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Sheppard, Ramirez, and Jackson Claim Opening Night Wild West Shootout Victories

Sheppard, Ramirez, and Jackson Claim Opening Night Wild West Shootout Victories
Action Continues on Sunday Afternoon with Round No. 2

VADO, N.M. (01/08/22) — A schedule conflict prevented Brandon Sheppard from competing in last season's Wild West Shootout presented by O'Reilly Auto Parts, but in Saturday's 2022 opener at FK Rod Ends Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park, the two-time miniseries champion picked up right where he left off.

Posting his 15th consecutive WWS top-five finish, the 28-year-old New Berlin, Ill., driver blew past fellow Illinois driver Bobby Pierce on high side on the 14^th of 40 laps and cruised to his fifth miniseries victory, earning $5,000 for the Dirt Track Bank Super Late Model presented by Black Diamond Race Cars triumph as Vado hosted its first miniseries event.

The four-time World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series champion who moonlights in his grandfather's No. B5 when he's not dominating the WoO circuit in the potent Rocket Chassis house car thanked his team and sponsors for the winning ride.

"This is a brand-new car, the first race on it," Sheppard said, thanking his uncle Ed Bauman and Chuck Oberreiter for putting the Rocket together. "It's definitely tough out here and we've definitely been putting the work in and we've got a really good race car. So hopefully we can keep it that way all week. I don't know, I've been known to mess it up pretty bad, so hopefully we can just massage on it and just keep improving."

The third-starting Sheppard, who took the checkers 2.987 seconds ahead of the pole-starting Pierce, will now take aim at the Penske Racing Shocks $300,000 Paydirt Jackpot for a six-race sweep. Everyone else must settled for the bonus program's consolation prizes ($100,000 for five victories or $25,000 for four) as the miniseries continues Sunday at Vado before taking a two-day break.

Oakwood, Ill.'s Pierce, who has six career WWS victories, edge Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., for the runner-up spot while outside front-row starter Stormy Scott of nearby Las Cruces, N.M., was fourth. Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., rounded out of the top five in California teammate Jason Papich's second entry.

Pierce kept Scott in check early in the race, but when Sheppard grabbed the second spot on the ninth lap, his car's high-side speed was too much for the race-long leader.

"I don't think they told (Pierce) to go to the top yet at that point, and I think I kinda just snuck up on him there. I was getting good runs through (turns) one and two and I kept getting better every time," Sheppard said. "Hat's off to all these drivers out here for racing clean. It was a fun race and definitely a cool deal to be a part off. Glad we got to come (out) here again this year."

Asked if he might have been able to hold off Sheppard if he had switched to the top lane as his pursuer was approaching, Pierce said, "I would’ve had a chance, but … I don’t know. It is what it is. I thought whoever was in second was probably running my line. Obviously he wasn’t, so we gotta get better at that (signal communication)."

Sheppard's only scare came with six laps remaining when backmarker Steve Stultz plotted his retirement to the infield and slowed in front of the leader exiting turn four. Sheppard barely missed a beat in heading to victory lane to get his photo taken with the event's trademark cowboy hat and six-shooters.

Bobby Pierce, Mike Marlar, Stormy Scott, and Earl Pearson Jr. rounded out the Top-5 finishers.

In Modified competition, Dereck Ramirez dominated the Mesilla Valley Transportation / Border Tire competition presented by Rancho Milagro. The Woodward, Oklahoma driver brought the field to the green flag for the $2,000-to-win, 25-lap feature with Jacob Bleess joining him on the front row.

The 2021 United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) Champion jumped to the lead at the drop of the green flag and never looked back en route to the win, which came by over four seconds.  Blees held off a hard-charging Tyler Peterson to finish second with Dan Ebert and Rodney Sanders rounding out the Top-5 finishers.

Meanwhile, Kris Jackson rode his self-built J2 Race Car to a $1,000 victory in the RHRSwag.com X-Mod division presented by Barnett Harley-Davidson. Jackson had to survive late-race challenge from Andy Bryant amidst lapped traffic to score the win.

Action continues on Sunday afternoon with the pit gate opening at 1 p.m. MST, and grandstand gates opening at 3:00 p.m. The driver’s meeting for the second round of the mega miniseries is at 2:30 p.m. with on-track action beginning at 3:30 p.m.

Super Late Models ($5,000 to win), Modifieds ($2,000 to win), and X-Mods ($1,000 to win) will contest complete programs.

For more information on the event, please visit www.WildWestShootout.net .

Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts
FK Rod Ends Vado Speedway Park
Jan. 8, 2022

Dirt Track Bank Super Late Models presented by Black Diamond Race Cars
31 Entries

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. B5-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[4]; 4. 2S-Stormy Scott[2]; 5. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[6]; 6. 7-Ricky Weiss[5]; 7. 97-Cade Dillard[8]; 8. 1-Tyler Erb[9]; 9. 86-Kyle Beard[13]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz[7]; 11. 1ST-Johnny Scott[15]; 12. 20-Rodney Sanders[12]; 13. 1CJ-Rusty Schlenk[17]; 14. 49-Jake Timm[19]; 15. 75-Terry Phillips[10]; 16. 58-Garrett Alberson[16]; 17. 29-Austin Kirkpatrick[14]; 18. 14W-Dustin Walker[21]; 19. 93-Mason Oberkramer[20]; 20. 6T-Terry Carter[24]; 21. 02-Kent Rosevear[23]; 22. 78S-Steve Stultz[25]; 23. 91P-Jason Papich[11]; 24. 38-Thomas Hunziker[22]; 25. 42S-Don Shaw[18]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 1CJ-Rusty Schlenk[2]; 2. 49-Jake Timm[7]; 3. 14W-Dustin Walker[1]; 4. 02-Kent Rosevear[6]; 5. 503-Jason Miles[8]; 6. 19-Jeff Schildmeyer[3]; 7. 16-Matthew Ratzlaff[5]; 8. 78S-Steve Stultz[4]

B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 42S-Don Shaw[1]; 2. 93-Mason Oberkramer[2]; 3. 38-Thomas Hunziker[3]; 4. 6T-Terry Carter[5]; 5. 01-Devan Smith[4]; 6. 71-Clayton Holland[6]; 7. 18-Deven Brown[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 7-Ricky Weiss[2]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[3]; 4. 86-Kyle Beard[5]; 5. 14W-Dustin Walker[7]; 6. 19-Jeff Schildmeyer[6]; 7. 16-Matthew Ratzlaff[8]; 8. 49-Jake Timm[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Stormy Scott[3]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[2]; 3. 91P-Jason Papich[1]; 4. 1ST-Johnny Scott[5]; 5. 1CJ-Rusty Schlenk[4]; 6. 78S-Steve Stultz[6]; 7. 02-Kent Rosevear[7]; 8. 503-Jason Miles[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. B5-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[2]; 3. 75-Terry Phillips[3]; 4. 29-Austin Kirkpatrick[4]; 5. 42S-Don Shaw[6]; 6. 38-Thomas Hunziker[5]; 7. 6T-Terry Carter[7]; 8. 18-Deven Brown[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 97-Cade Dillard[5]; 3. 20-Rodney Sanders[3]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 5. 93-Mason Oberkramer[4]; 6. 01-Devan Smith[6]; 7. 71-Clayton Holland[7]

Qualifying 1: 1. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:15.947[1]; 2. 91P-Jason Papich, 00:16.046[9]; 3. 7-Ricky Weiss, 00:16.094[4]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz, 00:16.094[7]; 5. 1-Tyler Erb, 00:16.115[12]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott, 00:16.302[13]; 7. 49-Jake Timm, 00:16.345[6]; 8. 1CJ-Rusty Schlenk, 00:16.350[14]; 9. 86-Kyle Beard, 00:16.376[10]; 10. 1ST-Johnny Scott, 00:16.455[5]; 11. 19-Jeff Schildmeyer, 00:16.644[2]; 12. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:16.795[3]; 13. 14W-Dustin Walker, 00:16.804[8]; 14. 02-Kent Rosevear, 00:16.844[15]; 15. 16-Matthew Ratzlaff, 00:17.865[11]; 16. 503-Jason Miles, 00:17.865[16]

Qualifying 2: 1. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:16.101[7]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:16.254[15]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:16.333[6]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:16.353[10]; 5. 75-Terry Phillips, 00:16.426[4]; 6. 20-Rodney Sanders, 00:16.473[2]; 7. 29-Austin Kirkpatrick, 00:16.515[9]; 8. 93-Mason Oberkramer, 00:16.553[3]; 9. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:16.693[11]; 10. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:16.776[13]; 11. 42S-Don Shaw, 00:16.931[8]; 12. 01-Devan Smith, 00:17.158[5]; 13. 71-Clayton Holland, 00:17.200[12]; 14. 6T-Terry Carter, 00:34.908[14]; 15. 18-Deven Brown, 00:34.908[1]

Pro Power Dash (10 Laps): 1. 78S-Steve Stultz[1]; 2. 503-Jason Miles[3]; 3. 01-Devan Smith[2]; 4. 19-Jeff Schildmeyer[5]; 5. 71-Clayton Holland[4]; 6. 18-Deven Brown[6]; 7. 16-Matthew Ratzlaff[7]

Mesilla Valley / Border Tire Modifieds presented by Rancho Milagro
53 Entries

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[1]; 2. 21-Jacob Bleess[2]; 3. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[3]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[7]; 5. 20-Rodney Sanders[17]; 6. 02-Tanner Mullens[15]; 7. 4W-Tyler Wolff[8]; 8. 111-Bumper Jones[4]; 9. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[10]; 10. 88-Nathan Smith[11]; 11. 65-Tyler Davis[5]; 12. 97-Brooks Strength[13]; 13. 8-Dillon McCowan[14]; 14. 3B-Nic Bidinger[6]; 15. G17-Fito Gallardo[20]; 16. J17-Jake Gallardo[18]; 17. 32-DJ Shannon[9]; 18. 4RX-Jared Russell[23]; 19. 2SS-Mark Smith[21]; 20. 1M-Curt Myers[24]; 21. 127-Paden Phillips[16]; 22. 4-Bo Day[19]; 23. 26G-Ryan Gierke[12]; 24. 71-Philip Houston[22]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 20-Rodney Sanders[18]; 2. 4-Bo Day[1]; 3. 2SS-Mark Smith[3]; 4. 4RX-Jared Russell[2]; 5. 88C-Matt Crafton[5]; 6. 57-Duke Erickson[8]; 7. 87M-Patrick Daniels[14]; 8. 22J-Jonathon Ortega[11]; 9. D25-David Tanner[7]; 10. 07-Donavon Flores[9]; 11. 28X-Tom Georges[4]; 12. 10-Dustin Robinson[16]; 13. J16-Josh Gallardo; 14. 131-Royal Jones[6]; 15. 26-Cory Hemphill[13]; 16. M17-Rick Gallardo[19]; 17. 24X-Xavier Ortega[12]; 18. 77M-Paul Miller[15]; 19. 7M-Daniel Miller[17]; 20. 18JR-Chase Sigg[10]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. J17-Jake Gallardo[1]; 2. G17-Fito Gallardo[3]; 3. 71-Philip Houston[2]; 4. 1M-Curt Myers[4]; 5. 10BG-Brandon Givens[6]; 6. 25-Adam Bohlman[7]; 7. 18R-Ricardo Olague Jr[13]; 8. 22-Alan Bohlman[8]; 9. 99-Terry Tipton[18]; 10. 44-Christy Barnett[11]; 11. 64-Casey Fowler[10]; 12. J7-Jake Boles[12]; 13. 51-Dallas Caldwell[17]; 14. 28S-Ronnie Leathem Jr[15]; 15. 196-Clint Reichenbach[9]; 16. 28-Cory Davis[5]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3B-Nic Bidinger[1]; 2. 26G-Ryan Gierke[2]; 3. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[8]; 4. 4RX-Jared Russell[4]; 5. 88C-Matt Crafton[3]; 6. 127-Paden Phillips[10]; 7. J17-Jake Gallardo[12]; 8. 57-Duke Erickson[6]; 9. 10BG-Brandon Givens[11]; 10. 24X-Xavier Ortega[5]; 11. 87M-Patrick Daniels[9]; 12. 51-Dallas Caldwell[7]; 13. 10-Dustin Robinson[13]; 14. M17-Rick Gallardo[14]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 60-Dan Ebert[1]; 2. 4W-Tyler Wolff[3]; 3. 4-Bo Day[2]; 4. 71-Philip Houston[4]; 5. 97-Brooks Strength[9]; 6. 2SS-Mark Smith[8]; 7. 1M-Curt Myers[10]; 8. 28-Cory Davis[11]; 9. 64-Casey Fowler[7]; 10. J7-Jake Boles[5]; 11. 28S-Ronnie Leathem Jr[6]; 12. 18R-Ricardo Olague Jr[13]; 13. 20-Rodney Sanders[12]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 111-Bumper Jones[3]; 2. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[11]; 3. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[5]; 4. 28X-Tom Georges[1]; 5. 32-DJ Shannon[10]; 6. G17-Fito Gallardo[8]; 7. D25-David Tanner[2]; 8. 196-Clint Reichenbach[4]; 9. 22J-Jonathon Ortega[6]; 10. 44-Christy Barnett[9]; 11. J16-Josh Gallardo[7]; 12. 77M-Paul Miller[12]; 13. 08-Glen Maga

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 65-Tyler Davis[3]; 2. 21-Jacob Bleess[8]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[4]; 4. 88-Nathan Smith[7]; 5. 131-Royal Jones[1]; 6. 02-Tanner Mullens[11]; 7. 25-Adam Bohlman[2]; 8. 07-Donavon Flores[5]; 9. 18JR-Chase Sigg[9]; 10. 22-Alan Bohlman[12]; 11. 26-Cory Hemphill[10]; 12. 99-Terry Tipton[6]; 13. 7M-Daniel Miller[13]

RHRSwag.com X-Mods presented by Barnett Harley-Davidson
42 Entries

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. J2-Kris Jackson[1]; 2. 28-Andy Bryant[3]; 3. 7G-Gabriel Hodges[5]; 4. 1S-Scott Bintz[18]; 5. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[9]; 6. 5-Reece Solander[11]; 7. 22C-Cole Campbell[7]; 8. 07-Donavon Flores[2]; 9. 05-Aasa Flores[4]; 10. 12-Justin Allen[16]; 11. 65-Dustin Smith[12]; 12. 47-Mingo Jauregui[14]; 13. 4-Jackson Mulder[8]; 14. 1P-Parker Anderson[17]; 15. 15C-Chris Edmonds[22]; 16. 4C-Chris Hooper[21]; 17. 13B-Jess Brekke[19]; 18. 23B-Israel Ortega[20]; 19. 71-Nate Reinke[10]; 20. 93-Greg Gorham[6]; 21. 28K-Krew Walburn[23]; 22. 14H-Jacob Hodges[13]; 23. 23-Justin Rexwinkle[15]; 24. 88-Andrew Fanning[24]

B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 1P-Parker Anderson[1]; 2. 13B-Jess Brekke[2]; 3. 4C-Chris Hooper[9]; 4. 28K-Krew Walburn[8]; 5. 66-Sam Alanzo[10]; 6. 96V-Victor Barraza[13]; 7. 1C-Chris Deaton[6]; 8. JH45-Jay Hill[7]; 9. 3S-Sal Gomez[12]; 10. 3-Dickie Gorham[3]; 11. 82-Sherman Barnett[5]; 12. 21-Jake Smith[4]; 13. X44-Mark Maga[11]

B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 1S-Scott Bintz[1]; 2. 23B-Israel Ortega[2]; 3. 15C-Chris Edmonds[3]; 4. 88-Andrew Fanning[4]; 5. G3-Brian Craighead[7]; 6. 23H-Hector Barraza[12]; 7. 25-Kenny McDonald Jr[5]; 8. 14J-Justin Garrett[8]; 9. 36-Joe Alvarado[10]; 10. 21S-Damon Sanchez[9]; 11. 1R-Richard Ceniceros[13]; 12. 96-Dusty Riggs[11]; 13. 14A-Andrew Hodges[6]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. J2-Kris Jackson[7]; 2. 22C-Cole Campbell[1]; 3. 05-Aasa Flores[8]; 4. 5-Reece Solander[6]; 5. 13B-Jess Brekke[3]; 6. 71-Nate Reinke[11]; 7. 23-Justin Rexwinkle[12]; 8. 1C-Chris Deaton[2]; 9. 25-Kenny McDonald Jr[10]; 10. 14A-Andrew Hodges[13]; 11. 21S-Damon Sanchez[4]; 12. X44-Mark Maga[5]; 13. 96-Dusty Riggs[9]; 14. (DNS) 23H-Hector Barraza

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 07-Donavon Flores[7]; 2. 28-Andy Bryant[8]; 3. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[4]; 4. 1S-Scott Bintz[1]; 5. 93-Greg Gorham[11]; 6. 14H-Jacob Hodges[10]; 7. 15C-Chris Edmonds[6]; 8. 21-Jake Smith[9]; 9. 3-Dickie Gorham[12]; 10. 28K-Krew Walburn[3]; 11. 4C-Chris Hooper[5]; 12. 3S-Sal Gomez[2]; 13. 66-Sam Alanzo[13]; 14. (DNS) 96V-Victor Barraza

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7G-Gabriel Hodges[2]; 2. 4-Jackson Mulder[1]; 3. 65-Dustin Smith[3]; 4. 47-Mingo Jauregui[5]; 5. 12-Justin Allen[6]; 6. 1P-Parker Anderson[8]; 7. 82-Sherman Barnett[4]; 8. 23B-Israel Ortega[10]; 9. 88-Andrew Fanning[11]; 10. JH45-Jay Hill[7]; 11. G3-Brian Craighead[9]; 12. 14J-Justin Garrett[12]; 13. 36-Joe Alvarado[13]; 14. (DNS) 1R-Richard Ceniceros

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