The second race of the 2023 iRacing World of Outlaws Buttkicker Late Model Series saw a second winner emerge following the festivities at Fairbury Speedway on Monday night (17th July).
2019’s Series Champion Blake Matjoulis was the dominant force this time around, scoring maximum points over fellow champion and main championship rival through two races Evan Seay in the 50 lap Fairbury Feature.
In the final stint, Matjoulis was under fire from Seay, who just made his way around Logan Rumsey for the runner-up spot. Seay took a few looks, but Matjoulis held strong and scored his first win of the 2023 season.
Heat Races
By putting down the fastest lap in qualifying, Matjoulis was in prime position to take the pole for the Feature. Heat 1 would consist of every fourth fastest driver, so first, fifth, ninth and so on. The Top 4 finishers would advance to the Feature main event.
Matjoulis was easily able to take the first Heat win over Mike Augustine with Jeremy Steele and Dylan Wilson also following through to the Feature. Logan Rumsey went up and took the win in Heat 2, advancing along with Chase Barbara, Landon Francis and Drew Hopkins.
The third Heat belonged to the defending champion and winner last week, Evan Seay. Seay advanced on with Dezmond Busby, Talan Willis and Dylonn Fox. In the final Heat, Kendal Tucker managed to take the Heat win over James Edens, Barrett Bishop and Blake Murray.
Feature advancements via Fairbury Heats
| POS | HEAT 1 | HEAT 2 | HEAT 3 | HEAT 4 |
| 1 | Blake Matjoulis | Logan Rumsey | Evan Seay | Kendal Tucker |
| 2 | Mike Augustine | Chase Barbara | Dezmond Busby | James Edens |
| 3 | Jeremy Steele | Landon Francis | Talan Willis | Barrett Bishop |
| 4 | Dylan Wilson | Drew Hopkins | Dylonn Fox | Blake Murray |
LCQs
While up-to-eight points were awarded in the Heats, no points would be awarded for finishes in the LCQs. Still, an opportunity to score more points exists through transferring to the Feature, so that’s what the remaining drivers fought for in the final two transfer races of the night.
In the first Last Chance Qualifier, JD Brown won undoubtedly, but Tristan Ladouceur had to fight head-to-head against Kaden Honeycutt for the second spot. Ladouceur won out, forcing Honeycutt and seven others out of the show.
LCQ 2 saw two names that also had to advance through the LCQs in the first week, that being Damian Kiefer and Dylan Yeager, also advance once again with a 1-2 finish in the final transfer race.
| POS | LCQ 1 | LCQ 2 |
| 1 | JD Brown | Damian Kiefer |
| 2 | Tristan Ladouceur | Dylan Yeager |
Feature
Matjoulis led Rumsey, Seay and Tucker early on, but the first half of the race would be marred by multiple cautions. Last week only had a single caution through the entire event, but this one would see three slow downs for incident.
After the third and final caution to restart, Seay was able to jump from third to second, the chase now on between he and Matjoulis. Last season, Seay was dominant, but just barely lost out at the end. This year, he hoped to flip the script by doing the same to Matjoulis.
The two raced clean, side-by-side for multiple laps before the white flag was flown. Seay made one last attempt, but Matjoulis won out for his first win of the 2023 season.
WoO Race #2 – Fairbury Feature Top 10 Results
| FIN | STA | CAR # | DRIVER | INTERVAL | LED | PTS |
| 1 | 1 | 127 | Blake Matjoulis | 50 LAPS | 47 | 78 |
| 2 | 3 | 33 | Evan Seay | +0.188 secs | 0 | 75 |
| 3 | 9 | 25 | Jeremy Steele | +2.903 secs | 0 | 70 |
| 4 | 2 | 41 | Logan Rumsey | +2.996 secs | 0 | 69 |
| 5 | 4 | 00 | Kendal Tucker | +3.066 secs | 0 | 66 |
| 6 | 11 | 22 | Talan Willis | +3.156 secs | 0 | 61 |
| 7 | 7 | 82 | Dezmond Busby | +4.421 secs | 0 | 59 |
| 8 | 12 | 3 | Barrett Bishop | +4.991 secs | 0 | 55 |
| 9 | 5 | 19 | Mike Augustine | +5.678 secs | 0 | 53 |
| 10 | 6 | 23 | Chase Barbara | +5.820 secs | 0 | 50 |
Points Standings following Race #2 – Fairbury
| FIN | CAR # | DRIVER | PTS | BEHIND | WINS |
| 1 | 33 | Evan Seay | 153 | LEADER | 1 |
| 2 | 127 | Blake Matjoulis | 143 | -10 | 1 |
| 3 | 00 | Kendal Tucker | 138 | -15 | 0 |
| 4 | 3 | Barrett Bishop | 130 | -23 | 0 |
| 5 | 10 | Talan Willis | 116 | -37 | 0 |
| 6 | 41 | Logan Rumsey | 115 | -38 | 0 |
| 7 | 52 | James Edens | 101 | -52 | 0 |
| 8 | 80 | Dylan Wilson | 87 | -66 | 0 |
| 9 | 23 | Chase Barbara | 81 | -72 | 0 |
| 10 | 14 | JD Brown | 78 | -75 | 0 |
| 10 | 999 | Dylonn Fox | 78 | -75 | 0 |
Next up: Cedar Lake Speedway
With the victory, Matjoulis jumps from fifth to second in the points after two weeks. Seay continues to lead, but now only by 10 points.
The third race of the 2023 season will take the Late Model World of Outlaws tour to Cedar Lake Speedway.
Things will kick off at 9:00 pm ET with the call from Tim Terry and Terry Radford, broadcasted live on DIRTvision or on the iRacing social channels.
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