Last year, Michael Norris stood on top on top his car waving the checkered flag to a chorus of cheers from the Lernerville Speedway crowd after successfully beating the World of Outlaws touring regulars in the Friday night 30-lap preliminary feature during the Firecracker 100 weekend.

It was a popular hometown win by the 2010 Knoch grad and one he looks back on glowingly as he gets ready to defend his home turf again when the Outlaws roll back into town for the 13th annual Firecracker 100 Friday and Saturday.

“It was like a dream come true really,” said Norris, who finished 10th the next night in the 100-lap finale. “Growing up coming here, I used to watch those guys. I’m a third-generation racer, and I’ve always aspired to do stuff like that. That was for my grandfather, my mom and my dad and the rest of the family, because it really is a full team effort.”

The Firecracker 100 weekend was originally scheduled as a three-day event, but heavy rains forced a cancellation of Thursday’s program.

Norris, Jared Miley, current Lernerville points leader Kenny Schaltenbrand, Colton Flinner, Alex Ferree and Mike Pegher Jr. lead a local contingent that will battle some of the top dirt late model drivers in the country.

Friday’s event is a 30-lap, 6,000-to-win, preliminary race leading into Saturday’s 100-lapper that pays $30,000 to win. The RUSH Series crate late models are on the card for the first time and have a 50-lap $10,000-to-win main on Saturday.

Norris’ breakthrough win last year was the first time a local late model driver was victorious at Lernerville against the World of Outlaws. Apollo native and retired sprint car racer Ed Lynch Jr. is the only other weekly driver to defeat the World of Outlaws at Lernerville. He won the 2002 Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup over the sprint car version of the Outlaws. Former Lernerville track champions Dale Blaney and Tim Shaffer have won Outlaws races at Lernerville, but they were touring drivers at the time.

In 2015, Miley nearly pulled an upset in the Firecracker 100 when it was run in September after being rained out in June. He led the first 63 laps before being passed by eventual winner Rick Eckert and ended up finishing third. It is the best finish by a local driver in the 100-lap event.

“The track was a lot like it is on a regular night that night, so I think that’s why we were so good for so long,” Miley said. “When it started to dry out towards the end, that’s when those guys were a little bit better than us. I was happy. Anytime you can run in the top five against those guys is something special. They do it day in and day out, and most of us guys here work regular jobs.”

Norris made his debut for car owner Todd Cerenzia of Canonsburg on Friday at Lernerville and secured a provisional in the Saturday main event with a win in the mid-season championship. Schaltenbrand also has a provisional as the points leader.

The win Friday broke a bit of a hard luck streak for Norris. He towed to Ohio to race at Eldora Speedway in The Dream and had an engine failure in the Thursday night qualifier. Then, the team drove back home in time to race at Lernerville the next night and had a suspension failure.

The mechanical issues with his family-owned equipment made for perfect timing for the partnership with Cerenzia.

“Brian Daugherty, who does my shocks, kind of put the deal together,” Norris said. “They had enough faith in me to drive it and if (Friday) went well, we’d probably run it next week. The family cars are still a bit tore up with the blown motor and the broken suspension, and we can’t really afford to put it all back together to get where we need to be. We could be here, but we wouldn’t be 100 percent. When the Outlaws come, you need to be 100 percent and have a little bit of luck on your side.”

Norris finished in the top 10 in the 100-lap race the last two years, but said he hasn’t figured out the right combination to be fast all the way through the big event.

“You always want to win, but against those guys you just want to be in contention,” Norris said. “No one comes to the race track to finish second, third or fifth. We want to win, but against those guys you have to be realistic.”

Miley, who has two wins at Lernerville this year, echoed Norris’ sentiments about the difficulties of being strong for 100 laps. A regular feature at Lernerville is 25 laps and dialing the car in for 75 more is the challenge.

“Some of us local guys probably look forward more to the Thursday and Friday night shows, because they are 30 laps and I feel the give guys like us a better chance to win,” Miley said. “The guys that do it for a living run a lot of 100-lappers. They know what to do at the end of the race. For guys that don’t run them that much, we’re at a bit of a disadvantage.”

Flinner is going into the weekend with momentum after a season-best second-place finish Friday. He made the 100-lap main last year and placed 18th. Flinner has some national touring experience, winning the 2016 Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series rookie of the year. He’s looking to repeat last year and find his way into the 100-lap finale.

“If we can make the feature (both) nights that would be a really big boost to our team,” Flinner said. “To be able to run really good against those guys and be consistent would be awesome. I’d love to finish in the top 10 in the Firecracker 100 on Saturday. That would be a big accomplishment.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)