Central Arizona Raceway
Notes: Speedy Terbo seeking Arizona rhythm
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Tyler Erb (1) battles Bobby Pierce (32) in Wednesday's feature. (mikerueferphotos.photoreflect.com)
CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (Jan. 14) — Tyler Erb thought he had Bobby Pierce right where he wanted on Wednesday’s Wild West Shootout final restart with eight laps remaining. Choosing the bottom lane running second, the New Waverly, Texas, was ready to pounce on Pierce, who he surely thought would ride the cushion entering turn one on the restart. | Complete WWS coverage
Except Pierce darted low, throwing the 28-year-old off guard and even stifling his momentum through those opening set of corners. That opened the door for Ethan Dotson to generate a race-winning run around the top to blast around both the bottom-putting Pierce and Erb.
“The restart before, Hudson (O’Neal) fired good (around the top), beat Bobby and got to the lead, or whatever,” Erb said after Wednesday's fourth-place finish. “I felt like that particular restart, Bobby started up by the fence and then turned. So I was like, ‘Oh, he’s going to do that again.’ And he didn’t, and that left the top wide open. Ethan did a good job and went straight to the lead. I got, just kind of like, out of a rhythm, really.”
All told, Erb took consolation being back in the winning mix Wednesday after two subpar outings last Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s miniseries got off to a deflating start when a flat tire knocked him out of fourth on lap 35 of 50. He salvaged 11th that night before placing seventh on Sunday, a performance that didn’t please him.
“It was good. It was better,” Erb said. “Sunday I didn’t feel good. Saturday I felt good, but I had a flat. We’ll try again Friday.”
If there’s anything to be proud of, it’s Erb has qualified well with times that ranked third, fourth and fourth in his group. Now it comes down to finding enough speed and making the right decisions at the very end of features.
“Yeah, I mean, I can qualify and heat race really well. Tonight was obviously my best chance because I won my heat race, which was good,” said Erb, who rode around patiently in third from laps 4-23 until O’Neal’s flat tire that triggered the final restart. “Early, you can be as aggressive as you want. But at some point, you’re gong to burn your tires out. So I was trying to be mellow. And when Bobby got the lead, I figured he was going to burn it down and then Hudson slid me pretty hard there. They started chasing, so I was like, well, I’ll follow them. I felt like I didn’t need to do anything else.”
Erb didn’t mince self-criticism either when dissecting what could’ve gone better.
“There’s been restarts every race so far, late-race restarts. So I don’t know, bad racecraft tonight,” Erb said. “I feel like if I picked the top, based of what Bobby did getting into turn one, it’s really easy. You rail the top just like Ethan did, which is the fastest line. It’s just on the restart, you protect, or whatever. Just made a very poor choice and that was the end of it.
“As a whole, I felt like I felt the best out of the three nights, start to finish. Qualifying has been good. Heat race has been good but as a whole, I felt the most comfortable. Just work off this a little bit and go from there.”
Unexpected boost
A ninth-place finish from the 18th-starting spot made for a good Wednesday for longtime Wild West Shootout competitor Terry Phillips, who logged his first top-10 at the miniseries in four years. What made the outing sweet, though, is the unforeseen pick-me-up the 59-year-old received from a fellow National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer.
“My hero, Billy Moyer, came over and gave me some tips,” the Springfield, Mo., driver said. "First time ever in his life, and I’ve known him my whole life, and that made me excited, but he kind of actually steered me the right way there. We’ll do some more to it. Hopefully we’re going the right direction here.”
For Phillips, this week’s six-race miniseries covers nearly half the 13-race Late Model schedule he ran last season, which is 13 more races he expected to contest in the fendered discipline he intended on retiring from until Kyle Beard’s car owner, Shawn Mann, offered the veteran a ride he couldn’t refuse.
With Moyer’s tidbits of knowledge boosting him, Phillips was able to turn his otherwise non-factor miniseries around Wednesday off the heels of missing A-mains on Saturday and Sunday. Phillips does have seven of his 10 overall Southwest special victories at the 3/8-mile Central Arizona Raceway, but the track has changed a lot over the years, especially since his last victory in 2007.
Knowing he’d take his lumps this week against stuff competition, Phillips didn’t want to miss the event’s return to its original home.
“Yeah, I just enjoy it,” Phillips said. “You know, we’re at home for a month, a month and a half or something, usually cold and winter, like everybody else, you know. So coming out here, I always like these tracks out here and stuff. We’re having a good time, doing a little racing, and we’ll go back home, have another winter for a little while, and start up again.”
As for what’s in store for 2026, Phillips isn’t sure yet. He followed the entire United States Modified Touring Series last year, finishing fifth in points while making an unexpected return in Late Models that yielded two victories in the discipline, including $10,000 at Enid (Okla.) Speedway last July.
“I’m not sure what I’m gonna do yet, whether it’s Late Models or the mod thing, but we’re just kind of gearing up with both, so see what happens,” Phillips said. “We do the best we can. There ain’t a ton of pressure with it, and I kind of like that.”
Alberson in search mode
Stringing together finishes of seventh, fourth and seventh, in that order, Garrett Alberson hasn’t had a bad start to the Wild West Shootout. Still, that body of work isn’t up to the Las Cruces, N.M., driver’s standards as he and his Roberts Motorsports team are still searching for that enduring, race-contending speed.
“We’re going backwards for some reason,” Alberson said after his sixth-to-seventh performance Wednesday. “We unloaded really fast practice night and it seems like every time we've been on the track since, we’ve been a little slower. And we found some things wrong on the car on the practice night on Tuesday. And I've actually been worse since then.”
“So, I'm not sure how you find things messed up and get worse. And so now, we were kind of having to, like, start from scratch (Wednesday). We’re just not really getting anywhere. Yeah, we got some work to do. We're gonna probably do a little rebuilding the next day or two and just see if we can find some speed again or get the other car out. I am not sure yet, but it's definitely not the direction I want to go.”
Setting the overall fastest lap time of last Friday’s opening practice session and starting Saturday’s feature third, Alberson thought he’d come out swinging this week. Whether it’s Central Arizona’s quirky layout, sandy surface, something setup-related, or a mix of all three, Alberson and co. are trying to figure it out.
“Just trying to get back to where we were and get our consistency going,” the two-time miniseries winner said. “Because I know that we're plenty capable to run up front and a conned for wins. We’re just kind of missing it somewhere.”
Odds and ends
Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., made his streaming debut at Wednesday’s Wild West Shootout alongside FloRacing play-by-play announcers Dustin Jarrett, Ben Shelton and pit reporter Trenton Barry. The 68-year-old Moyer plans to join the FloRacing broadcast once again over the weekend at the miniseries, providing color commentary and shedding his Hall of Fame expertise “that hopefully the fans like.” … After missing Tuesday’s A-main transfer by two spots in his Chili Bowl Nationals debut at Tulsa, Okla.’s SageNet Center, Drake Troutman of Hyndman, Pa., is likely to remain in Casa Grande for Saturday’s fifth-round miniseries event. While consolation lineups for Saturday’s Chili Bowl championship program haven’t been released, Troutman expects to start well outside a B-main transfer position, his benchmark for returning to the indoor midget spectacle. … Two-time WISSOTA champ Tyler Peterson of Hickson, N.D., suffered terminal engine damage in Wednesday’s miniseries program, signaling the end of his Wild West Shootout. … Collen Winebarger of Corbett, Ore., made a one-off start Wednesday in the Jimmy Whisler-owned No. 28 while Ian Whisler attended classes at Linn-Benton Community College, but lost a cylinder in the 19-year-old’s ride, leaving the young Whisler’s status uncertain the rest of the weekend. Eston Whisler, 21, is expected back in his No. 82 with a fresh engine after suffering motor issues Sunday and returning to classes at Oregon State University.
