RPW Exclusive: Adam Pierson Has Near Perfect Night At Fulton; Hile Puts In Solid Effort In SummerFAST Finale

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – FULTON, NY – Wednesday’s DIRTcar SummerFAST finale for 2024 at Fulton Speedway nearly had a storybook ending for Adam Pierson.

It was almost one for Chris Hile as well.

Pierson was forced to take a step back from racing to regroup in the middle of May due to a string of misfortune.  That included coming off the Super DIRTcar Series.  Since then, he’s made some 358-Modified and Big Block starts, but made his return to the tour this week for the DIRTcar SummerFAST events.

Tuesday at Land of Legends didn’t go as he had hoped as he failed to make the show.  However, that wasn’t going to keep the East Corinth, VT driver and his team down, and they rebounded in a monster way, scoring a heat race win on Fulton, drawing the pole for the 75-lap feature and very nearly scoring the victory.

That is, if not for the start / finish line being a little further towards turn one.

“I just needed like two more feet,” Pierson said.  “Then maybe I would have gotten it but congrats to Alex (Yankowski, winner) and Chris Hile (third).  To not race Big Block for a month and a half and get second, I’ll take it.”

It appeared as if Tim Sears Jr. was going to be the man to beat on this night as he was running the extreme inside line of the track.  That was extremely close to the infield implement tires and the Hastings, NY driver clipped one with his left front on the 57th circuit.

That forced the 83x to slow, while leading.  Pierson had fallen to third behind him and Hile but this breathed new life into the 215’s chances for a victory.

“I don’t really know if we would have gotten Timmy if he didn’t clip the tires,” he said.  “He was good.”

When Sears slowed, Hile spun to avoid him.  However, because the caution wasn’t for him, the 5H was given his spot back which put Pierson on the inside of the front row for the restart.

On that ensuing green flag, Yankowski made a move around Pierson for second and then took the top spot from Hile.

“Chris and I had a good race going,” he said.  “I was actually surprised he took the outside on that restart.  Alex got a good jump, went to the middle a pulled me out of (turn) two.”

That didn’t deter Pierson though, who regrouped, and began to march towards the front.  He was able to drive around Hile’s machine for second with just shy of 10 laps remaining and began to reel in the leader.

With just two laps remaining, Adam was still about one second behind the leader but the great equalizer helped to make things interesting at the finish.

“I think he caught lap traffic and that slowed him up a little bit,” he said.  “Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t fire on restarts until I got heat in the right rear tire.  Once I got that, I started catching Alex, but man, I just needed a few more feet.”

Hile brought the Lightning Management #5H home in the show position on Wednesday night.  Running his first Super DIRTcar Series event of the season, being in the mix for the victory was a great result for the Oswego, NY driver.

“We had a really solid car all night,” Hile said.  “It was just a little too lane-dependent up on the top.  We tried to run the bottom a couple of times and just couldn’t get hooked up like we needed to be.”

As the race went on, the handling seemed to go away for Hile, but he was able to still hold on for a great finish.

“As that top groove began to get pushed up higher and higher, we started to fade,” he said.  “We were leaning on the right rear tire a little too much.”

Hile has been a regular on the Super DIRTcar Series a few times over the last three or four years so getting the chance to race with the tour’s best is always fun.

“Alex ran a great race and it’s always fun to race with Adam,” he said.  “Last year, when we ran the Series, we raced together a lot so it’s fun to race with good, clean guys like that and it’s nice to see Alex get the win.”

See Yankowski get the win he sure did.  Hile was in prime position to witness the battle to the checkered flag between the 84Y and the 215.

“That was a great race,” he said.  “I had the best view, I think, for that finish out of anyone here.  That was pretty cool.”

The Series now heads to Western New York in mid-August for the Summer Nationals at Ransomville Speedway.  That event will go off next Tuesday night where Erick Rudolph is the defending winner.

Then, the traveling road show heads to the opposite end of the state for Mr. DIRT Track USA at Lebanon Valley Speedway to close out the month and Andy Bachetti will look to defend his title from one year ago.