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Garrett Alberson inches to Wild West Shootout victory at Vado Speedway Park

Garrett Alberson and Roberts Motorsports hit the ground running during their season-opening Wild West Shootout at FK Rod Ends Vado Speedway park.

In fact, Alberson piloted the Ken & Beth Roberts-owned No. 58 Nutrien Ag Solutions / Roemer Machine & Welding / Mesilla Valley Transportation / Black Diamond Chassis / Clements Racing Engine Super Late Model to his first-career Wild West Shootout victory on Wednesday.

Garrett’s first event win was worth $5,000.

“We’ve been trying for so long to get one of these (Wild West Shootout win), so to be able to get one of these in front of my hometown crowd… it just means more than I can begin to describe,” Alberson said. “The Roberts family and all of my great supporters are allowing me to live my dreams, and I could never begin to thank them enough for that.

“We honestly had a great car all week, and probably should’ve had more than one win, but we’ll take what we accomplished and get ready for Speedweeks.”

For the third round of the Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly on Wednesday at Vado Speedway Park (Vado, NM), Garrett Alberson's 14.665-second lap in time trials earned him the fast time honors. Outdueling Jason Papich in his heat race, Alberson locked into the second-starting position for the 30-lap feature. After fading back to third early in the race, Garrett stayed within striking distance as polesitter Mike Marlar paced the field amid lapped-traffic. Sneaking from third-to-first on the final corner, Alberson soared to his first win of the season, which came ahead 0.101 seconds ahead of Mike Marlar, with Tyler Erb, Earl Pearson Jr., and Brandon Sheppard rounding out the Top-5. He claimed $5,000 for the late-race triumph.

On Friday, Garrett followed up the fastest time in his group with a heat race win. Slipping four spots in the 30-lap feature, Alberson recorded an eighth-place finish.

With $5,000 on the line again in Saturday night’s main event, Alberson’s second-place finish in his heat race positioned him eighth on the starting grid for the feature. Closing in on race-leader Mike Marlar late in the race, Garrett came 0.369 seconds short at the line in the 40-lapper to finish second. Earl Pearson Jr., Ricky Weiss, and Tyler Erb completed the Top-5 finishers.

To wrap up the 16th annual Wild West Shootout on Sunday, Garrett secured his spot into the $25,000-to-win finale with a second-place finish in his heat. Starting in fifth, Alberson ran in the top-five the majority of the race but was collected in a multi-car tangle in the final 10 circuits that resulted in an early exit. He was credited with a 15th-place finish.

Full results from this event are available at www.WildWestShootout.net.

The team now turns its attention to the 2022 edition of Speedweeks. Currently Alberson plans to compete in all of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) Speedweeks events, which begin on January 27-29 at Golden Isles Speedway (Brunswick, Ga.).

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