9.23.16 Empire Super Sprints Results
DUNDEE, NY) – Local driver and sprint car great, Chuck Hebing showed he still has it as the Ontario, New York driver passed Josh Weller on the final lap to win the inaugural Outlaw Fall Nationals to score his first 360 sprint car win at Outlaw Speedway since 2012.
It was the first Outlaw start of the season for Hebing, who showed that there was not any rust on the Wilkins RV, Cobra Coaches No. 45.
Central Pennsylvania driver, Mark Smith brought the twenty-five car field to the green flag lining up alongside URC competitor Josh Weller. Smith would take the early lead but the lap would not count because of a right rear flat on the No. 10c of Jeff Cook. The field would reset and Weller would grab the lead on the outside and lead the way in the opening laps.
Smith would be running in second before overcooking turn four on lap six and falling back several positions outside the top ten. This put Chuck Hebing into the runner up spot followed by Dylan Westbrook, Kyle Drum, and Shawn Donath.
The next caution flew on lap four when Tommy Wickham and Mike Koehler would get together on the front stretch, slowing the field down.
A double file restart would put Hebing on the outside of Weller allowing him to take the lead, dropping Weller back to the runner up spot racing with Westbrook and Donath in the top five at the time. Also making their way through the pack was Paulie Colagiovanni, Davie Franek and Jared Zimbardi as they would be battling for a top five run in the second half of the race.
However, on lap fifteen, lap traffic would slowly play a factor in this one. Weller would use that to his advantage by passing Hebing again on lap sixteen to reclaim the top spot.
Hebing would fall back as far as fourth while Dylan Westbrook and Jared Zimbardi would begin to show their noses in the final ten laps. The final ten laps saw the top five cars all be nose to tail as they worked slower traffic. The $5,000 top prize posted by Outlaw Speedway owner Tyler Siri, was very much up for grabs for any one of those six drivers.
Then on lap twenty-seven, Westbrook pulled up alongside Weller for the race lead as the two exited corners one and two with lap traffic also in the mix. This allowed ‘The Cobra’ to go back on the outside to try and get a run where the two leaders were not.
Two laps later, as the white flag was displayed by head starter Scott Hixson, Hebing stuck it on the top with authority. Nobody runs the outside lane at Outlaw Speedway like Hebing when he has a fast car like he did on Friday night.
By the time Hebing and Weller exited turn two, Hebing had sailed on by with Weller only able to watch as the No. 45 raced away to the inaugural Fall Nationals win by eight-tenths of a second. Hebing sealed the victory over Weller and Westbrook who completed the podium, respectively.
Jared Zimbardi would come home in a close fourth followed by Davie Franek shortly after. Mark Smith fell back as far as 11th but would come back and settle for a solid sixth place finish. Shawn Donath who had started 11th would remain in the top ten all night and finish seventh for the No. 53. Joe Trenca would win his heat, start eighth and finish eighth, as Justin Barger would start 19th and pass nine cars to crack himself in the top 10. Kyle Drum got to as high as fourth but fell back in the second half of the night and finish 9th.
“I pushed up over the corner and both of those guys got by me,” said Hebing of the win. I saw (Weller) concentrating on keeping the middle and the bottom, and I just had to try the top and got on a roll and got by both of them.”
It had been awhile for Hebing at Outlaw, not only racing at the Dundee oval but also since 2012 since he had won a race at the ‘Fast Four-Tenths-Mile’.
“It’s been quite a while since I’ve been over here. It was good to get back to Victory Lane. They did a heck of a job with the place, it’s unbelievable. It’s also good to see a good crowd here too.”
Josh Weller was certainly disappointed to finish second, as he could only shake his head at the last lap heroics from Hebing.
“It’s always fun when you’re leading a race like that,” said Weller. “Unfortunately it’s not a whole lot of fun when you lose a race like that on the last lap. We had a real strong car tonight, just not quite strong enough at the end. We’ve lost a few races like this on the last lap, maybe one day we will win one here.”
Dylan Westbrook finished in the third spot on Friday night.
“It was a really awesome race with all of us battling for the lead,” noted Westbrook. “It was a lot of fun and I kind of like this track now. To be able to finish third in the First Outlaw Fall Nationals means a lot to me.”