DREAM XIX PRELIMINARIES
Eldora Speedway
June 7, 2013
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Miller & Erb Grab $5,000 Victories On Second Night Of Dirt Late Model Dream Preliminary Action At Eldora Speedway
Stage Now Set For Saturday Night’s 19th Annual $100,000-To-Win Spectacular

by Kevin Kovac
ROSSBURG, OH (June 7) – Matt Miller of Whitehouse, Ohio, and Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., scored $5,000 triumphs in the Twin 25-lap features that highlighted the second preliminary program of the Dirt Late Model Dream XIX Presented by Ferris Commercial Mowers at Eldora Speedway.

Miller, 41, was victorious for the second consecutive night, remaining perfect for the DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned weekend with a powerful march to the checkered flag in the A-Main reserved for the evening’s odd-numbered qualifiers.

The 40-year-old Erb, meanwhile, outdueled Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., over the final five laps of the 25-lapper for even-numbered qualifiers to record his first win at the high-banked, half-mile oval since the October 2009 DIRTcar UMP Nationals.

Miller’s drive to victory in the first feature stamped him as a favorite to capture the $100,000 top prize in Saturday night’s 100-lap Dirt Late Model Dream by Ferris. He appeared even stronger than he did in winning a 25-lap preliminary event on Thursday night.

After bolting forward from the third starting spot to pass Steve Casebolt Jr. of Richmond, Ind., for the lead on lap three, Miller sailed away in veteran Buckeye State racer Rick Delong’s Rocket No. 3. He was never seriously challenged in a race that was slowed only twice by caution flags, on laps three and seven.

“This is pretty fun – I ain’t gonna lie to you,” said Miller, who won the Dream in 2005. “The car’s great and everything’s kind of working out right now. The car was better tonight, the track was slick and we’re getting a lot closer to where we need to be for 100 laps.”

Miller, who has started the Dream A-Main nine times since 2000, cruised across the finish line 2.175 seconds ahead of Newport, Tenn.’s Jimmy Owens, who started seventh and battled for the runner-up spot with Casebolt until finally grabbing the position on lap 21. Casebolt settled for third place after leading laps 1-3 from the outside pole, giving former Dream winners a sweep of the podium.

Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., who won a preliminary feature on Thursday night, started from the pole position but slipped to fourth in the final rundown. Eighth-starter Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa, finished fifth after overtaking Scott James of Bright, Ind., on lap 22.

In the nightcap, Erb surged from the seventh starting spot to second in just four laps and then spent most of the distance chasing down Madden. The former DIRTcar UMP Summer Nationals and national weekly points champion finally caught Madden on lap 19 and nosed ahead to lead the next circuit, but Madden refused to go down quietly and regained command on lap 22.

Erb made his deciding move moments later, ducking underneath Madden through turns one and two and flashing ahead down the backstretch. The driver long known as the ‘One Man Band’ was back in the lead as lap 23 was scored and beat Madden to the checkered flag by 1.127 seconds.

“We just kept plugging away,” said Erb, whose best finish in three career Dream A-Main starts is fifth, in 2012. “I had been running the middle most of the race, but I was looking around a little and one lap I dropped down and it stuck pretty good. Then I gained up on (Madden) and just stayed there.

“We swapped spots there a couple times, but I was able to stay down there on the bottom and get ahead of him and hold on.”

Erb is hopeful that Friday’s success can propel him to even greater joy on Saturday night.

“It feels real good,” Erb said of his Team Zero by Bloomquist car. “I’m just worried about starting spot (in a Saturday heat). We didn’t qualify well, but tonight we came out of the fourth row of the heat to qualify so hopefully we can be racy and move up in the heat race tomorrow and get in the (Dream).”

Madden, who started sixth, settled for second place after leading since lap two. He couldn’t quite match Erb’s speed through slower traffic.

“We were good in open track when we had all the clean air,” said Madden, who has started all but one Dream A-Main since 2004 and owns a top finish of fourth (2010). “Then we ran up on that lapped traffic, my car just got real free there at the end and we couldn’t hold on.”

Madden did turn back the last-lap challenge of Batesville, Ark.’s Billy Moyer, who finished third. Moyer started from the pole position and led the first lap, but he was penalized two positions for jumping a first-lap restart – after the only caution flag of the race, for a slap of the turns one and two wall by outside polesitter Mason Zeigler of Chalk Hill, Pa. – and didn’t climb back into serious contention until the final laps.

Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., finished right behind Madden and Moyer in fourth, and third-starter Doug Drown of Wooster, Ohio, recovered from an early fall out of the top five to pass Dustin Neat of Campbellsville, Ky., for fifth on lap 15 and finish there.

Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., was the fastest qualifier in Friday night’s multi-car time trials with a lap of 15.386 seconds. His circuit ended up being the fastest of the two nights of time trials, besting the lap turned on Thursday by Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., by a mere .001 of a second.

With Saturday night’s six 15-lap Dream heat races aligned by each driver’s best lap time from the two rounds of qualifying, Davenport’s overall fast time earned him a visit to the Eldora stage during Friday’s program to spin the inversion wheel. It stopped on ‘6,’ giving him the sixth starting spot in Saturday’s first heat.

Among off-number qualifiers on Friday, heat-race winners were Richards, Casebolt, Miller and Tyler Reddick of DuQuoin, Ill., and the B-Mains were captured by Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., and Jared Landers of Batesville, Ark. Even-number qualifier heat wins went to Moyer, Zeigler, Drown and Neat, while Jacob Hawkins of Fairmont, W.Va., and Bub McCool of Vicksburg, Miss., topped the B-Mains.

The Dirt Late Model Dream by Ferris will conclude on Saturday night. The first heat is scheduled to get the green flag at 7 p.m.

Fans can obtain tickets information for the Dream XIX by Ferris by going online to www.EldoraSpeedway.com or contacting the Eldora offices at 937-338-3815.

A-Main #1  
1 3 3 Matt Miller $5,000
2 7 20 Jimmy Owens
3 2 C9 Steve Casebolt
4 1 1 Josh Richards
5 8 15B Brian Birkhofer
6 6 1G Scott James
7 15 55 Jeep VanWormer
8 5 49D Jonathan Davenport
9 10 39 Tim McCreadie
10 20 28M Jimmy Mars
11 22 88 Andrew Reaume
12 17 15 Steve Francis
13 14 3S Brian Shirley
14 9 20C Duane Chamberlain
15 12 22S Gregg Satterlee
16 21 46 Tim Rivers
17 24 75M Dusty Moore
18 13 1WC Wayne Chinn
19 19 28P Jeff Provinzino
20 4 11 Tyler Reddick
21 11 0 Scott Bloomquist
22 23 32 Chris Simpson
23 16 25 Chad Simpson
24 18 5 Jared Landers

A-Main #2
1 7 28 Dennis Erb Jr $5,000
2 6 44M Chris Madden
3 1 21 Billy Moyer
4 5 71 Don O'Neal
5 3 63 Doug Drown
6 17 20H Jacob Hawkins
7 9 17M Dale McDowell
8 16 116 Randy Weaver
9 13 B5 Brandon Sheppard
10 10 99 Donnie Moran
11 8 18 Shannon Babb
12 18 57J Bub McCool
13 14 25C Shane Clanton
14 21 6S Steve Shaver
15 12 21JR Billy Moyer Jr
16 24 15J Greg Johnson
17 15 20R Jeremy Payne
18 23 M14 Brandon Thirlby
19 4 6 Dustin Neat
20 22 32P Bobby Pierce
21 19 2 Justin Chance
22 2 25Z Mason Zeigler
23 11 19F Tim Fuller
24 20 29 Darrell Lanigan


Odd B-Main #1  
1 15 Steve Francis
2 28P Jeff Provinzino
3 46 Tim Rivers
4 32 Chris Simpson
5 72 John Mason
6 89 Mike Spatola
7 91E Tyler Erb
8 18D Danny Mitchell
9 19 Chad Smith
10 33 Don Gordon

Even B-Main #1
1 20H Jacob Hawkins
2 2 Justin Chance
3 6S Steve Shaver
4 M14 Brandon Thirlby
5 75P Terry Phillips
6 99M Devin Moran
7 17 Shannon Thornsberry
8 555 Justin Coulter
9 21M Jason Montgomery
10 4C Ernie Cordier
11 71C R J Conley

Odd B-Main #2
1 5 Jared Landers
2 28M Jimmy Mars
3 88 Andrew Reaume
4 75M Dusty Moore
5 48L Tim Lance
6 11S Ryan Sutter
7 15H Jon Henry

Even B-Main #2
1 57J Bub McCool
2 29 Darrell Lanigan
3 32P Bobby Pierce
4 15J Greg Johnson
5 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr
6 360 Michael Asberry
7 1J Jeff Babcock
8 11H Austin Hubbard
9 31 Nick Latham
10 14M Morgan Bagley
11 3N Ross Nicastri


Odd Heat #1  
1 2 1 Josh Richards
2 3 49D Jonathan Davenport
3 1 20C Duane Chamberlain
4 4 1WC Wayne Chinn
5 7 32 Chris Simpson
6 6 91E Tyler Erb
7 9 28P Jeff Provinzino
8 10 18D Danny Mitchell
9 8 72 John Mason
10 5 19 Chad Smith
dns 20J Jerry Bowersock

Even Heat #1  
1 2 21 Billy Moyer
2 3 71 Don O'Neal
3 1 17M Dale McDowell
4 6 B5 Brandon Sheppard
5 5 99M Devin Moran
6 7 6S Steve Shaver
7 8 21M Jason Montgomery
8 10 4C Ernie Cordier
9 9 71C R J Conley
dns 41 Brad Neat
dns 7R Kent Robinson

Odd Heat #2  
1 2 C9 Steve Casebolt
2 1 1G Scott James
3 3 39 Tim McCreadie
4 5 3S Brian Shirley
5 7 46 Tim Rivers
6 4 15 Steve Francis
7 6 89 Mike Spatola
8 8 33 Don Gordon
dns 23 John Blankenship
dns 28C Eddie Carrier Jr
dns 44 Earl Pearson Jr

Even Heat #2  
1 1 25Z Mason Zeigler
2 3 44M Chris Madden
3 7 99 Donnie Moran
4 8 25C Shane Clanton
5 6 20H Jacob Hawkins
6 11 2 Justin Chance
7 9 M14 Brandon Thirlby
8 4 75P Terry Phillips
9 2 17 Shannon Thornsberry
10 5 555 Justin Coulter
11 10 79U Shane Unger

Odd Heat #3  
1 2 3 Matt Miller
2 3 20 Jimmy Owens
3 5 0 Scott Bloomquist
4 6 55 Jeep VanWormer
5 4 5 Jared Landers
6 1 28M Jimmy Mars
7 7 75M Dusty Moore
8 8 32S Chad Stapleton
9 9 11R James Rice
dns 18W Eric Wells

Even Heat #3  
1 2 63 Doug Drown
2 5 28 Dennis Erb Jr
3 1 19F Tim Fuller
4 4 20R Jeremy Payne
5 8 32P Bobby Pierce
6 7 3N Ross Nicastri
7 6 15J Greg Johnson
8 9 31 Nick Latham
9 3 14M Morgan Bagley
dns 1B Jeff Babcock

Odd Heat #4  
1 2 11 Tyler Reddick
2 3 15B Brian Birkhofer
3 1 22S Gregg Satterlee
4 5 25 Chad Simpson
5 7 88 Andrew Reaume
6 6 11S Ryan Sutter
7 4 48L Tim Lance
dns 93 Jay Johnson
dns 15H Jon Henry
dns 25S Jason Smith

Even Heat #4  
1 1 6 Dustin Neat
2 2 18 Shannon Babb
3 5 21JR Billy Moyer Jr
4 4 116 Randy Weaver
5 6 57J Bub McCool
6 8 29 Darrell Lanigan
7 3 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr
8 9 11H Austin Hubbard
9 7 360 Michael Asberry


Qualifying Results
1 49D Jonathan Davenport 15.386
2 71 Don O'Neal 15.513
3 23 John Blankenship 15.527
4 44M Chris Madden 15.544
5 20 Jimmy Owens 15.549
6 15B Brian Birkhofer 15.615
7 14M Morgan Bagley 15.615
8 1 Josh Richards 15.681
9 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr 15.681
10 21 Billy Moyer 15.683
11 C9 Steve Casebolt 15.705
12 17 Shannon Thornsberry 15.717
13 3 Matt Miller 15.721
14 63 Doug Drown 15.722
15 11 Tyler Reddick 15.801
16 18 Shannon Babb 15.808
17 20C Duane Chamberlain 15.825
18 17M Dale McDowell 15.842
19 1G Scott James 15.847
20 25Z Mason Zeigler 15.857
21 28M Jimmy Mars 15.867
22 19F Tim Fuller 15.887
23 22S Gregg Satterlee 15.893
24 6 Dustin Neat 15.910
25 1WC Wayne Chinn 15.931
26 41 Brad Neat 15.956
27 39 Tim McCreadie 15.963
28 75P Terry Phillips 15.967
29 5 Jared Landers 15.972
30 20R Jeremy Payne 15.978
31 48L Tim Lance 16.010
32 116 Randy Weaver 16.018
33 19 Chad Smith 16.030
34 99M Devin Moran 16.039
35 15 Steve Francis 16.051
36 555 Justin Coulter 16.061
37 0 Scott Bloomquist 16.069
38 28 Dennis Erb Jr 16.081
39 25 Chad Simpson 16.084
40 21JR Billy Moyer Jr 16.127
41 91E Tyler Erb 16.137
42 55 Jeep VanWormer 16.139
43 B5 Brandon Sheppard 16.142
44 3S Brian Shirley 16.145
45 20H Jacob Hawkins 16.154
46 15J Greg Johnson 16.169
47 93 Jay Johnson 16.227
48 57J Bub McCool 16.231
49 32 Chris Simpson 16.234
50 6S Steve Shaver 16.254
51 28C Eddie Carrier Jr 16.288
52 99 Donnie Moran 16.307
53 75M Dusty Moore 16.311
54 3N Ross Nicastri 16.318
55 15H Jon Henry 16.370
56 360 Michael Asberry 16.377
57 72 John Mason 16.388
58 21M Jason Montgomery 16.426
59 89 Mike Spatola 16.454
60 25C Shane Clanton 16.465
61 32S Chad Stapleton 16.476
62 32P Bobby Pierce 16.478
63 11S Ryan Sutter 16.483
64 29 Darrell Lanigan 16.544
65 28P Jeff Provinzino 16.654
66 71C R J Conley 16.692
67 46 Tim Rivers 16.712
68 M14 Brandon Thirlby 16.784
69 11R James Rice 16.784
70 31 Nick Latham 16.889
71 88 Andrew Reaume 17.326
72 11H Austin Hubbard 17.796
73 18D Danny Mitchell 17.925
74 4C Ernie Cordier 17.984
75 33 Don Gordon 18.144
76 79U Shane Unger 18.537