Zach Sobotka invaded unfamiliar territory when he visited the Thunder Mountain Speedway for the DIRTcar Sportsman Central Region event. When Dave Farney waved the double checkered, Sobotka led all 30 laps and collected a cool $1,000 for the victory.
The effort didn’t go unchallenged as the winner from the Saturday night previous, Hunter Lapp, was dogging the back deck of Sobotka in the closing stages making for a dramatic finish.
“I knew he (Lapp) was there, I just tried to hold the bottom each lap and hope not to make a mistake,” Sobotka said, “With not running here, you really didn’t know if the track would change or if you were running the right lane.”
When the two entered turn three coming for the white flag, Lapp got his mount under Sobotka and were door to door. “Yea, I left the bottom open just a bit but I made sure I got back down there,” Zach then went on about his year, “We have some wins this year, but not as much as we would want to, hopefully we can keep it going.”
Lapp has collected two wins in weekly competition coming into the Series event which has him leading the track standings. Taking home the win not only would had him defending his home turf, but would be a career highlight.
“We tried, I got under him (Sobotka) on that one lap but the door closed and I didn’t want to get into him,” he went on about the late stages, “I tried to do the same line on the last lap but he protected, did what he should have. Hey, we will take second, we have been pretty good here and this was another good run.”
Alan Fink has been the winningest driver at Thunder Mountain and is second in points. He was sizing up the front two but just didn’t get the run to close in and challenge. “The track was pretty much bottom only for our race. So it was tough to see if I could have a chance.”
For Fink, he’s been enjoying taking a ride down Interstate 81 each Saturday night. Last season he was crowned champion and hopes to have the same result this year. “I hope we can win the title again, we will give it a shot.”
World Short Track DIRTcar Sportsman Champ, Dave Rogers came home in fourth in his first ever Thunder Mountain visit over Mike Fowler. Sixth through tenth were Tyler Corcoran, Will Eastman, Will Shields, Hoosier Racing Tire Weekly Championship point leader Andrew Buff and Jamie Kamrowski.
Winning the free Hoosier Tire was Corcoran.
DIRTcar Sportsman Central Region Series – ZACH SOBOTKA ($1,000), Hunter Lapp, Alan Fink, Dave Rogers, Mike Fowler, Tyler Corcoran, Will Eastman, Will Shields, Andrew Buff, Jamie Kamrowski, Gordon Smith, Jeremy Hamilton, Jordan Millard, Dana Davis, Ricky Thompson, Zach Buff, Dane Hedlund, Mike Austin, Chris Mackey
