ROSSBURG – One of Eldora Speedway’s biggest events of the year was marred by the death of Shane Unger of Rossburg on Saturday night.
During the second heat of Saturday’s World 100, there was a crash between in turn three as a few cars got into each other and hit the wall hard. The 35-year-old Unger was taken out on a stretcher after the roof off his car was removed, and he ended up dying Saturday night at Mercer County Community Hospital.
Racing continued Saturday night with Bobby Pierce ultimately claiming the World 100 championship and $49,000 prize.
Racing began with six heat races that each lasted 15 laps.
In heat one the 71C of RJ Conley was in first followed by 44M of Chris Madden and the 28 of Dennis Erb Jr.
For heat two in first was 99M of Devin Moran, in second the 1 of Josh Richards and in third was the 39 of Tim McCreadie.
The 21JR of Billy Moyer took first,while second went to the C9 of Steve Casebolt and rounding out the top three was the 25C of Shane Clanton for heat three.
Heat four saw the 101 of Casey Roberts taking the black and white flag, in second was the 99JR of Frank Heckenast Jr. and rounding out the three top was the 3 of Matt Miller.
In heat five in first was the 6m of Wendell Wallace, in second was the 14 of Steve Francis and in third was the 32 of Chris Simpson.
Dale McDowell with the 17M took first, second was the 6 of Jonathan Davenport and in third was Earl Pearson Jr. with the 1P for heat six.
For the B Feature 1, which was 20 laps, finishing in first place was the D8 of Dustin Linville followed by the 17D of Zack Dohm and the 7R of Kent Robinson.
B Main 1 Scramble, which was five laps, taking the black and white checkered was the 18 of Shannon Babb then the 7W of Ricky Weiss was in second and third was the 31 of Nick Latham.
In the B Feature 2, which was 20 laps, in first was the 32P of Bobby Pierce followed by the 25Z of Mason Zeigler in second and in third was the c8 of Timothy Culp.
For B Feature 2 Scramble, which was five laps, taking first was Vic Hill with the 1V car, in second was Billy Moyer with the 21 car and in third was Doug Drown with the 240 car.
For the A Main 1, which was the main event of the night and 100 laps long, placing first was the 32P of Bobby Pierce, coming in second was the 28 of Dennis Erb Jr. and in third was the 17M of Dale McDowell. The 19-year-old Pierce started 22nd and battled his way to the first position. Pierce took his lead on lap 56 from another Illinois driver, Erb Jr., and he led the rest of the laps. There were seven cautions in the race. Pierce won $49,000 for this victory.
