Moyer changes his mind, takes home Tornado Tuesday win

WEST LIBERTY - Billy Moyer wasn't even supposed to be at West Liberty Raceway for Tornado Tuesday.

The legendary Late Model racer isn't a big fan of MLRA's passing points qualifying format, and both he and his son Billy Moyer Jr. said last week they had different plans. But the Batesville, Ark. driver was sitting in his shop in Des Moines (where he builds Victory Chassis) putting his car back together after the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway and had to wait on parts before heading back to Arkansas.

He couldn't resist the urge.

The last-minute decision paid off - big time. Moyer started on pole and led every one of the 50 laps in the Open Late Model main event, holding off Mike Marlar to take home $10,000.

'This thing being right down the road, we figured we'd come on down and give it a shot,” Moyer said. 'Everything worked out great tonight.”

Moyer led every lap in a race slowed by the yellow flag just one time. He was challenged a few times during the race - early on by Tim McCreadie while they and Oxford's Chris Simpson had separated themselves from the field, then by Simpson after the lone caution with 18 laps to go.

Simpson showed his nose briefly with around 10 to go, but slipped up in lapped traffic and a hard-charging Mike Marlar moved into second.

Marlar threw the same challenge at Moyer that Simpson did, but only ever got to his rear quarter-panel. Even as the tension rose for those watching, Moyer didn't really ever sweat it.

'These things are kind of hard to see out the left side; I never did see anybody there,” Moyer said. 'Mike kind of snuck up there. The last time I looked, (McCreadie) was in second.

'That's the good thing about (video); I can kind of look back on film and see what happened during the race.”

When pressed about coming to West Liberty despite his dislike of the passing points format, Moyer acknowledged it's fair - but only in the sense that it's an equal playing field for everyone.

'The passing points thing, the way they do it, I for sure don't like that,” Moyer said. 'It's the same for everybody, but like I tell everybody, if I want to see how lucky I am I'll go to the casino. When you come in the gate and draw 98 out of 100, you're in for a long night. If you're qualifying and hit the wall qualifying, that's your fault and you go to the back.

'Tonight we drew a good number, the passing points worked out and we get to leave happy.”

Marlar ended up second in the main event with Simpson third, McCreadie fourth and Gregg Satterlee fifth. Marlar started seventh and worked his way through the field in the 50-lap race, and said his car came to him as the race went on.

The Winfield, Tenn. driver was at West Liberty Raceway for the first time, so he wasn't quite sure how hard he could push it in pursuit of Moyer.

'When I wanted to squeeze it, I could get on him pretty good, but when I got on him I'd lose air on my nose. I was trying to time it to where, when we caught lapped traffic, I could get him. But he's too smart for that,” Marlar said. 'I'm not used to this track and it's so big and fast, I was afraid to do anything real hairy. I didn't want to wreck him or me. It was a hard 50 laps.

'He's Billy Moyer. He's a pretty tough dude.”

As for Simpson, he took third as a bit of a bitter pill. The hiccup in traffic cost him a shot at the lead, then at the end he said he felt the motor giving up just a bit.

Like Marlar, he was walking the thin line of trying to make a clean pass while negotiating the cushion at the top.

'It's so hard to race when it's up around the cushion like that, I wasn't going to take the chance of wrecking,” Simpson said. 'I just got stuck by a lapped guy and got slowed a little. (Marlar) got by me clean. I just should've been more aggressive in lapped traffic.

'It does leave a little bitter taste because before that last restart we were coming there. We'll take it, though. Third place against these guys is pretty good.”

Moyer's decades of racing experience have taught him to preserve tires in the Open Late Models because of how easily tires can fall off, but he didn't have to worry about that Tuesday night.

He had all he needed by the end, and took home one more big check to join the hundreds he's won in his career.

'A lot of times in these long races on these great big tracks, it kind of fades away with the tires, but this time it didn't seem like it,” Moyer said. 'It was there if I wanted to stand on it. It'd go.

'That ($10,000) sure don't get old.”

TORNADO TUESDAY MLRA LATE MODELS

WEST LIBERTY RACEWAY

1. 21m Billy Moyer, Batesville, Ark.; 2. 157 Mike Marlar, Winfield, Tenn.; 3. 32s Chris Simpson, Oxford; 4. 39 Tim McCreadie, Avon, N.Y.; 5. 22s Gregg Satterlee, Indiana, Pa.; 6. 15k Justin Kay, Wheatland; 7. 50 Denny Eckrich, Tiffin; 8. 25f Jason Feger, Bloomington, Ill.; 9. 4W JC Wyman, Griswold; 10. 6W RC Whitwell, Tucson, Ariz.; 11. 75p Terry Phillips, Springfield, Mo.; 12. 54f Mike Fryer, Freeport, Ill.; 13. 58 Ray Guss Jr., Milan, Ill.; 14. 32c Chad Holladay, Muscatine; 15. 18c Chase Junghans; 16. 00 Jesse Stovall, Billings, Mont.; 17. 19r Ryan Gustin, Marshalltown; 18. 16a Austin Siebert, Grandview, Mo.; 19. 31 Jason Utter Columbus Junction; 20. 58e Dave Eckrich, Oxford; 21. 29d Spencer Diercks, Davenport; 22. 15b Jason O'Brien, Atlantic; 23. 56 Andy Eckrich, Oxford; 24. 40 Joel Callahan, Dubuque.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com