Story By: BEN SHELTON / BOB CULLEN RACING – CHILTON, WI – Brian Shirley collected his sixth win of the 2023 season last Friday night with a $10,000 DIRTcar Summer Nationals triumph at Farmer City Raceway aboard his Bob Cullen Racing / Thomason Express No. 3s J&J Ventures & Gaming/ Hoker Trucking / XR1 Rocket Chassis / Durham Racing Engine Super Late Model.
From the pole position, Shirley navigated his way through lapped traffic in the caution-free affair to bank the victory.
“For me, it was biding my time, I felt like a couple of them lapped cars we didn’t hit just right, where I had to be hung out there a little bit. All in all everything went our way and I got by lapped traffic enough to control the race,” Shirley said. “Luckily there, we ended up losing a brakeline; about halfway through the race, I smacked the (turn-three) wall pretty good and I had to re-adjust because I actually only have rear brakes.”
Last week, Brian and Bob Cullen Racing entering a pair of DIRTcar Summer Nationals events in Illinois. Action opened with the $7,500-to-win Herald & Review 100 at Macon (Ill.) Speedway on Thursday night. Thirty-seven competitors entered the event, and after qualifying seventh fastest in his time trial group, Brian finished third in his heat race to lock into the ninth-starting spot for the 100-lap feature. He advanced six spots to finish third behind Ryan Unzicker and Jason Feger with Shannon Babb and B.J. Robinson completing the Top-5 finishers.
On Friday evening a $10,000-to-win program took center stage at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway. Shirley hit the ground running with the third-fastest time in his qualifying group followed by a heat race win to lock into the pole position for the 40-lap feature.
Pacing the field for every circuit of the main event, Shirley picked up his sixth win of the year ahead of Ryan Unzicker, Tanner English, Dennis Erb Jr., and Ashton Winger.
The team has four races in their sights for this week. Action opens on Monday night at Dubuque (Iowa) Speedway with a $20,000-to-win XR Super Series event before seeing action shift to Davenport (Iowa) Speedway on Tuesday with a $10,000-to-win Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) event.
Friday and Saturday finds Shirley returning to World of Outlaws (WoO) Case Late Model Series action with $15,000-to-win events at Ponderosa Speedway (Junction City, Ky.) and Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway.