Column By: RYAN LOEFFLER / RPW – FULTON, NY – Friday night at the Fulton Speedway had four guaranteed starting spots the 37th annual Outlaw 200 up for grabs.
Winners of the 15-lap qualifiers will be locked into starting spots 16-20 for the $20,000-to-win race on Saturday evening.
Qualifier #1 was won by the two-time and reigning track champ, Tim Sears Jr.
“This takes a lot of pressure off us,” Sears said. “It’s going to be tough to qualify. I’m glad we are starting about 17 spots better than we usually do.”
Sears finished 7th in last year’s Outlaw 200.
Dylan Zacharias will be locked into the 17th position for Saturday’s 200 after taking home the win in Qualifier #2.
“It’s been an up and down year for us,” Zacharias said. “This is awesome. I’m glad we got the job done and are locked in.”
Former track champion Larry Wight won Qualifier #3 and is looking to build momentum heading into a big race week in Central New York.
Most recently, the Gypsum Racing driver charged from 18th to fourth in the Super DIRTcar Series’ Malta Massive Weekend 115-lap event at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Saturday.
Wight will hope to improve on his sixth place finish from a year ago.
The fourth and final guaranteed starting spot belongs to Zach Payne who captured qualifier #4.
“this thing’s fast,” Payne said. “The track had more moisture tonight but we are hooked up no matter what.
Being locked in is good for Payne, but he wants more.
“We’re going to try some things in the heat tomorrow (Saturday),” he said. “We want to improve this car but no matter what, the things fast.”
The rest of the lineup will be settled on Saturday night at the Fulton, NY oval. Gates open at 2pm and racing starts at 5pm.
Heat 1 (15 Laps): 1. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[1]; 2. 02-Roy Bresnahan[4]; 3. 19C-Brandon Carvey[5]; 4. 66W-Derek Webb[3]; 5. 56-Vince Vitale[7]; 6. 66-Carey Terrance[8]; 7. 6NN-Nick Nye[6]; 8. 83-Danny Johnson[13]; 9. 58M-Marshall Hurd[10]; 10. 369-Jim Walsh[9]; 11. 11T-Jeff Taylor[11]; 12. 26R-Corey Cormier[2]; 13. 220-Chris Hulsizer[12]
Heat 2 (15 Laps): 1. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[2]; 2. 4P-Anthony Perrego[6]; 3. 64-Tyler Corcoran[1]; 4. 31-Corey Barker[4]; 5. 160-Max Hill[9]; 6. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[12]; 7. B2-Bob Henry Jr[3]; 8. 26C-Luke Carleton[10]; 9. 79-Jeff Prentice[5]; 10. 24R-Garrett Rushlow[7]; 11. 713-Tommy Collins[13]; 12. 29K-Chris Cunningham[11]; 13. 13-Ted Starr[8]
Heat 3 (15 Laps): 1. 99L-Larry Wight[1]; 2. 5H-Amy Holland[4]; 3. 32R-Ronald Davis III[5]; 4. 8H-Max McLaughlin[10]; 5. 3-Chris Mackey[11]; 6. 18$-Sean Beardsley[7]; 7. 49-Billy Dunn[12]; 8. 38-Tim Harris[2]; 9. 3RS-Dalton Slack[3]; 10. M1-David Marcuccilli[9]; 11. 05-Jesse Morgan[13]; 12. 60-Jackson Gill[8]; 13. 01R-Robert Gage[6]
Heat 4 (15 Laps): 1. 7Z-Zachary Payne[5]; 2. 91-Felix Roy[7]; 3. 28-Alan Fink[3]; 4. 12-Darren Smith[4]; 5. 21A-Peter Britten[10]; 6. 92-Andrew Buff[11]; 7. X-Chad Phelps[8]; 8. 21-Shaun Walker[13]; 9. 45R-Preston Forbes[2]; 10. 17J-Brent Joy[1]; 11. 28M-Matt Meade[12]; 12. 16-Aaron Jacobs[6]; 13. 44C-Riley Rogala[9]