The DIRTcar Sportsman Championship Series will run back-to-back races this weekend, with Saturday's stop at Land of Legends Raceway in Canandaigua following a Friday event at Mohawk International Raceway.
Both events feature 30-lap races. Friday's race in Akwesasne pays $1,500 to win, while the Gerald Haers Memorial at Land of Legends on Saturday offers a $2,000 winner's prize.
Tristan Ladouceur enters the weekend with a 42-point championship lead over Richard Murtaugh with five races remaining on the 2026 schedule.
Ladouceur won all 11 features at Mohawk this season to claim the track championship. The Alexandria, Ontario, driver also earned his first DIRTcar Sportsman Series victory last weekend at Can-Am Speedway.
Murtaugh returns to home track
Murtaugh, the Land of Legends track champion, will race at his home facility Saturday after opening the weekend at Mohawk.
The Fulton driver has one Central Region victory and three regular-season wins at the half-mile Canandaigua track this year. He finished 24th in last season's Gerald Haers Memorial but placed ahead of Ladouceur at Mohawk during the same weekend.
A sweep would help Murtaugh close the championship gap before the series finale at Brockville Ontario Speedway on Oct. 17.
Tight race for fifth place
Bodie Marks, David Hackett Jr. and Jessica Power are separated by 13 points in the battle for fifth in the standings.
Marks, a 15-year-old driver from Scotia, holds the position and has one top-five finish and two top-10 results this season. Hackett, the Utica-Rome Speedway track champion, trails Marks by seven points.
Power has the most experience of the three at the weekend's tracks. The Kingston, Ontario, driver has 10 series starts at Mohawk and five at Land of Legends, including a third-place finish in Canandaigua last year.
Saturday's race is scheduled as the seventh event of the 10-race championship season. The remaining stops are Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Sept. 25, Oswego Speedway on Oct. 10 and Brockville on Oct. 17.
Fans who cannot attend the Canandaigua event can watch the race through DIRTVision.
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