Nearly three years since punching through for his first triumph with the American Sprint Car Series in 2022, Zach Blurton remarked, “I didn’t think I would, maybe ever, win another one.”
In front of all his friends, family, and sponsors in his home state of Kansas Friday night, he did win another one, leading all 25 laps of the main event at Salt City Speedway over Blake Hahn and Sam Hafertepe Jr. to claim his second career Series victory.
“They’re so hard to win, and the competition is so, so tough this year,” said Blurton, of Quinter, KS. “To do it on my daughter’s third birthday is pretty incredible. I remember when I was little, my dad won one on my birthday, and it’s pretty cool to look back on some days. I still have that trophy from when he won on my birthday.
“Definitely cool to have everybody here — two of my biggest sponsors and supporters are here and their families. It’s awesome.”
With the win, Blurton becomes the 102nd driver in the 34-year history of the national 360 Sprint Car series with more than one Feature win. He ends a dry spell of 151 weeks since his previous Feature win with the Series (WaKeeney Speedway on July 3, 2022) and will be marked in the record books as the first Series winner at the half-mile oval on the Kansas State Fairgrounds.
Family was a big presence in the Blurton pit throughout the evening, including Zach’s father, John, who raced Sprint Cars in the 1980s and 1990s before retiring in the 2000s. Zach recalled the days of his father’s success at the Kansas State Fair as a past track points champion and takes pride in adding his name to the track winners list alongside his father.
“It means a lot to me. He set a path for me,” he said. “To be able to win at the Hutchinson Fairgrounds means a lot. You never know how many more races are gonna be here, and to win the first the first time ASCS has been here is awesome.”
Blurton began Friday’s program by turning the fastest lap in his Qualifying group, which sent him into the Honest Abe Roofing Dash after transferring through his Heat Race. He lined up on the pole of the five-lap sprint and won, which set him up on the front row for the 25-lap main event.
With five-time Series champion and current points leader Sam Hafertepe Jr. lined up to his outside, Blurton won the race into Turn 1 on the opening lap and immediately got to work on opening a gap between himself and Hafertepe. Though a caution flag halted his progress on Lap 5, Blurton stayed strong on the restart and kept the rest of the field behind him, even in lapped traffic with Hafertepe right behind him.
With two laps remaining, the caution flag appeared again, restacking the field and getting the leaders out of lapped traffic.
“Honestly, I was kind of glad to see it,” Blurton said. “I wasn’t catching the lapped cars in front of me anymore, but I knew I was still running a pretty good pace, and I didn’t know how many laps were left. So, then I finally had the yellow and was able to see and was like, ‘Okay, three, a green-white-checkered, I can hopefully do this.’”
The green flag dropped one final time, and Blurton once again got the jump on Hafertepe into Turn 1. The separation he got proved to be enough as he led the field back to the checkered flag and sealed the victory.
Blake Hahn, who started fifth, chased Hafertepe for most of the race but was able to make the move down the backstretch on the final lap to take the runner-up spot. Hafertepe settled for third, fellow Kansas native Kyler Johnson was fourth and Oklahoma racer Whit Gastineau completed the top-five.
Matt Covington turned the fastest lap in Qualifying with a time of 18.486 seconds.
Heat Races were won by Garrett Benson (Heat 1), Whit Gastineau (Heat 2), Blake Hahn (Heat 3), and Bryan Gossel (Heat 4).
Blurton won the Honest Abe Roofing Dash.
The Smith Titanium Last Chance Showdown was won by Bryant Wiedeman.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series is back in action Saturday, May 31, at Dodge City Raceway Park in Dodge City, KS, for the 15th running of the Steve King Memorial.
Tickets will be on sale at the gate on race day. If you can’t make it, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS (view full results)
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2J-Zach Blurton[1]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[5]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 4. 45X-Kyler Johnson[3]; 5. 2-Whit Gastineau[6]; 6. 2B-Garrett Benson[7]; 7. 95-Matt Covington[8]; 8. 23-Seth Bergman[9]; 9. 71-Brady Baker[15]; 10. 88R-Ryder Laplante[11]; 11. 36-Jason Martin[12]; 12. 14-Jordon Mallett[10]; 13. 88-Terry Easum[14]; 14. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[16]; 15. 88K-Jordan Knight[21]; 16. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman[17]; 17. 10-Landon Britt[18]; 18. 16G-Austyn Gossel[19]; 19. 17W-Harli White[20]; 20. 88J-Jeremy Huish[13]; 21. 91X-Jeff Stasa[22]; 22. 6G-Bryan Gossel[4]
