LAKE CITY, FL – He’s back.

It’s no secret that Larry Wight has a special connection with All-Tech Raceway, and once again the Phoenix, N.Y., driver proved why. Under the Florida lights on Thursday night, Wight put on a commanding performance in the opening round of the Dirt Track Digest TV Showdown in the Sunshine State, standing above the rest of the field.

Wight surged to the lead early and never looked back, controlling the race from the front and driving away with a $5,000 victory.

“This means the world,” said Wight. “This is about as close to winning Super DIRT Week as we’ve come with the way we’ve been running the last couple of years. We stumbled onto something with these old cars. We hadn’t had a good run with this car yet, but we found something after Charlotte, and it’s just as good as the other ones.”

Wight started on the outside of the second row and quickly established himself as the leader. He went to the outside through turns one and two on the opening lap, making a bold three-wide move to put his No. 99L at the front of the field.

Wight paced the field early, with Mat Williamson staying right on his tracks during the opening stages of the main event. Wight continued to dominate by running the extreme outside groove throughout the early portion of the race.

He survived a couple of early restarts as Williamson kept pace, but Wight was strong enough to keep him at bay.

Traffic appeared for the first time at the halfway point, with Wight working through slower cars masterfully while Williamson was unable to gain ground. As the leaders pulled away, Matt Sheppard charged from his 14th starting position and eventually cracked the podium after a tough battle with Alex Payne and Stewart Friesen.

Wight pulled away late to get the job done on the opening night of the event.

“It’s been an up and down battle the last couple of years, finally we went back to the old notes and got it rolling really good right now,” said Wight.

Williamson was good, but just not good enough to get Wight. He finished second.

“He was really good on the top there,” said Williamson. “I actually saw him get into the wall a few times. I didn’t know if his car was going to survive there or not. He’s the best at running the wall like that. That was probably a little bit of a clean-air difference. We definitely have some work to do to make it better to keep up with him.”

Sheppard was strong, even closing on Williamson in the closing laps, but settled for third.

“We didn’t make the redraw and had to start deep,” said Sheppard. “We fought our way up to third. I felt really good until about 10 to go and got a little rigid there. It was a good run for us.”

Alex Payne raced from ninth to finish fourth, while Darren Smith charged from 17th to round out the top five.

In Sportsman action, Jessica Power made the trip from Ontario worthwhile, advancing from ninth to score the opening-night victory and pocket $2,000 for her efforts with a last-lap pass of Derrick McGrew Jr.

“I knew Derrick was going to be really tough,” said Power. “He opened the door a little bit for me. It was just enough and gave me all that I needed.”

Chas Wolbert and Karl Comfort put on a show early, swapping the lead several times in the opening circuits of their 20-lap affair, with Wolbert eventually gaining the upper hand.

Wolbert stayed at the head of the pack until lap 17, when McGrew Jr. made a move to the outside of turns three and four to get by both Power and Wolbert.

Wolbert later dropped out with mechanical issues, setting up a duel between McGrew and Power for the win. Power made her winning pass as the pair exited turn four to take the white flag, working the bottom to perfection in her No. 52 to secure the lead and the victory.

McGrew finished with Comfort completing the podium. Brian Calabrese and Brian Krummel made up the rest of the top five.

The DTD TV Showdown in the Sunshine State is supported by: Smith Site Development, Scott Jeffery’s Performance, Bob Hilbert Sportswear, Accurate Collision, Behrent’s Performance Warehouse, Donath Motor Worx, E&V Energy, Pit Stop Convenience Stores, Tommy Faxon Excavation, Hard Clay Observer, and Hytorc of New York.

Event Information

Hot laps begin each night at 6:15pm with racing slated for 7:00pm. Pit passes are $45 for each racing program.

Grandstands are just $10 on Thursday and Friday.  Grandstand admission on Saturday is $15.

Fans who can’t attend in person will still be able to catch every lap, as all three nights of racing will be broadcast live on Dirt Track Digest TV for $39.99 each nigh. .

Full purse breakdowns and additional event information are available now at www.dtdshowdown.com.

RACE RESULTS 2/5/26

MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (40 Laps): 1. 99L-Larry Wight[4]; 2. 88-Mat Williamson[2]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard[14]; 4. 70A-Alex Payne[9]; 5. 12-Darren Smith[17]; 6. 20-Rick Laubach[7]; 7. 44-Stewart Friesen[12]; 8. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[8]; 9. 25-Erick Rudolph[3]; 10. 21A-Peter Britten[21]; 11. 8-Rich Scagliotta[19]; 12. 18$-Sean Beardsley[13]; 13. 27T-Tanner VanDoren[23]; 14. 61L-Donovan Lussier[20]; 15. 27P-Jeremy Pitts[16]; 16. 10C-Dan Creeden[18]; 17. 35-Chris Curtis[1]; 18. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher[24]; 19. 29-Garrett Krummert[10]; 20. 165-Rex King Jr[22]; 21. 11-Matt Caprara[15]; 22. 6-Matt Stangle[5]; 23. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[6]; 24. 4-Anthony Perrego[11]

Heat Winners: Williamson, Laubach, Payne

SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 Laps): 1. 52-Jessica Power[9]; 2. 26-Derrick Mcgrew Jr[12]; 3. 10-Karl Comfort[2]; 4. 21C-Brian Calabrese[4]; 5. 17-Brian Krummel[3]; 6. 22A-Avery Decker[7]; 7. 165K-Karston King[13]; 8. 43-Jeff Beaumier[15]; 9. 711-Todd English[10]; 10. 79-Eric Winsor[16]; 11. 3-Cole Hentschel[8]; 12. 44-James O’Hara[21]; 13. 78-Stephen Winsor[20]; 14. 3T-Mike Engwer[17]; 15. 2A-AJ Alsup[18]; 16. 54-Sullivan Dickey[14]; 17. C3-Chas Wolbert[1]; 18. 58-Logen Lockhart[6]; 19. 11-Nick Zielinski[5]; 20. 33-Richard Murtaugh[11]; 21. (DNS) 23-Chad Gregory

Heat Winners: Hentschel, Krummel, Calabrese

All-Tech Raceway Modified Winners

7 – Stewart Friesen

5 – Matt Sheppard

2 – Larry Wight

1 – David Schilling

1 – Erick Rudolph

1 – Michael Maresca

All-Tech Raceway Sportsman Winners

3 – Payton Talbot

2 – Paulie Hartwig III

2  – Michael Ballestero

1 – Jessica Power

1 – Logan Watt

1 – Richard Murtaugh III

1 – James Friesen

1 – Brian Calabrese

1 – Dylan Madsen

1 – Scott Hitchens

1 – Steve Davis

1 – Antonio Ballestero

1 – Grant Hilfiger