By MIKE MALLETT
No one likes controversy, except maybe the media outlets that rely on clicks and reads to do business. As has been documented and rehashed, everyone got plenty of that after last Sunday’s Super DIRTcar Series event at the Utica-Rome Speedway.
On Thursday, time moved forward with everyone getting back to the business of racing as the series returned to action with the first visit ever to the Airborne Park Speedway. In story book fashion, Larry Wight went on to dominate the 100-lap event in a secondary car to score his first series triumph since 2015 at Autodrome Granby.
“The last one we got up at (Autodrome) Granby and it was another night where we had a dominating night,” stated Wight. “We set quick time, drew the pole and ran with away it. Brett (Hearn) gave us a little bit of a run on that night but we were able to hold him off. Tonight, to come here with this car, that’s our backup car and to win in that kind of fashion, it definitely shows we are a presence for the championship.”
There was some relief in talking to Wight that we was back into the race car and able to move forward to the next stage of the season. He was back to having fun which was evident by his post-race celebration that included several donuts in turns three and four before making his way to Victory Lane.
“We do this for fun,” commented Wight. “We don’t do it for the money. We don’t do it for the prestige, it’s strictly just to have fun. It’s something I grew up going to with Roger Phelps and Pat Ward when I was four and five years old. It’s what my heart is set into and what my wife’s (Brooke) heart is set into. I met her at track. We got a baby on the way and we plan on raising the baby at the track. It’s a family sport and that’s the way try to keep it. That’s the way we want to keep it.”
In typical Wight fashion, he eventually found the outside of the speedway rim riding his way to the lead early. He blasted his way around top to move to the top spot before using it drive away from the field.
“I was watching Billy (Decker) and (Keith) Flach and neither one could get an edge on each other until Flach started rolling the top,” cited Wight. “We got rolling there kind of following him. I don’t know if he started to fade or if my car started to come on a little better. We were able to clear him in lapped traffic.”
Luckily for Wight he had the dominant car because at one point he found himself making an off-track excursion through the infield which almost ended in disaster. He was attempting to put a lap on Steve Bernard. Wight looked beneath him with Bernard coming down forcing Wight off the track on the bottom.
“I was all but not spun out,” stated Wight with laugh of relief. “I was probably 90 percent spun out. I got lucky that the wheels grabbed and turned me back the other way. It looked like he (Bernard) missed the bite and was going to keep sliding across. He pinched it to come back down. I was just trying to keep all the lapped cars between me and Billy (Decker) as I could. Fortunately we had a big enough lead that it didn’t affect us and we were able to get going.”
Wight indicated it was a process throughout the night to get the car to the point they wanted it. Because only 27 cars entered the event, Wight and team used his heat race to experiment to find what the car liked. Then, in the feature, they went with a little different tire choice than everyone else. That may have proved to be the difference.
“Through hot laps, time trials and the heat we kind of threw a bunch of stuff at it to see what it would do,” mentioned Wight. “In the heats, four were going to the redraw, so we really weren’t worried about going out and winning it. We used it as a test session. We used all of our notes, put our heads together and threw a dart at the dartboard blindfolded and it stuck in the middle. We ended up going with the tire that no one else went with. Everybody fired the same. If anything, I don’t think I fired as well, but after 20 laps when the brown went away and it got black and slowed down our tire was able to stay hooked up better.”
It was Wight’s third career Super DIRTcar Series triumph and he hopes it isn’t the last of the 2017 season.
Airborne Artifacts
Decker set quick time on the night with a lap of 16. 467. Heat race winners included Tim Fuller, Decker and Mike Maresca. It was Maresca first heat win of the season. Jessey Mueller won the consolation…
The field was a mix of big and small-block Modifieds. Regulars in the small-block division at the track that were in attendance included Matt Woodruff, Chris Raabe, Greg Atkins, George Foley, Travis Bruno and Patrick Dupree…
Dupree was driving the No. 63 car that the team had run prior at the Oswego Speedway. It was the first time out for the car this season. It utilized a small-block powerplant. In pre-race discussions he stated that the team had been struggling and was looking for something to turn around the season. Unfortunately his luck wasn’t much better on Thursday…
Carey Terrance experienced issues in hot laps before taking a time trial lap. He was unable to hit the track again the rest of the night…
Billy Whittaker’s team suffered rear-end issues after time trials. Whittaker’s started near the tail of the field for the feature and salvaged a 13th place finish…
Max McLaughlin redrew the 11 and Jimmy Phelps picked 12 for the start of the 100-lap feature. The Heinke-Baldwin Racing teammates managed the grab spots two and three on the podium respectively…
Decker dropped out of the feature with five laps to go. He was running second and came up lame exiting turn four. He pulled into the infield to be later pushed into the pits…
Multiple drivers that had not missed an event with the series weren’t in attendance on Thursday including Stewart Friesen (truck series), Matt Sheppard (suspension), Alan Johnson, Mike Mahaney and Peter Britten.
