CONCORD, N.C. — The ninth annual World Short Track Championship kicked off at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Thursday night with the opening round of on-track activity for all 532 entries in the 10-division program.
Pro Late Model
Dealing with carburetor problems in his qualifying session, Mario Gresham’s worries were withdrawn when he got to work in the Crate Racin’ USA Fox Factory Pro Late Model feature by leading every lap to win at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Dalton Dowdy brought the field to the opening flag of the feature but lost the lead immediately as Davin Kaiser and Gresham flew by on the top side of the track.
Kaiser got clear of Dowdy down the backstretch, while Gresham was stuck next to him. Going into Turn 3, Gresham slung his No.21 down to the bottom to edge Kaiser to the line on the opening circuit.
Gresham kept the momentum rolling to clear Kaiser as Brock Pinkerous followed his tire marks to take over second place.
While “Bam Bam” used any open space around the four-tenths-mile surface to close the distance, Gresham extended his lead to over two seconds on the 14-year-old driver.
Taking the checkered flag in a caution-free race, Gresham wheeled his way to victory in Thursday’s main event as he looks to mirror the drive in Friday’s heat races for the Pro Late Models.
“I knew we had to go early,” Gresham said. “I think we qualified dead last for tomorrow, the carburetor wouldn’t run and had some problems. I was hoping to race to make sure everything was good on it. But once we made it through the first lap, I knew we were ok. The car was really good tonight.”
Pinkerous went on to finish the night in second, and Jody Knowles finished on the podium in a climb from an eighth-place starting spot.
Colby Quick finished fourth with an 11-position climb from a 15th-place beginning. Matthew Larson – son of World of Outlaws CASE Late Models competitor Brent Larson – finished his night by climbing up four positions for a fifth-place result.
The finish:
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 21-Mario Gresham[4]; 2. 555-Brock Pinkerous[5]; 3. 66-Jody Knowles[8]; 4. 5-Colby Quick[15]; 5. 8-Matthew Larson[9]; 6. 22W-Jimmy Webb[11]; 7. 6-Dillon Brown[12]; 8. 24-Jacob Brown[7]; 9. 515-Bubba Roling[16]; 10. 22T-Jimmy Thomas[6]; 11. 11K-Davin Kaiser[3]; 12. 18G-Ricky Greene[14]; 13. 88D-Dalton Dowdy[1]; 14. P4-John Price[13]; 15. 98-Matt Dooley[10]; 16. 2S-Layton Sullivan[18]; 17. (DNS) 47-Gavin Cowan; 18. (DNS) 23-Beckham Malone; 19. (DNS) 00R-John Ruggiero Jr; 20. (DNS) 127-Austin Yarbrough; 21. (DNS) G4-Trent Ivey
DIRTcar Sportsman
Fifteen feature wins and an Airborne Park Speedway track championship. Now Donovan Lussier is a feature winner at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
The 20-year-old from Quebec made the 1,000-mile trip south to compete in the World Short Track Championship for the first time and wasted little time making his mark, scoring the win in Thursday night’s DIRTcar Sportsman Championship feature.
Lussier took the green flag from outside row three in the 15-lap main event. Working the middle lane around the four-tenths-mile oval, Lussier advanced four spots in the opening lap to move to second and set his sights on leader and fellow Quebec-native Jeffrey Lapalme.
The two crossed the start/finish line less than 0.2 seconds apart. Lussier charged hard into Turn 1 and used the momentum from the fast middle groove to pull ahead of Lapalme at the exit of Turn 2.
Lapalme dove deep into Turn 3 in an effort to defend the spot but could not outmuscle Lussier’s speed. Lussier then completed the pass out of Turn 4 and crossed the stripe to lead Lap 2.
From there, it was smooth sailing for Lussier out front as he led the rest of the distance unchallenged to claim his first career DIRTcar Sportsman Series win in his first appearance at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
“Starting on the outside there helped me,” Lussier said. “I didn’t know if the groove was good, but once I passed a couple cars, I knew I could stick right there in the middle and slide up on exit and be good and fast.”
Lapalme held on to finish second while David Rogers completed the podium in third. Cody Ochs drove from eighth on the starting grid to finish fourth while Savannah Laflair rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 61L-Donovan Lussier[6]; 2. 88-Jeffrey Lapalme[1]; 3. 44-David Rogers[2]; 4. 02-Cody Ochs[8]; 5. 16X-Savannah Laflair[4]; 6. 165K-Karston King[3]; 7. 52-Jessica Power[5]; 8. 14-Payton Talbot[14]; 9. 80-Joshua Jock[20]; 10. 32C-Carter Crooker[10]; 11. 49-Chris Jakubiak[19]; 12. 38JR-Jason Parkhurst Jr[9]; 13. 01-Zachary Buff[18]; 14. 26-Derrick McGrew[17]; 15. 10-Darin Gallagher[12]; 16. 35T-Cameron Tuttle[13]; 17. 23-David Dickey[16]; 18. 20X-Kevin Ridley[15]; 19. 6W-Kyle Whitney[11]; 20. 57-Ray Hall Jr[7]
UMP Modified
Kyle Hammer entered the Summit Racing Equipment DIRTcar UMP Modified Championship feature hungry for his first win of the year. A front row starting spot put that opportunity within his grasp, and Hammer capitalized.
A strong first lap allowed Hammer to get the lead early before things got a little dicey in traffic late, but ultimately he led every lap on his way to The Dirt Track at Charlotte Victory Lane.
“I felt like we were pretty good there,” Hammer said. “Until one time in Turn 4, I thought I was knocking the wall down, lost the air off the nose behind one of the lapped cars and went sliding across the track. But I felt like we were good. I don’t know how far we were ahead. I think we have a good car and something to work on.”
Hammer became the seventh different winner of the DIRTcar UMP Modified Thursday Championship main event. He’s the first from the “Land of Lincoln” to top the event.
Polesitter Gary Dillon got the initial jump out of Turn 4 when the green flag waved on the 15-lapper, but Hammer ripped the top side of Turns 1 and 2 to lead down the back straightaway. Michael Leach slipped by Dillon in Turns 3 and 4 to snag the runner-up spot.
Hammer wasted no time growing his advantage north of a second in the opening circuits, but it wouldn’t be an easy cruise to Victory Lane as lapped traffic became a factor late. With four laps remaining, Leach cut Hammer’s lead down under seven tenths of a second as Hammer fought dirty air.
Right when the margin between first and second tightened, Hammer managed to clear a couple lapped cars just in time and was able to drive away to victory and start his World Short Track Championship on a high note. Michael Leach and Will Krup completed the podium after Krup fended off a late surge from Cole Falloway.
A little further back, three-time Summit Racing Equipment DIRTcar UMP Modified Championship feature winner, Kyle Strickler, put on a show, charging from 20th into the top five.
The finish:
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 45-Kyle Hammer[2]; 2. 00-Michael Leach[3]; 3. K9-Will Krup[4]; 4. 66-Cole Falloway[5]; 5. 8-Kyle Strickler[20]; 6. 12R-Ty Rhoades[8]; 7. 18-Charlie Mefford[11]; 8. 8A-Austin Holcombe[6]; 9. 5-Jonathan Taylor[14]; 10. 82-Gary Dillon[1]; 11. 88-Matt Crafton[18]; 12. 35-Carder Miller[19]; 13. 21-Taylor Cook[13]; 14. 7-Evan Taylor[10]; 15. 44-Dave Hess Jr[7]; 16. 84-Ryan Toole[17]; 17. 25-Greg Belyea[12]; 18. 6-Ryan Ayers[9]; 19. (DNS) 5T-Drake Troutman; 20. (DNS) 31G-Stephen Pedulla
Pro Stock
In his first career appearance at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, Slater Baker is taking home a trophy from the World Short Track Championship.
The 27-year-old Capital Region driver scored his first career DIRTcar Pro Stock Series win Thursday night, leading every lap of the Pro Stock main event from the pole of the starting grid.
Baker was forced to survive several restarts en route to the win. In his own words, “It was just stay up front, and don’t let them by.”
Originally scheduled for 15 laps, an incident in Turn 3 brought out the red flag with 8 laps complete, prompting officials to declare the race official due to time constraints.
The finish:
Feature (8 Laps): 1. 9B-Slater Baker[1]; 2. 75-Gary Silkey[2]; 3. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[3]; 4. 771-Jim Duncan[5]; 5. 09-Shawn Perez Sr[6]; 6. 63-Ryan Crellin[7]; 7. 72G-Denis Gauvreau[9]; 8. 48-Jocelyn Roy[10]; 9. 6C-Brian Carter[4]; 10. 4M-Jordan Modiano[8]; 11. 2H-Luke Horning[13]; 12. 2-Pete Stefanski[17]; 13. 8L-Marc Lalonde[16]; 14. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[18]; 15. 28-Philip DeFiglio[15]; 16. 57W-Joe Wilson[11]; 17. 9-Shane Henderson[14]; 18. 921-Eric Jean Louis[12]; 19. 17-Marc Peladeau[19]; 20. 177-Chris Stalker[20]