Sharon Speedway
Notes: Briggs revved up to do some racing
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Boom Briggs set fast time at Sharon Speedway. (Emily Schwanke/woolms.com)
HARTFORD, Ohio (July 11) — Boom Briggs expected to be rusty after racing only once since Feb. 28 at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway.
The Bear Lake, Pa., veteran didn't expect to unload fast enough to set fast time Saturday at Sharon Speedway with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. And he certainly didn't expect his night to unravel when he clipped an infield tractor tire trying to protect the lead through turns three and four on the opening lap of his heat race.
"Listen, I haven't raced since February. Stateline, you know, we got tangled up a little bit," Briggs said, referring to his lap-25 crash last Wednesday at Stateline Speedway in the Rick Briggs Memorial honoring his late father. "Came here, set fast time. I just knew Dennis (Erb Jr.) was on the outside, and I didn't want to crowd him. I just turned in a little bit too early, made a mistake. What are you gonna do? It just upset the car enough that around I went."
Up to that point, the 54-year-old believed he had a race car capable of contending for a top-five finish. Instead, he was forced to rally from the rear of his heat race and through the B-main before parking after 36 laps of the 60-lap feature to preserve his equipment. He finished 19th.
"If we just started up front, I feel we could have run top-five, but you know, we start back there and it's hard racing, hard passing," Briggs said. "But I love this place. ... It was really rough. I love this place, though. I love coming here. I normally run really good here."
Just making the trip to Sharon was an accomplishment in itself.
After Wednesday's crash at Stateline, Briggs wasn't planning to race because he had to haul a load for his Briggs Transport business late Friday night and didn't think there would be enough time to repair the car.
Instead, Crate Late Model driver Shane Crotty and longtime crewman Shane Winans showed up Friday evening and worked until midnight to get the car race-ready.
"If it wasn't for the two Shanes, I wasn't coming because of the quick turnaround," Briggs said. "Everybody had to leave to come yesterday. So my car wasn't fixed. At 5 o'clock they showed up and fixed my car until midnight. ... We had no plans on coming because I had to drive truck this morning."
Briggs's speed was especially gratifying because it came in his father's No. 95 throwback paint scheme.
The red, orange and yellow design recreates the first Dirt Late Model that Rick Briggs drove in 1985. While today's version is wrapped instead of hand-painted, it still carries the "Tobber Chassis" insignia honoring original owner and builder Toby Jordan, a cousin of Rick Briggs and Chub Frank.
Briggs plans to race the throwback one more time Friday in the Pete Loretto Memorial sponsored by Briggs Transport at Freedom Motorsports Park in Delevan, N.Y. After that, his schedule is uncertain, although Sharon rekindled his desire to race more often.
"Listen, my car's good enough now, I wouldn't mind going to some more races, you know?" Briggs said. "Timmy (McCreadie) has given me some ideas. So to come out this week and at least make both races, that's great. Yeah, I had to win the B-main. I f----- up tonight. I f----- up trying to give Dennis too much room. That's all right. I'd rather do that than crashing that car.”
Second … again
If not for Bobby Pierce's otherworldly streak, Nick Hoffman might be in the middle of a historic season of his own on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
On Saturday at Sharon Speedway, the 34-year-old led the opening 16 laps of the 60-lap feature before Pierce slipped underneath him exiting turn two on lap 17 and drove away for his 11th victory in the last 13 races. Over that span, Hoffman has finished on the podium nine times, including five runner-up finishes to Pierce, all while going without a victory.
"Second sucks, like I’ve said multiple times now. Still not good enough,” Hoffman said. “Tonight it got choppy and wasn’t really set up for that. I just couldn't get across the holes quite like I needed to. I just wasn’t great.”
Hoffman opened the door for Pierce when his momentum stalled in consecutive corners — bicycling off the cushion in turn four on lap 16 before doing the same through turns one and two on lap 17.
“If anything, I was kind of a sitting duck. He was pacing me pretty hard there,” Hoffman said. “I was just trying to do whatever I could to hold him off — and then I knew it was a matter of time I left a lane open and he was able to slide me.”
Hoffman has now finished second to Pierce eight times this season. Remove Pierce from the equation, and Hoffman would be sitting on 14 series victories — a total that would put him within striking distance of the World of Outlaws' single-season wins record of 18, shared by Brandon Sheppard (’17, ’19) and Josh Richards (’16).
Instead, Pierce's recent surge has widened the championship gap. Since Pierce's June 12 victory at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, W.Va., Hoffman has lost 66 points over the last 10 series races and now trails by 75 points heading toward July 24-25’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway.
Still, Hoffman wants to believe isn’t over. At this point last season after Sharon, he trailed Pierce by 92 points before narrowing the deficit to just 24 entering November's World Finals.
Hoffman now shifts his focus to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series this week with Tuesday's event at Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa, followed by the Silver Dollar Nationals at Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa, from Thursday through Saturday. It'll mark Hoffman's first Silver Dollar Nationals appearance since 2022, when the event was held at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb.
The World of Outlaws visits Adams County and Shelby County on Aug. 28-29, giving Hoffman an opportunity to gather information before returning with the tour.
"We’re going to go Lucas racing this week, so I’m excited about that, to a couple places we have to go here in a couple weeks,” Hoffman said. “We’ll take notes on those places and try to make our race car a little better.”
Odds and ends
Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., has won 11 of his last 14 feature starts since debuting his new race car June 3 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, during FloRacing Night in America competition. He said he’s nicknamed this latest Longhorn Chassis that’s brought him an influx of success “Big Money.” ... Trey Mills of St. Augustine, Fla., is looking forward to returning home for the first time since mid-April after Saturday's 14th-place finish at Sharon Speedway. The 18-year-old plans to return to action July 21 at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway with FloRacing Night in America. ... Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, will miss this week's July 16-18 Silver Dollar Nationals at Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa, because his team transporter remains out of commission. Kody Evans of Camden, Ohio, loaned Best Performance Motorsports its transporter beginning with last Wednesday's World of Outlaws event at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y., through Saturday's race at Sharon. Erb hopes to have his own transporter back in time for July 21's FloRacing Night in America event at Lincoln. ... After second- and 10th-place finishes in his Team 22 Inc. debut, Zack Mitchell of Enoree, S.C., is slated for a busy week for the G.R. Smith-owned team. He plans to follow the Schaeffer's Southern Nationals beginning Monday at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., likely through Sunday's finale at Toccoa (Ga.) Raceway, before racing July 21 at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway and July 22 at Fairbury Speedway with FloRacing Night in America ahead of July 24-25’s Prairie Dirt Classic.
