Two legacy drivers strove to make their father’s proud, so they drove their way into Victory Lane during the second night of the Gateway Dirt Nationals at The Dome At America’s Center in downtown St. Louis. Hudson “The New-Deal” O’Neal raced from seventh to first in the first feature of the night while his dad Don prepared for race two.

In the second feature, Missouri local Gordy Gundaker led flag-to-flag as his dad Kevin cheered from the infield.

The second night of #DirtInDecember was comprised of eight heat races, three Last Chance Qualifiers, and two 20-lap features in the Late Model class.

Feature One

In the first of two features, Jason Welshan and Billy Moyer Sr. started on the front row after winning their heats. Billy Moyer Jr. started third but lost track of the groove in turn one and wound up on the concrete portion of the indoor track. In the process, he lost several positions and allowed his father to lead the first lap over Welshan.

The first driver to threaten Moyer’s supremacy was Rusty Schlenk, who worked his way up from the sixth position. Moyer slid to the top of the racetrack leaving the bottom open for Schlenk to sneak through. The battle for the lead shortened the distance between them and the rest of the field, as David Breazeale and Hudson O’Neal closed the gap on the tight .200-mile temporary course.

While in the lead Schlenk went into turn two at too severe an angle, which caused him to spin his tires and lose speed. This opened the door for Breazeale to jockey for the lead in turn three. Unfortunately, as he attempted to make the pass the two drivers made contact and spun.

Hudson O’Neal inherited the lead on the restart, but racing quickly stalled again as Austin Hubbard flipped on his lid and brought out the red flag. Racing resumed with three laps to go with O’Neal and Welshan side-by-side on the front row.

O’Neal maintained his lead to win the first $5,000 feature of the night. Moyer Sr. made it by Welshan on the final run for second. Bobby Pierce finished fourth and Brandon Sheppard, who made his way into the show by winning the first B-main, rounded out the top-five.

Feature Two

Gordy Gundaker started on the pole of the second feature of the night after winning his heat race by a 1.681 margin over Hunter Rasdon. During his heat, Gundaker survived numerous near crashes as drivers collectively lost their minds around him. The feature would prove to be almost as treacherous.

On lap one of the feature Gundaker, Tyler Carpenter, and Myles Moos were the only ones to get off to a clean start. The remainder of the field bottlenecked in turn one. Moos charged forward from fourth and took the lead for a handful of laps before allowing Gunmdaker to get back around.

As Moos tried to reign in Gundaker in traffic, he tangled with Tyler Millwood and brought out the final caution of the night. When racing resumed with six laps to go, Gundaker maintained his lead over Carpenter who found his way back to the second position. He remained flawless during the six laps to secure his $5,000 win.

This was Gundaker’s fourth win of the year. Two previous wins came at Quincy (IL) Raceway with one more occurring at Federated Raceway at I-55.

Chad Zobrist took the final spot on the podium after starting in third. Tanner English worked his way from eight to fourth and Kent Robinson rounded out the top five after starting seventh.

The top four drivers of Friday night’s A-Mains lock into Saturday’s feature.