Matjoulis holds off Seay for iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series victory at Fairbury

The second round of the 2023 iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series took to Fairbury Speedway on Monday night, with 2019 series champion Blake Matjoulis scoring his first victory of the season by only a car length ahead of last week’s winner and defending champion Evan Seay. It wasn’t a complete déjà vu moment for Seay, who finished second in a close battle in 2022’s trip to Fairbury. It was, however, the first victory Matjoulis in the series since Kokomo Speedway in 2022, another race where he beat Seay.

Matjoulis started from the coveted pole position and won Heat 1, moving on to lead every lap on the evening and earning the maximum of 78 points. Seay managed a third place qualifying effort, leading to a third place starting position in the feature after he also won his heat.

There were three cautions on the night in the feature. After the third and final caution on Lap 23, Seay managed to get the jump on Heat 2 winner Logan Rumsey for the second spot and spent the next 27 laps trying to find a way around Matjoulis. The battle stayed close until the final lap, but Matjoulis was able to hang on.

The fourth heat race was won by Kendal Tucker, who ultimately finished fifth in the feature. Jeremy Steele worked his way up from ninth on the grid to finish in third by the end of the night. JD Brown was the winner of the first last chance qualifier, bringing with Tristan Ladouceur to the Feature after he was able to hold off a charging Kaden Honeycutt in the 10 lap event. In the final transfer race, Damian Kiefer managed to win out as Dylan Yeager worked from fifth to second to be the final transfer in.

Yeager’s race unfortunately ended early, as did the night for Dylan Wilson and Blake Murray. Ladouceur was the hardest charger of the night, moving up from 19th starting spot to finish in 12th. James Edens, who made up a ton of spots in his heat, wound up losing the most positions in the feature, starting eighth and finishing 16th.

Seay continues to control the top of the point standings leaving Fairbury, but the gap between him and Matjoulis has whittled down to just 10 points. Volusia runner-up Barrett Bishop wound up eighth in the feature at Fairbury and fell to fourth in the points behind Seay, Matjoulis and Tucker. With back-to-back top 10 finishes, Talan Willis sits fifth overall in the standings, just a point ahead of Rumsey in sixth.

iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series Round 2 results at Fairbury were as follows:

iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series points through Round 2 are as follows:

1. Evan Seay, 153
2. Blake Matjoulis, 143
3. Kendal Tucker, 138
4. Barrett Bishop, 130
5. Talan Willis, 116
6. Logan Rumsey, 115
7. James Edens, 101
8. Dylan Wilson, 87
9. Chase Barbara, 81
10. Tied, JD Brown / Dylonn Fox, 78

With Fairbury in the rearview mirror, the iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series’ next stop is Cedar Lake Speedway for Round 3. In 2022, Cedar Lake belonged to Matjoulis as well, which could be a good sign for him going back-to-back in multiple ways. Tune in on Monday, July 24, live for the show starting at 9PM ET on DirtVision and at twitch.tv/iracing.

For more information on the iRacing World of Outlaws ButtKicker Late Model Series, visit www.iracing.com/woolm. For more information on the World of Outlaws, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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