Cody McPherson hadn’t even sat in the car he was going to race with the DIRTcar Sportsman Series Tuesday night at Ransomville Speedway until a few hours before Hot Laps.
But after a belt adjustment and tweak to the steering, the reigning Sportsman Series champion and defending Sportsman winner of the Ron Martin Summer Nationals, piloted Bubby Pawlak’s Hy-Tech Concrete No. 1 Modified to Victory Lane at the end of the night.
“This car was on rails,” McPherson said. “These guys had this car dialed in. We have to thank all the guys that work on it.”
McPherson started the 30-lap DIRTcar Sportsman Championship Series race in fourth and methodically climbed his way to the top. He used the momentum of the outside line to pass Cameron Tuttle for third on the initial lap and continued to run there until it brought him to the bumper of leader Tristan Ladouceur on Lap 5.
Ladouceur started on the outside pole and, like McPherson, used to outside lane to pass Tyler Pulchalski for the lead on the opening lap. He, too, stayed committed to the top lane of the 1/2-mile dirt track, forcing McPherson to use the low line if he wanted to pass him.
And so, he did.
McPherson dove low into Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 6, pulling even with Ladouceur’s No. 92 car by the center of the corner, but Ladouceur continued to get the better run off the top. That open lane on the bottom continued to call McPherson’s name as he stayed there the rest of the lap and used it to pull side by side with the No. 92 at the flag stand.
This time, when they visited Turns 1 and 2, the top lane gave up its reign as the bottom prevailed for McPherson. He powered ahead off Turn 2 and set sail for the victory.
Lap traffic and a caution with two laps to go tried to spoil his dominance, but the No. 1 car continued to prove it was the class of the field with every opportunity that was presented.
“I knew lap one there when I went to the middle, and it stuck there that we had a really good car,” McPherson said. “Lap traffic got a little hairy there, and of course, we got a yellow. You never know what’s going to happen then, but luckily, we were able to hold on.
“I knew I could roll the middle in (Turns) one and two, and I was really good on the top in (Turns) three and four. Once I cleared Pulchalski and started running down the 92 that that was going to be my point there on the bottom of three and four. Luckily, we were able to make it work.”
Pulchalski, in his first appearance at Ransomville, was able to hold on to second at the finish.
“We’ve had a good piece all year, no matter where we went,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of iRacing in my time. When I get to a new track, I can sometimes compare them to a track on iRacing.”
Gavin Eisele, who opened the Championship Series with a win at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park, was able to drive his way from sixth to third, holding off a hard-charging Tyler Corcoran at the finish.
“I felt like the bottom was definitely the better lane there in traffic, but I was trying to roll the middle and top, and I found that right to the middle of one and two is the only place where I can make any ground up. I was kind of grateful for the caution I thought, but once that came out, I fell back on the restart. I didn’t know if I was going to get Corcoran at the line or not, but I was able to hock the berm coming out of four, and I was able to beat him at the line.”
Joe Grabianowski Photo
UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Sportsman Championship Series continues at Fulton Speedway during SummerFAST on Wednesday, Aug. 20. You can get tickets to the event by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision.
RESULTS: DIRTcar Sportsman Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1-Cody McPherson[4]; 2. 92-Tristan Ladouceur[2]; 3. 18E-Gavin Eisele[6]; 4. 64-Tyler Corcoran[8]; 5. 0-Shane Pecore[7]; 6. 4-Emmett Waldron[13]; 7. 35T-Cameron Tuttle[3]; 8. 71-Jacob Bansmer[9]; 9. 33-Richard Murtaugh[16]; 10. 185-Tyler Pulchalski[1]; 11. 111-Brett Senek[5]; 12. 52-Jessica Power[15]; 13. 61-Derek Wagner[11]; 14. 01-Zachary Buff[14]; 15. 78JR-Nigel Pendykoski[19]; 16. 44-Ryan Barrett[18]; 17. 44D-Dave Conant[22]; 18. 28D-Mitch Dumont[12]; 19. 21-Justin Liechti[24]; 20. 7G-Tyler Guzzardi[21]; 21. 81-Austin Susice[23]; 22. 28-Jordan Moden[17]; 23. 14-Camdin Cook[30]; 24. 44C-Abby Castile[26]; 25. 16X-Savannah Laflair[28]; 26. 43-Tavien Blowers[27]; 27. 99S-Stephen Miller[20]; 28. 10-Trevor Houghton[29]; 29. (DNF) 68-Curtis Friesen[10]; 30. (DNF) 99-Brett Martin[25]
