CONCORD, N.C. — Lightnin’ Larry Wight and Justin Haers were the stars of Thursday night’s Super DIRTcar Series qualifying programs for the Bad Boy Off Road World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte, sweeping the spoils between each other as drivers fought for their starting positions in the weekend’s feature events.
Topping five groups of qualifiers for Friday night’s program, Wight scored his 14th career Pole Position Raceway Fast Time Award and fourth of the season with a lap of 15.582 seconds, set during the fourth group out on track.
Haers, meanwhile, set the standard in qualifying for the Saturday festivities, posting a lap of 15.860 seconds in group two that held up all the way to the end and marked his fifth career Pole Position Raceway Fast Time Award.
Both drivers also won their respective heat races for both Friday and Saturday, meaning Wight and Haers will be in the top five redraws for both A-Main lineups this weekend.
Thursday’s first round of heat races saw Mat Williamson wrest the lead from polesitter Pat Ward at lap four of Heat 1A, with Williamson’s outside move leading him to victory over Ward, Jimmy Horton IV and Ryan Godown.
Heat 2A saw the Buckeye Bullet, Dave Blaney, lead wire-to-wire in a non-stop run to transfer into Friday’s A-Main over his Heinke-Baldwin Racing teammate Jimmy Phelps, Erick Rudolph and Chris Hile.
Haers stormed to victory in Heat 3A over Stewart Friesen, Yan Bussiere and Peter Britten, leading every lap in another caution-free eight-lap affair.
Wight duplicated Haers’ effort during Heat 4A, wiring fellow transfers Billy Decker, Mike Mahaney and Danny Johnson for the win.
Heat 5A ended the string of caution-free racing, with a yellow flying on lap three for the spinning cars of Billy Pauch Jr. and Dave Rauscher in turn two. Pauch had a large exhaust fire flare up for a moment, but it was quickly extinguished as he refired and rolled away.
From there, Matt Sheppard showed the form that has scored him 10 wins and the series points lead this season, driving away to victory over Brett Hearn, Tyler Dippel and polesitter Keith Flach.
Friday’s 30 lap A-Main lineup will see Williamson, Blaney, Haers, Wight and Sheppard redraw for their starting positions, followed by Ward, Phelps, Friesen, Decker and Hearn among the top 10 starters.
Horton, Rudolph, Bussiere, Mahaney, Dippel, Godown, Watt, Britten, Johnson and Flach fill out rows six through 10.
Notables having to race their way in through Friday’s Last Chance Showdowns include Gary Tomkins, Tim Fuller, Rick Laubach and Billy Pauch Jr.
