RPW Exclusive: Zach Payne Scores First DIRTcar 358-Mod Win At Land Of Legends In Nearly Two Decades

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – CANANDAIGUA, NY – For the first time in almost two decades, the DIRTcar 358-Modifieds were in action Tuesday night at Land of Legends Raceway.

That was the perfect amount of time for Zach Payne who was the man with the biggest smile at the end of the evening as he was able to capture the 30-lap feature event win.

Payne started on the pole but lost the lead early to outside pole sitter Brad Rouse. The Stanley, NY driver wasn’t fazed, however, and regained the top spot on a lap six restart.

From there, he was lights out, holding off a hard-charging Mat Williamson to score the $2,000 top prize.

However, did he know how close second place was?

“I was just trying to be consistent on every lap tonight,” Payne said. “I was just trying to get around the lap cars as fast as possible. I saw Mat was in second so I knew he had to be close and just hand to keep hitting my marks.”

Payne’s now completed the victory trifecta for the open-wheel divisions at the Canandaigua, NY track. He’d won in both the DIRTcar Sportsman and Big Block Modifieds before adding the 358-Modified win on Tuesday.

“This is our first Small Block win so this is awesome,” he said. “We really needed this for the team. We’ve been struggling for a while and now we got this so it’ll definitely help out a lot.”

To capture the checkers, Payne had to hold off a late charge from winner of the DIRTcar SummerFAST Big Block Modified event held earlier in the night, Mat Williamson. Not only that, but Williamson is the current Big Block track point leader.

However, on this night, in this division, Williamson was only second best but it was still a pretty good night for the St. Catherines, ONT driver.

“Hats off to Zach, Mike (Payne, Zach’s father) and the whole MPR team,” Williamson said. “It’s cool to see Zach win.”

Chasing down the MP Delivery Bicknell was one thing. Passing him would have been another story.

“It was a ton of fun out there tonight,” he said. “It would have been interesting if it had gone longer but Zach ran a hell of a race.”

Did Williamson think he had anything for Payne?

“I think my only shot at him would have been in lap traffic,” he said. “He did what he had to do and hats off to him and his team. They earned it tonight.”

While second is a good finish for he and his #6 team, Williamson definitely could tell the difference between the two race cars he ran at Land of Legends on Tuesday night.

“I was telling Greg (Hixon, Land of Legends Race Director) that I hope they never get rid of Big Blocks here,” he said. “Small Blocks don’t race as fun as the Big Blocks.”

Why’s that?

“At some places, Small Block racing is kind of fun,” he said. “It’s weird because when you get to a big place like this, you’ve got such low gear that it kills your momentum.”

Erick Rudolph drove from his eighth starting spot to bring the #25 home in the show position while Alex Payne and Andrew Buff completed the top five.

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 77Z-Zach Payne[1]; 2. 6M-Mat Williamson[4]; 3. 25R-Erick Rudolph[8]; 4. 70A-Alex Payne[3]; 5. 92-Andrew Buff[6]; 6. 18R-Brad Rouse[2]; 7. 11J-James Sweeting[9]; 8. 28-Michael Trautschold[7]; 9. 3-Chad Brachmann[18]; 10. 94X-Willy Decker Jr[10]; 11. 12-Darren Smith[13]; 12. 15-Nicholas Root[12]; 13. 21R-RJ Tresidder[5]; 14. 22-Noah Walker[14]; 15. M1-Dave Marcuccilli[16]; 16. 14S-Brian Swarthout[17]; 17. 10R-Tommy Paine[19]; 18. 6-Robert Bublak[11]; 19. 37S-Gary Lindberg[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 92-Andrew Buff[2]; 2. 21R-RJ Tresidder[1]; 3. 28-Michael Trautschold[7]; 4. 94X-Willy Decker Jr[3]; 5. 12-Darren Smith[5]; 6. M1-Dave Marcuccilli[6]; 7. 10R-Tommy Paine[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 77Z-Zach Payne[2]; 2. 6M-Mat Williamson[6]; 3. 25R-Erick Rudolph[3]; 4. 6-Robert Bublak[1]; 5. 22-Noah Walker[4]; 6. 14S-Brian Swarthout[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 18R-Brad Rouse[2]; 2. 70A-Alex Payne[5]; 3. 11J-James Sweeting[1]; 4. 15-Nicholas Root[3]; 5. 37S-Gary Lindberg[6]; 6. 3-Chad Brachmann[4]