7/7/2017
Airborne Park Speedway
Wight Dominates First SDS Trip to Airborne
PLATTSBURGH – Larry Wight of Phoenix, NY drove away from the field to collect his first Super DIRTcar Series win of 2017.
Wight started in position five on the starting grid and took the lead on a lap-32 restart. Wight and Keith Flach were in the front row when Wight used the top to vault to the lead. He would never look back.
A lap-97 caution, however, made things interesting. Second place runner at the time, Billy Decker had come to a halt on the front stretch and fifth place runner, Brett Hearn had a flat tire in turn two. The ensuing single file restart put Max McLaughlin on the backside of Wight, but Wight was able to hold him off.
“I wanted to slow Max down and try and get him to stumble in the corner,” Wight said. “We struggled to fix the bugs in the car earlier in the night, but we got it.”
McLaughlin, Jimmy Phelps, Tim Fuller and Pat Ward rounded out the unofficial top five.
The Fidelis Care Sportsman competed in a 25 lap event and a familiar face found his way to victory lane. “The Professor” Bucko Branham scored his first win of the season in the division by taking the lead on lap-6 after Jamie LaFountain spun out and passed the baton to Branham.
Branham noted that this season has been a struggle but complimented his team for sticking with it and battling.
Danny Gagné, Connor Cleveland, Nick Heywood and Codie Aubin completed the unofficial top five.
Kris Clark completed a natural hat trick in the Busch Beer Mini-Mod division, collecting three consecutive wins. Michael Whalen, Josh LaPorte, Dave Demore and Tyler Irwin completed the top five.
Racing action resumes on Saturday for the Mid-Season Championships presented by Heald Funeral Home. To stay up to date and for more information, visit airborneparkspeedway.com or on Facebook at Airborne Park Speedway.
Submitted By: JOHN WALKER