of his car. His team ripped all of the sheet metal away, exposing the front tire. Hoffman was able to return to the track after the risk of getting a flat tire was avoided.

When the cars fired up their engines again, Max McLaughlin was able to pass Gustin for third. Gustin began to feel the pressure from Tyler Bruening in fifth.

Eight laps later, Bobby Pierce and Brandon Sheppard battled it out for seventh, and as they raced out of Turn 2 and headed down the backstretch, they were side-by-side with each other. Sheppard went low into the next corner and this proved to be a good move for him when he was able to slide up in front of Pierce to cross the line ahead.

Kyle Bronson competing at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota. (Photo: Emily Schwanke | World Racing Group)

Four laps after that, Moran, who was running second throughout the entire race so far, went up against McLaughlin. Dustin Walker, a lapped car, was split between the two of them and when they came out on the other side, they were side-by-side going into Turn 3. “Mad Max” was fast on the bottom, but he was not good enough to get past Moran for second.

Lap 27 saw Gustin go after Bruening for fourth. As the two of them came out of the first set of turns, Gustin went high and knocked on Bruening’s door, just looking to find a way to sneak past. For three laps, Gustin edged himself closer and closer to Bruening by running the high side, and he finally took over fourth coming down the front straightaway on Lap 30.

With three laps left to go, Bruening took the low side and got by both McLaughlin and Gustin, taking over third. As the field came off of Turn 4 and down the front straightaway to begin Lap 38, McLaughlin went high and was able to pass Bruening on the backstretch as they split the lapped car of Tristan Chamberlain. Chamberlain ended up going around in Turn 1 at the beginning of Lap 39.

Shirley was able to keep himself and his car clean up front to take home the win, and the $12,000 payday, while Moran, McLaughlin, Sheppard and Gustin rounded out the top five.

“Very happy,” said Shirley about winning at River Cities on Sunday night. “[I’m] very happy that I got a sponsor and a team owner that believes in me more than I believe in myself. We’ve put in a lot of hard work this year and we’ve had a lot of downs. It’s just been one of those rollercoaster years.”