Ricky Thornton Jr. had a strong start to Saturday night’s Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora, but he shared it was derailed after “something broke.”
Thornton started the race in 11th after finishing in second during Heat 5 earlier in the night. In the early portion of the race he rode around in 12th behind Bobby Pierce with Jonathan Davenport following him in 13th. He would fall back to 13th after Josh Rice passed him with 82 laps to go. However, he reclaimed the 12th position after making his way around Max Blair.
A caution for Jason Jameson suffering a right rear flat tire would wave with 78 laps to go. On the ensuing restart, Thornton would fall back to 13th as Jonathan Davenport made his move to the front. However, Thornton made his own charge to the front a few laps later. He moved into 10th with 75 laps to go getting around Hudson O’Neal, Daulton Wilson, and Josh Rice. He would continue to methodically move forward getting around Tyler Erb and Jimmy Owens with 70 laps to go albeit O’Neal would get back around him.
However, O’Neal would be the cause of the next caution with 68 laps to go after he jumped the cushion and hit the wall. On the next restart Thornton worked his way past Bobby Pierce into 7th. With 64 laps to go Thornton worked his way past Tim McCreadie and Chris Ferguson to get into the top 5.
A caution would come out for Jimmy Owens with 61 laps to go. On the ensuing restart Thornton would get around both Shane Clanton and Brandon Sheppard, but Pierce was able to get around him and he moved into fourth. Pierce would bring out the next caution with 52 left in the race. Thornton would blast past Dale McDowell through turns 1 and 2 to claim the second place on the restart. However, he was unable to challenge Davenport who extended his lead to 3.2 seconds.
With about 40 laps to go Dale McDowell had chased down Thornton and the two battled for the second spot for a number of laps with Thornton holding him off by using all of the track. He would remain in second until Daulton Wilson drew the next caution with 34 laps to go. On the next restart, Thornton struggled on the outside and allowed Devin Moran and McDowell to get past him. Tim McCreadie and Nick Hoffman would get passed him on the next lap and he found him back in sixth. He would lose another 2 spots to Bobby Pierce and Josh Rice. While Brandon Sheppard and Shane Clanton attempted to capitalize, he was able to hold them off. However, with 6 laps to go Max Blair was able to get around him and he found himself in ninth.
With 1 lap to go, Thornton was able to get around Josh Rice and kept Jonathan Davenport from lapping him. He eventually finished in eighth place finish.
In an update to Facebook, Thornton’s team revealed he broke something in his right front with about 40 laps left in the race. His team wrote, “Ricky went 4th to 2nd in his heat which put him starting 11th. He made his way all the way to 2nd when something broke in the RF around lap 60 & he said he lost all traction. ultimately finished 8th.”
“Sucks to only have a top 10 to show for what was a much better car but glad we are gaining at Eldora! Such a fun week with all of Team Koehler racing. We could not be morere fortunate to have Bobby and Jessica as team owners,” Thornton’s team added.
Thornton left Eldora with an 8th place finish in The Dream, a third place finish in preliminary action on Friday, and a 17th place finish on Wednesday night’s FloRacing Night in America series race.
He’ll be back in action with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series on Friday and Saturday night as it heads to Smoky Mountain Speedway for the Mountain Moonshine Classic.