2-time Lernerville champ Michael Norris eyes hometown win in Firecracker 100

In the last few years, Michael Norris has fared pretty well when the World of Outlaws Late Model Series has come to town for the Firecracker 100 weekend.

Norris won a preliminary feature in 2018 and ’19, which were special moments for the two-time Lernerville Speedway track champion.

Now he feels like his team is ready to put up the ultimate defense of its home turf by winning the 100-lap finale and the big payday that comes with it.

The 15th annual Firecracker 100 runs this weekend with preliminary features Thursday and Friday and a $30,000-to-win main event Saturday.

Norris has had top 10s in the last two Firecracker 100 features with a seventh in 2019 and a fifth in 2020.

“The 100-lapper is going to be our focus this year,” Norris said. “It’s a little out of our wheelhouse, because we run a lot shorter races around home. It puts you in a different mindset. We’ve been doing a lot of testing and a lot of preparation for it, so we’re excited.

“Ever since the start, I’ve always wanted to compete well in that race. Finally I feel like we are getting our program to the point where we have the equipment and most of the time we have the know-how. It’s just a matter of putting the whole weekend together.”

Norris earned a provisional for the Firecracker 100 with his win Friday in the Mid-Season Championship at Lernerville, but he is hopeful that he doesn’t have to use it.

It was his third win of the season, and he came from mid-pack in his family-owned No. 72 car to win his third feature at the Buffalo Township speedway in his third try this season.

Norris will pilot the family car this weekend. He has also run in the No. 02 car for owner Todd Cerenzia, and that relationship is still ongoing, but Norris is looking forward to driving for his family’s team, run by his father Mike.

“I’m kind of glad I’m running the family car because the Todd Cerenzia car has been so good that it’s been tough on my dad a little bit,” Norris said. “He wants to give me the best equipment that he can. (The 72 car) has been good, but it’s been circumstantial that it hasn’t had as good of results as (the 02). Hopefully I can prove to him that our family car is just as good. We just need to get the results to show it.”

The Firecracker100 weekend has a new “every lap matters” format.

Points will accumulate throughout each of the first two nights for performance in qualifying, heats and mains, and the driver with the highest point totals after the two prelims will get front-row starting spots for Saturday’s heat races. In the past, drivers had a mulligan because only their best overall finish in one preliminary main was tabulated to set up Saturday’s heat lineups.

Qualifying is the first box to check on the list, and it’s something that Norris has done well the last few years. Norris admitted he was not a very good qualifier early in his career but has built confidence in himself and his equipment.

“When we qualify, it’s early in the night and it’s a surface we’re accustomed to. It’s a familiar Lernerville, if you will,” Norris said. “When you run there multiple times a year, you have a little bit of an upper edge on knowing what the car will need setup-wise.

“Qualifying is even more important nowadays because it’s getting harder and harder to pass. At these Outlaws races, everyone’s good, so if you start in the top three rows, nine times out of 10 you’re going to be around really good cars. If you can start ahead of them from the get go, that’s huge.”

Norris and his team have been going over the intricacies that come with fine-tuning a car to be strong over a 100 lap race. A typical Friday night feature is one quarter that distance. Forecasting how a dirt surface will change over a 100-lap race is a difficult science, but it’s one they are homing in on.

“You have to plan for when you want your car to be the best,” Norris said. “You kind of plan for that with what tire you run and how much fuel you put in it. If you have to make a lot of moves early, you’ll plan for that, and the same if you want to ride for 70 laps and go at the end. There’s a lot more involved, and we just haven’t hit the nail on the head with it. We’ve been good in the 100-lapper, but not as good as we need to be.”

If Norris can top a stout field that will boast a half-dozen former winners and some of the best racers in the country, expect a big celebration Saturday night.

“It’d be huge,” Norris said. “It was awesome when we won the prelims. I grew up there. Everybody knows that by now. I still consider myself a local. We’re 10 minutes from the place. I work five or six days a week and race on the weekends.

“I hope it shows that kid in the stands or a kid just starting out in racing that if you work hard and surround yourself with good people that you can win on these big stages. It’s a lot of work, but with good equipment, good sponsors and good help, it can be done.”