Taking notes from those around him, Perrego continues to build a solid foundation in hopes of vying for a Super DIRTcar Series championship, currently sitting second in points
While the 2022 season is considered Anthony Perrego’s official rookie year with the Super DIRTcar Series, you might never guess looking his current stats.
Perrego, of Walden, NY, currently sits second in points behind eight-time and defending Series champion Matt Sheppard and is on a streak of five consecutive top-10 finishes – including a season best second-place finish at his home track, Orange County Fair Speedway.
“We’re [second] in (Super DIRTcar Series) points, and honestly, it’s kind of surprising because we’ve been up and down,” Perrego said.
“We had a couple good runs, and then we had a couple bad runs. I mean, I guess consistency of being inside the top-10 is what got us to third, but here at our home track we’ve really been hitting our stride; a couple wins back-to-back and then, we’d go a week or two without a win, and then we’d win again. So, it’s been really good here. Hopefully, we can keep it rolling.”
His building success can be attributed to a variety of different factors. Perrego logged 26 Series starts dating back to 2014 before the current season and collected two wins in 2020. The 28-year-old has also made a habit of gleaning from the experience of older crew members, internalizing the wisdom they have to offer in day-to-day operations.
“Preparing wise, I think we have really good equipment and a lot of good people that are around this team that get the cars in great shape to come here and perform at the highest level,” Perrego said. “I think the experience that these guys have, they’re in their 40’s. I’m 28. You know, just experience, and obviously we’re doing what we can.”
While most of the spotlight has been on the usual stand outs like Sheppard and Stewart Friesen, Perrego has been slowly and steadily improving. With that rise in performance, Perrego has specific goals in mind he wants to add to his resume.
“A couple years back, we were really good at Oswego (Speedway during NAPA Super DIRT Week),” Perrego said. “Right now, I feel like we have all the equipment and the people behind us to go there and be really successful, if not win the race. Definitely looking forward to a lot of the end of the year races and obviously our end goal is to be contending with Sheppard for the championship.”
He’ll have a plethora of opportunities coming up to try and close the gap to Sheppard with the inaugural SummerFAST up next on the Super DIRTcar Series schedule. The event, which leads up to NASCAR’s Watkins Glen weekend, includes Weedsport Speedway (Aug.15), Brewerton Speedway (Aug. 16), Fulton Speedway (Aug 17) and Land of Legends Raceway (Aug. 18).
For tickets to the inaugural SummerFAST event and NAPA Super DIRT Week, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the tracks, you can watch every Super DIRTcar Series race, including the entire week of NAPA Super DIRT Week, live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
