Norris pulls off Outlaws repeat
BUFFALO TWP — Repeat the feat.
Knoch graduate and Sarver resident Mike Norris did exactly that Friday night at Lernerville Speedway, grabbing the lead on the sixth lap and winning the World of Outlaws Late Model 30-lap feature.
Norris won the Friday night feature of Firecracker 100 weekend last year as well.
“That was special, something I’ll never forget,” Norris said. “But I’ll never forget this one, either.”
Norris started from the third position. He temporarily lost the lead to Mason Zeigler on the 17th lap, but regained it on the first turn of Lap 19. The track was extremely dusty coming around the first turn.
“I felt like I needed a dirt bike out there, but this was fun,” Norris said.
Zeigler took second while Brandon Sheppard — winner of eight of the previous 14 WoO features this season — finished third.
“I haven’t run here much and I heard Norris is a great driver,” Zeigler said. “He showed everybody that tonight. He ran quite a race.”
Norris survived five restarts, including one on the 27th lap as former Lernerville regular Gregg Satterlee violently flipped his No. 22 car on the 26th lap. Satterlee was unhurt.
Norris did not drive his No. 72 car as it is being repaired. He won his second feature in as many weeks driving for Todd Cerenzia.
“Same type of car, just a different color,” Norris said.
Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, had the fastest Late Model car in time trials, turning a lap in 17.087 seconds. Norris was second fastest at 17.258 seconds.
David Pangrazio, a New York resident, was the fastest qualifying RUSH Crate Late Model with a time of 17.935 seconds. Six Crate heat races took place Friday night.
There were 51 Crate Late Models in the pits. The 6-lap dash Friday was won by Jeremy Wondering, who will start on the pole for Saturday night’s 50-lap Bill Emig Memorial.
“The track was a little rough. We had to maneuver around a few bumps, but everyone has to do that,” Wondering said. “The car ran really good. Hopefully, we will run well tomorrow.”
There were 46 total Late Model cars representing 17 states and Canada in the pits.
Notes: Norris won his second career WoO heat race. Darrell Lanigan won his 175th. ... Max Blair and Russ King won Crate heat races. They are joining Dan Angellicchio and Chub Frank in racing cars in both divisions thus weekend. ... Erb raced Thursday night in Illinois, then drove 10-plus hours overnight to join the WoO card here Friday night.
