For the third time this season, a DIRTcar Sportsman Series regional point leader clinched the championship by traveling to Victory Lane.
Zach Sobotka led the final 23 laps at Fulton Speedway Saturday night to earn his ninth career Series victory and the Central Region title.
He joins Cody McPherson (West) and Jason (Gray) as regional champions in 2024.
However, the road to the win wasn’t easy. After wrecking at Brewerton Speedway Friday night, Sobotka raced a different car than expected.
“I was really hoping to keep this car under the car cover for the rest of the year,” Sobotka said. “I didn’t really plan on bringing it out tonight, but I’m glad I did. We didn’t really know what to expect with it. It was definitely not put together this morning.
“It’s been one race, and we won one race. We hope it continues to be like that.”
Wade Chrisman led the field to the green in the 30-lap Feature, but the yellow flag came out on Lap 2 for Riley Rogala, Austin Germinio, and Joe Kline.
When the race resumed, outside pole-sitter Kyle Devendorf wrestled the lead away from Chrisman. Behind them, Sobotka was quickly moving up the field, taking second on Lap 3 after starting eighth.
After a red flag for an incident involving Brett Sears, Tim Falter, and Stephen Marshall stopped the race on Lap 5, Devendorf held on to the lead for two more laps. That’s when Sobotka used the inside of Fulton’s high-banked corners to pass the No. 5 for the lead on Lap 7.
From there, Sobotka went unchallenged to score the $1,000 victory.
“I kind of found my line pretty early,” Sobotka said. “I was just trying to roll the bottom in (Turn) 1 and 2, and that’s how I got into the lead. I knew the top was decent, and the bottom was there, too.”
Nick Root, who entered the Central Region finale eight points behind Sobotka, finished second, earning back-to-back podium finishes.
“That really helps us in our championship points,” Root said. “We’ve never really ran good here at Fulton, but we came here tonight and ran second. We fell back a little on the restart and came from eighth. We were battling with Devendorf for 25 laps and got second in the race.”
Jason Parkhurst Jr. crossed the line third after passing Devendorf in the race’s final lap.
The Fulton, NY driver said the handing of his car improved as the race went on.
“The car seemed like it had no side bite or any forward bite,” Parkhurst said. But towards the end, once the tires got a little heat in them, the car started to get better. With about three laps to go, I actually found the bottom, passed [Devendorf] on the last lap, and got third.
“I wish there was a caution to stack things back up. Then maybe we might’ve had something.”
Devendorf finished fourth, and Chrisman rounded out the top five.
UP NEXT: The stars of the Central Region will kick off the DIRTcar Sportsman Series championship season on Sunday, Aug. 11 at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park in Fultonville, NY.
For more on the DIRTcar Northeast, follow the DIRTcar Facebook page and the Series’ X/(Twitter) page.
DIRTcar Sportsman Feature (30 Laps): 1. 38-Zach Sobotka[8]; 2. 30-Nicholas Root[5]; 3. 38JR-Jason Parkhurst Jr[4]; 4. 5D-Kyle Devendorf[2]; 5. 00W-Wade Chrisman[1]; 6. 410-Mike Fowler[6]; 7. 4-Emmett Waldron[3]; 8. 6-Cody Manitta[9]; 9. 72-Hunter Hollenbeck[7]; 10. 01-Zachary Buff[16]; 11. 33JR-Clayton Brewer III[14]; 12. 18E-Gavin Eisele[11]; 13. 64-Tyler Corcoran[10]; 14. 32C-Kasey Coffey[15]; 15. 0-Tony Finch II[12]; 16. FOX28-Tyler Stevenson[22]; 17. 7S-Torrey Stoughtenger[18]; 18. 63-Teddy Clayton Jr[13]; 19. 80-Dominic Roselli[28]; 20. 44C-Greg Carner[20]; 21. 21J-Justin Liechti[19]; 22. 52-Jessica Power[27]; 23. 06W-Dorian Wahdan[17]; 24. 21X-Ryan Barrett[30]; 25. 28X-Stephen Marshall[24]; 26. (DNF) 83X-Brett Sears[21]; 27. (DNF) 71-Tim Falter[26]; 28. (DNF) 10G-Austin Germinio[29]; 29. (DNF) 19J-Joe Kline[23]; 30. (DNF) R1-Riley Rogala[25]
Post-Race Tech: Wiring into the ignition was checked and MSD Box. Harmonic balancer was also checked. All cars passed.
Hoosier Racing Tire Award (Free Tire): Gavin Eisele
