LAKE CITY, Fla. — For the first time in his career, Larry Wight earned Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Fueled By Sunoco glory on Thursday night, capturing night two of the Sunshine Swing at the All-Tech Raceway.
Wight, who rebounded from dead last to run fifth on Wednesday, took a more conventional route on Thursday, quickly launching from his fourth-place starting spot to the lead, a $5,000 paycheck and his first STSS triumph. Wight is the 35th winner all-time in series history.
“We’ve been chasing one of these races for a long time,” Wight said. “We’ve been really close before with Gary Simpson’s ride, but always caught a bad break or bad luck.
“I’m really happy to get one of these races.”
Wednesday night’s runner-up finisher Billy Pauch Jr. led the field on the opening circuit of the evening’s 35-lap main event, ahead of Danny Creeden, Danny Johnson, Wight and Tyler Siri.
Wight wasted no time dispensing of the pair of Danny’s and moved into second behind Pauch by lap three. Meanwhile, Erick Rudolph was the big mover, advancing from eighth to fourth in just three circuits. One lap later, Rudolph scooted past Creeden for third.
With Wight checked out, Rudolph closed in on Pauch and then passed him for second by lap seven. The front of the field stayed the same throughout the middle of the race, but by lap 20, Rudolph had clawed to Wight’s rear bumper behind a line of lapped traffic.
Thanks to some late cautions, Wight cruised in open air, crossing the line ahead of Rudolph and Pauch.
“We had a really good piece tonight,” Rudolph commented on the frontstretch. “So far, so good to start the season; we still have two more nights to get a win.”
Pauch Jr. bagged his second consecutive podium finish to start the season, cementing himself as one of the premier contenders in the division.
“You hate to go backward from second, but we had a good car all night,” Pauch said. “This is still one of the coolest tracks out there and hopefully we can put it on the top of the podium by the end of the week.”
Johnson finished fourth, his second top-10 of the week, ahead of Creeden. Finishing sixth through 10th, respectively, were: David Schilling with the Wegner Automotive LS 427 “Weekend Warrior” engine, Siri, Wednesday night’s winner Matt Sheppard, Jordan Watson, who managed his second straight top-10; and Marc Johnson, who followed his podium finish from Wednesday with a 10th-place result.
An apparent first-time victory Brandon Watkins in the 602 sportsman class, was nixed in post-race tech inspection due to a helper spring violation. Scott Hitchens was declared the winner pending additional technical inspection on Friday morning.
The finish:
Larry Wight, Erick Rudolph, Billy Pauch Jr., Danny Johnson, Danny Creeden, David Schilling, Tyler Siri, Matt Sheppard, Jordan Watson, Marc Johnson, Mike Mahaney, Danny Bouc, Stewart Friesen, Michael Maresca, Alex Yankowski, Billy Decker, Darren Smith, L.J. Lombardo, Brian Pessolano, J.R. Heffner, Bobby Flood, Peter Britten, Jeff Strunk, Jeff Taylor, Tanner VanDoren, Addison Bowman, Tim Buckwalter, Rick Laubach.