Austin Pierce climbed out of his sprint car and gave a simple tap to the wing. Then he did it again a few hours later.
The Grand Forks driver, who had never won a feature race at River Cities Speedway, did it twice on Friday night, making it look routine.
Pierce won a makeup feature from a June 13 rainout to start the night, then finished it off by winning a second time at the track he’s been racing at for about five years. He went from seventh to first in both races.
“Wow,” Pierce said after the second win of the night. “It feels awesome. I’m speechless right now. I’ve never won here once, much less win two in the same night.”
In the first feature, Pierce started seventh and passed Tee Young on the seventh lap, then pulled away from the field to win the 25-lap feature. Bobby Martin finished second, followed by Thomas Kennedy, Chris Shirek and Wade Nygaard.
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In the nightcap, Pierce caught Chris Shirek on Turn 4 with three laps to go, using the low groove. Shirek finished second, followed by Casey Mack, Mark Dobmeier and Amber Balcaen, whose fifth-place finish is the best in her career at RCS.
“I didn’t think I was going to catch Shirek there until he got into lapped traffic,” Pierce said. “So, that helped.”
The win continued momentum as of late for Pierce.
He has won four career features - three of them in the last eight days.
A week earlier in Winnipeg, Pierce won his second sprint feature. The next night at River Cities Speedway, he earned the hard-charger award for making up the most ground during the feature race. On Friday, he notched two more wins in front of nearly 4,000 fans at River Cities Speedway.
“The crew does all the setup,” Pierce said. “I just drive. They are on their game right now. I couldn’t have picked a better night to do this before a big crowd on double feature night.”
The late models provided a thrilling finish with Joey Pederson passing Brad Seng with four laps to go and hanging on for a victory. Pederson had challenged Seng for four laps before finally overtaking him on the front straightaway.
It was the third feature win at River Cities Speedway this season for Pederson. Mike Balcaen, who passed Seng on the last lap, finished second. Seng finished third, followed by Dustin Strand and Steve Anderson.
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“Hopefully it was fun to watch,” Pederson said.
The streets feature was marred by so many caution flags - seven of them to be exact - that the race was shortened to 11 laps.
Mike Anderson, who dominated after each restart, won the feature - his third victory of the year at River Cities Speedway. He finished ahead of Jim Geringer, Ryan Johnson, Jordan Duray and Art Linert, who started the feature last.
In the 18-lap Midwest modifieds feature, Tyler Pederson led from start to finish, easily racing to a comfortable lead after a number of restarts.
It was Pederson’s third win of the year at River Cities Speedway and his first since June 6. Darren Pfau finished second, followed by Rick Hamel, Austin Hunter and Ryan Schroeder.
