DUNDEE, N.Y. – Steve Paine held off several challengers and negotiated lapped traffic to perfection to capture the Outlaw Showdown 50 for the Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series fueled by Sunoco at Outlaw Speedway Tuesday night.
Other winners included Alex Payne in the Open Tire Sportsman class, Dylan Cecce in the Stan’s No Tubes Street Stocks, Joshua Oles in the NAPA Hobby Stocks and Kenneth Evans in the Winner’s Circle Deli 4 Cylinder main event.
Paine and Erick Rudolph led the field to the green in the 50-lap STSS Modified feature with Paine jumping out to the advantage in the front. The lone yellow of the event flew on lap six, which put Anthony Perrego alongside Paine for the restart.
Paine pulled out a big lead, but started to get into traffic around the halfway point. While Perrego tried to run down Paine, Matt Sheppard battled with Mike Mahaney for third, and they were soon joined by Stewart Freisen.
In the final 10 laps, the top four were tight together as they continued to dice through traffic, with Mahaney getting past Sheppard and moving in behind Perrego. On the final lap, Paine had enough to hold on for the win as Mahaney squeezed past Perrego for second, followed by Freisen and Sheppard.
In the 25-lap Open Tire Sportsman main event, an opening lap crash took out several contenders, among them former track champion Chris Fisher. When the race resumed, Tim Guild grabbed the early lead, with Alex Payne moving in quickly to take the lead a few laps in.
Payne and Ajay Potrzebowski then fought side by side for the lead, but Potrzebowski had an issue and dropped out at the halfway point. Carter Crooker and Karl Comfort then stepped up to challenge leader Payne over the final few laps, but Payne had enough to hold off the challengers and take the win.
Potrzebowski was the runner-up over Comfort, with Crooker and Zach Sobotka filling in the rest of the top five.
Glenn Whritenour and Cecce battled the length of the Stan’s No Tubes Street Stock feature, with Whritenour leading until Cecce took over on lap six. The duo battled the rest of the way, with Cecce capturing a two car length win over Whritenour, followed by Kurt Stebbins, Gene Sharpsteen, and Aksel Jensen.
The NAPA Hobby Stock feature was won by Oles, who held off Willy Easling on a late race restart to score the top spot over Easling, Mark Minutolo, Brian Lloyd, and Jaredd Dennis.
The Winner’s Circle Deli 4 Cylinder feature saw Evans battle Scott Lehman early on, but Lehman’s race ended when fluid came out of the car and he retired on lap 13. Evans went on to win over Sammy Fuller, Jayson Smart, Matt Irwin, and Rich Sharpsteen.
The finish:
Steve Paine, Mike Mahaney, Anthony Perrego, Stewart Freisen, Matt Sheppard, Andy Bachetti, Alan Johnson, Erick Rudolph, Bobby Varin, Mat Williamson, Bobby Hackel, Max McLaughlin, Billy Decker, Michael Maresca, David Schilling, Danny Johnson, Jake Dgien, Mike Gular, Cory Costa, Danny Creeden, Tyler Siri, Brett Hass, Kyle Coffey, Tyler Dippel, Jim LaRock, Ron Cartwright, Rocky Warner (DNS).