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Photo by http://www.johnsracingphotos.com
Zach Zimmerly becomes youngest driver to make World Finals main event at the Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Concord, North Carolina – November 20, 2009…With the season winding down West Linn, Oregon racer Zach Zimmerly headed for one of the highest profile events of his young sprint car career in early-November and made it pay off by becoming the youngest driver to start the main event during the World of Outlaws sanctioned World Finals at the Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway.
This season marked the third year that the World Finals have been held, which pits the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and World of Outlaws Late Model Series on a twin-bill that is televised live on SPEED TV. For Zimmerly it was his first taste of racing on the blazing-fast Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway and also the final 410 sprint car event he competed in for the 2009 season. The World Finals also features a unique format that utilizes two rounds of qualifying on Thursday's opening night, which sets the fields line-ups for Friday and Saturday's action.
An event record of 57-cars were on hand for the World Finals and Zimmerly opened-up the qualifying night by timing-in 40th fastest in the first session, as he and the team were still learning nuances of the tricky 4/10 mile clay oval. With the experience of the first session under his belt however, the 15-year-old driver came back for round two and cut an impressive lap to place the Fire-Down Graphics, Level One, Mcmillen Motorsports No. 94 sprinter 17th quickest overall, which missed the heat race inversion by just one spot.
Coming back on Friday night Zimmerly showed early on that he was a quick learner as the youngster was the fifth fastest driver in hot laps, but by qualifying 40th during the first session on Thursday it put him deep in his heat race and an 11th place finish in it forced him into the C-main. The 10-lap contest saw the Oregon racer apply heavy pressure to the rear of leader Don Droud Jr. for the duration of the race and would bring home a runner-up finish to transfer to the rear of the "last chance showdown." With the track surface being lightning fast Zimmerly would have his work cut out for him as only four drivers transferred to the feature, but he was able to do a respectable job and move from 18th to 11th in the 12-lapper.
With a night of racing under his belt Zimmerly returned for Saturday's World Finals finale and had a much more manageable starting position in his heat race due to the solid qualifying time in the second round on Thursday. Going from the third row in the opening heat he was surrounded by a number of the sport's top drivers and would score a sixth place finish to miss the transfer by only one position, finishing just behind All Star Series champion Tim Shaffer and ahead of '08 World of Outlaws Rookie of the Year Lucas Wolfe. The track surface was also drastically changing as the night went on with much drier and slicker conditions than the night before, which forced drivers to be extremely easy on throttle.
Starting near the front of the "last chance showdown" Zimmerly proceeded to have an entertaining battle with Jessica Zemken as the SPEED cameras focused in on the pair while fighting for the third position. Despite being known as a driver that never shies away from the "loud-peddle" Zimmerly showed that he can use finesse just as well and carved his way around Zemken to claim the third position with just a few laps remaining. The final circuits saw him cut smooth laps and cross under the checkered flag solidly in third to transfer the Douglas Wheel Technologies, Butler Built Performance, Oakley, Kaeding Performance Maxim into the main event.
With the track slicking off and becoming trickier and trickier Zimmerly lined-up from the 17th position in the 30-lap feature and charged up as high as 12th, before the surface began to take rubber in spots and forced him to fight a tight condition the rest of the way en route to a 17th place result at the checkered. "Just making the main event here is a tough thing to do so we're thrilled to have accomplished that," Zimmerly said. "It was a great experience to run the World Finals and it's definitely something I can take with me because this was a great field of cars and you can learn a lot by racing with these guys."
More information on West Linn, Oregon's Zach Zimmerly can be found at http://www.zachzimmerly.com
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Competing at the Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway for the very first time 15-year-old West Coast driver Zach Zimmerly put the Mcmillen Motorsports No. 94 machine into the main event during the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season-ending World Finals. Photo by Sean of Fire-Down Graphics
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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Yeah, the young man should have gotten more kudos than he did. 15 years old. That is something.
Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL - NYC, Detroit, Chicago,
Seattle, LA Who the H runs those cities.
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