News Director 
Column By: MARTY CZEKALA / RPW – RANSOMVILLE, NY – There was something a little different about Larry Wight’s No. 99L Tuesday night at Ransomville Speedway.
We’re talking about something other than the roof every four years.
Wight brought a new Troyer TD5 for the Super DIRTcar Series’ Ron Martin Memorial Summer Nationals.
“Lightning” is still looking for his first top-five in SDS competition. In a season where Tuesday night was his fifth Last Chance Showdown, Wight decided to exchange the Bicknell chassis for a Troyer.
“We’ve been chasing our tail with our other cars,” Wight told RPW after the race. “We’ve run three or four different frames and can’t get any momentum. We had to make a change and Troyer was the option to try something.”
Wight scored the win in the last chance showdown and drove it home to a 20th-place finish at a track that was tough to pass.
“It’s more of a comfort level of getting used to it as it drives completely different from my Bicknell,” said Wight.
The TD5 hasn’t been in the race shop for a while. Matt Steffenhagen, Mark Lipari and their crew at Troyer Dirt Cars assembled the chassis, body, and bumpers within a day and delivered it to Wight after the race at Brewerton.
“Luckily, we had a chassis in stock and available,” said Steffenhagen via text message. “We try to keep at least one on hand at all times.”
“Mark has been coming over and putting the bug in my ear for the last year,” Wight explained. “Finally, I was sitting in the office [at Gypsum Express] and had to make the run to Rochester to one of our dealerships. We were right down the road [from Troyer]. Took a tour and saw what their operation was. Liked what I saw, we were able to make a deal.”
This could help not only throughout the tour but also in weekly action. At his weekly tracks in Brewerton and Fulton, a Troyer car leads the standings with Tim Sears Jr. up top. Wight, third in Brewerton track points, has noted how Sears has performed this season.
“You can’t not look at what “Timmer” has been doing,” said Wight. “This year, he’s been good everywhere. Top five after top five. Had a couple hard lucks. It speaks volumes for the car and team. At some point, someone has to take a hard look at it and get that same advantage.”
In the last chance showdown, Wight showed strength, using the “Larry Lane” high side to make a last-lap pass on Andrew Smith to steal the win in the consi, showing he has power underneath the Troyer chassis.
Before racing began, Wight said on DIRTVision that he didn’t want to take a stab at the top shelf but got used to it as the race progressed.
“It was comfort,” Wight said. “I didn’t think the cars were gonna feel that much different. I’ve run Teos, Troyers, Bicknells, all of them. There’s a big difference in feel. It took me too long to get acclimated to the car. It was better than where we finished.”
On the main difference between a Troyer and a Bicknell, Wight said: “This car doesn’t seem to roll on the right near as hard as a Bicknell. That’s how we were running back in 2021. Last couple of years, we were laying on the right rear and didn’t know why. There’s some stuff that’s different and some stuff is the same. It might be tubing geometry, rod location and lengths, I really don’t know yet. We have to get some running at our home tracks to really compare the feel.”
