Bobby put a wrap on his season Saturday night with a runner-up finish in the Gateway Dirt Nationals at the Dome. He started 12th in the 40-lap race but didn’t stay there long. He methodically picked off drivers one by one on a very tight 1/5-mile track until reaching second by the 30th circuit. He ran down the leader and was ready to make his move for the win. However, disaster struck on the final lap. As Bobby powered down the backstretch, his car suddenly slowed, the victim of a broken driveshaft. The mechanical failure dashed any hopes of victory as he limped to the checkered flag and held on to second.
“Something in the drivetrain broke, which figures, how rough I was bouncing,” Bobby said. “That one time I hit (a hole) extremely hard, and I had to get smoother again after that. That was actually the faster way around there, to enter the corner slower and then get back on it. I was driving so hard trying to catch him [Sheppard], I think that’s really what made it break that last corner there. He was kind of pulling me off (turn) two, and I had to get a good launch off the corner, and I kind of hung there for a second. So, I tried to get one last good lick of cushion to launch me on the backstretch. I think I might have hit the wall, and that’s probably what broke it. If it didn’t break, I was sending it in there regardless, whether I was 10 car lengths back or what. We were going for it.”