Pierce's $50,000 sponsor puts him on Lucas tour
By Joshua Joiner
DirtonDirt.com staff writer
Bobby Pierce
The celebration rivaled those seen in victory lanes at even the biggest races. After more than three months of campaigning and pushing hard to get every vote possible, Bobby Pierce finally got the phone call he was hoping for when a representative from Champion Spark Plugs told him that he was the winner of the company’s $50,000 Search for a Champion sponsorship contest.
“When they called we were just so surprised,” said Pierce, the 16-year-old second-generation racer from Oakwood, Ill., who was officially announced as the contest winner Tuesday morning. “My whole family was here. My mom, she peeked her head around the corner and she asked ‘You got it?’ I just said yeah and she went running through the house telling everybody. It was pretty crazy. We were all jumping up and down. We were all just so excited.”
Piece was one of more than 160 contest entrants from all forms of motorsports, who were required to submit a two-minute video describing their racing career and urging fans to vote online at the contest website. Through first-round voting Jan. 2 though Feb. 3, Pierce garnered enough votes to move on to the final round of 15 entries and used a campaign strategy involving Facebook and other grassroots campaigning to tally the most votes during the final round of voting Feb. 22 through March 24.
The whole process was challenging at times for Pierce, who along with his family ran the entire campaign with Pierce even editing the video entry himself.
“We didn’t hire a professional, so I had to figure out all the stuff, how to edit video and all that stuff,” said Pierce, the son of Hall-of-Fame racer and chassis builder Bob Pierce and his wife Angie. “At one point, I was ready to give up on the whole thing because I couldn’t figure out how to do something, but my mom made me keep working on it. I’m glad she did, because it definitely paid off.”
Pierce was quick to thank his fans and supporters, who not only helped by voting but also urged others to vote through social media and other means.
“Through Facebook and everything else, fans have definitely supported me and made this possible,” Pierce said. “I can’t thank everyone who helped me out and voted enough.
“Even at my school some of the teachers, like my computer teacher, he let the class go on the website and vote each day and so did my art teacher actually. Stuff like that really helped out a lot. It was a group effort for sure.”
The sponsorship couldn’t have come at a better time for Pierce and his family’s race team. After a solid start to the season during February’s Florida Speedweeks, Pierce announced plans to chase the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Rookie of the Year Award so long as the team’s finances allowed it. With the sponsorship boost, Pierce is confident he’ll be able to stick with the grueling national tour for the entire season, a feat that may sound simple but often proves difficult for first-year competitors.
“It’s going to be a tough year this year, and this is definitely gonna make it easier to do what we wanna do,” said Pierce, who currently sits fourth in Lucas Oil standings as the series heads for Jackson Motor Speedway in Byram, Miss., and Lone Star Speedway in Kilgore, Texas this weekend. “Just to be able to pay off some stuff and help with the expenses, it helps a whole bunch. We were already wanting to run the Lucas Oil Series but it was going to be really tough. This will make it a lot easier on us cost-wise.”
Of course, competing on the national tour won’t just be tough on the team’s budget. Pierce will be competing against some of the sport’s top drivers with names like Jimmy Owens, Scott Bloomquist, Don O’Neal and Steve Francis topping the list of Lucas Oil regulars.
Pierce has gotten off to a strong start to his rookie campaign with a solid week at the tour’s season-opening six-race Dart Winternationals miniseries at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla. Pierce made all six feature lineups during the Speedweeks miniseries, notching three top-five finishes and one fast time award before leaving Florida third in Lucas Oil points. He added another top five in the tour’s most recent race at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway while also setting fast time at the event.
“I’m gonna definitely have to step up my game,” said Pierce, who will also be faced with the challenging of adapting to plenty of new tracks, including Jackson and Lone Star this weekend. “Those guys, every night they’re up front no matter where the race is. It’s gonna be pretty tough. Going to Florida was a very good practice for what we’re going to be up against. I did pretty good down there, but it’s going to be pretty tough. I’m pretty sure we can adapt though.”
Pierce will lean on his father for plenty of help in making the transition to national touring. The elder Pierce, a two-time UMP DIRTcar Summernationals champion and a former North-South 100 winner, has groomed his son to eventually reach the top levels of the sport and is confident he’s ready to make the jump the Lucas Oil Series this season.
“You really never know when you’re really ready,” said Bob Pierce, who started his son racing in Crate Late Models in 2010. “But just going off what he’s done in the short time and the places we’ve been and the way he’s ran and the way he’s handled himself against those guys, I’d say we’re ready. I think him, mentally, he’s really ready and anxious to do this stuff. It’s obvious to me the pressure doesn’t bother him at all.”
The move to a national touring schedule won’t only be a big step for young Bobby, but also a major advancement for Bob Pierce Race Cars. Pierce’s chassis brand has long been a force in the competitive UMP ranks of the Midwest with regional standouts like Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill., and Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill., claiming numerous special event victories and series titles. But Bob Pierce believes his business will benefit greatly from having its first full-time representative on a national tour.
“It’s kinda like when Feger a few years back won that World of Outlaws show up in Wisconsin. That was a big deal,” Bob Pierce said. “Then he went to Charlotte and ran real well and that didn’t hurt us at all. But we need someone who’s out there week in and week out with the car running good so people can see what we’re doing. So yeah, we looked at that too and it’ll help us business-wise.”
The only downside to chasing a national tour is the races close to home Pierce will be forced to miss in order to follow the entire Lucas Oil schedule. But he’ll have to get over that quick with this weekend’s trip south already ready presenting a major dilemma. Pierce will have to pass up one of his home state’s biggest races of the season with Lucas Oil’s Mississippi-Texas swing going head-to-head with the $20,000-to-win win Illini 100 for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Farmer City (Ill.) Speedway.
“Farmer City’s a track that I’ve always loved and I’ve always been good there,” said Bobby Pierce, whose home is less than an hour from Farmer City. “It’s going to be awful passing that up, but you do what you have to do. I’m gonna miss this one and some Summernationals races I’d like to go to. But hopefully these Lucas Oil races pay off. I’m sure it’ll help me get noticed more and really help me as a driver to get better.”
To continue to get noticed Pierce will have to run well against the Lucas Oil regulars. He’s confident he can do just that and maybe even win a race or two. He’s also excited about the opportunity to continue to improve as a driver.
“Just like anyone else, we just want to do the best we can,” Pierce said. “But as far as goals go, getting that Rookie of the Year, that’d be a really great deal to get and who knows, maybe we can knock off a couple wins. But basically, just getting better and progressing more as a driver and more as a setup man. I really wanna learn more stuff about the car going to all these different tracks, that’s the main goal.”
