Billy Decker Proved To Be The “Ultimate Outlaw” Tuesday Night

Column By: EDWARD KOCHERSBERGER / RPW – DUNDEE, NY – Blue skies and comfortable temperatures made for a perfect evening of racing in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York. A colorful and talented field of Super DIRTcar Series competitors also came out to infiltrate the 4/10 mile Outlaw Speedway for the first time in its extensive history.

While there is hardly ever a perfect event for race teams and drivers, Billy Decker came the closest to attaining some form of perfection.

Decker, occasionally referred to as “The Franklin Flyer” or “The Thriller from Unadilla,” lived up to that nickname early on. He started the evening by leaving the track surface with all four wheels through a dip in turn three and four during hot laps. But he was able to ground his Modified properly and move on with a fairly unharmed race car. He rolled out later to win his heat race. Decker then proceeded to navigate his familiar blue Page Trucking 91 through the demanding confines of a 100 lap battle of pure grit and determination at the short, but lightning-fast, Dundee oval.

Decker felt very confident from the feedback his car gave him early in the main event.

“Well they dropped the green and I knew we had a pretty good race car. We started fourth. I tried to move around. Larry (Wight) got going really good and rolled the outside. And then he got a good restart. Fortunately we had a good restart too and got around Stewart (Friesen) into third. And then Matt and Larry came together a little bit in one and two which put us into second. Altogether we had a good race car, I just don’t know how good we were at passing cars. I thought the longer the race went the better we got.”

The restart where Decker would fire off from second position is where the momentum started truly going his way.

“We timed a restart really well with Larry. We were able to stay on the outside into one. This gave us the preferred lane at that stage of the race around turns one and two. I thought there for fifteen laps we were really strong. I thought we were as strong as we were all night. I felt I was probably pulling away a little bit at that stage.”

Numerous caution flags for spinning and disabled race cars set up the final 25 lap run. It was at this point of his evening that Billy Decker knew he had one more challenge behind him that he had to fend off for the win.

“I just felt like we slowed a little bit. I got a little loose. Matt (Sheppard) got around Larry. I kept seeing him there and I tried to move my line. I didn’t think I was as good. So I probably made myself worse. I changed one and two up just a little bit. But it still was related to the same line. Then Matt just got in there too far. I had to move again. I grabbed the bottom really good. Then I used a couple of lapped cars to fend him off.”

Fending off Sheppard with lapped cars and being versatile with his line helped Billy Decker secure a very hard-fought win in the first ever Ultimate Outlaw 100. Decker reflected on the event at Outlaw Speedway.

“It was a fun race track. I could see why the guys are having a lot of fun here weekly. That hole going into turn three made things a little bit dicey. But as the track slowed it was okay to race through. It was a lot of fun to race here.”

Billy Decker was able to complete the mission and bring home the check and trophy of another Super DIRTcar Series event. But he did not go home without remembering who helped him succeed on this evening and many other evenings.

“I would like to than Mike Payne Racing and Integra Shocks. We have a good combination right now.”