RPW Exclusive: Searching For Success Was Larry Wight’s 2023 On The Super DIRTcar Series; Building For A Better ’24

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – PHOENIX, NY – The 2023 season on the Super DIRTcar Series proved to be a homecoming of sorts for Larry Wight.

Wight made his return to the tour after a hiatus and drove his Gypsum Racing #99L to a top 10 points finish (10th overall) with a best run of third at Orange County Fair Speedway in July.

While he was glad to be back on tour, the Phoenix, NY driver feels like his team left some performance on the table this past season.

“It was definitely a struggle this season,” Wight said. “The last two years haven’t exactly been stellar. We’ve been running good at our local tracks but just haven’t been traveling well.”

Making chassis changes mid-season, switching from Bicknell to Teo and then back to Bicknell showed just how much this team was searching for the correct combination.

Wight has finished runner-up in DIRTcar Big Block Modified points at Brewerton Speedway, his Friday night home, the last two seasons and came home fourth in points at the Fulton Speedway in 2023 in DIRTcar 358-Modified action.

In the last the last two seasons at those two facilities, Wight’s visited victory lane 12 times but that success didn’t translate to the Series in 2023, as he was only secured two top 5 finishes this past year.

“It seemed like as soon as we got going on one set-up that worked, it just kind of stalled out,” he said. “We ended up doing a lot of hunting this past year.”

With the effort he and his Gypsum Racing team put in during the 2023 season, Wight feels things are moving in the right direction for another run on tour.

“We’ve done a lot of work to build the team up,” he said. “Hopefully, this winter, we can get things going in the right direction.”

That’s where it all begins before racing kicks off with the DIRTcar Nationals in February.

“We want to go down to Volusia and have a good showing,” he said. “Hopefully, some good runs down there will kickstart our 2024 for some good runs all year long.”

In addition to the third place run at Orange County in July, Wight put his #99L in the top five at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on September 23rd, gaining 18 positions to come home fourth in the 115-lap affair.

The big red FX Caprara Honda machine finished in the top 10 on four other occasions on the Super DIRTcar Series as well.