MARION CENTER, PA (May 21, 2026) – Last Friday night at Marion Center Raceway, Pennsylvania favorites Logan Zarin and Jared Miley stole the spotlight with their Connor Bobik Memorial prelim Feature wins. But they weren’t the only underdogs having an impressive night.
Marion Center might not be the first place you would expect Lake Elmo, MN’s Brent Larson to be fast at, but fast he was. As the first car to go out for Qualifying in Friday’s program, the “B1 Bomber” laid down a lap that no one else could match to earn his first Simpson Quick Time Award in four years.
Larson may have let Zarin slip by him in the first corner, but he held strong in second the rest of the way, keeping the likes of Tyler Erb, Ryan Gustin and Nick Hoffman behind him in the 25-lap Showdown. The first four months of Larson’s ninth season as a member of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision has had its highs and lows, but between his Marion Center runner-up and his full-field top five at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Larson has proven he can be a frontrunner when everything lines up.
“You can be pretty good, and if you’re a tenth off, that can be the difference between starting on the front row and starting 12th,” Larson said. “I don’t really look into things with expectations too much. We have run well [at Marion Center] and I look forward to going there. I prefer that size track over 1/2-miles, I guess. A lot of times, when you prefer something, one or the other, you race a little bit better at those kind of places.”
Larson’s Friday showing had him excited to build on that result on Saturday until the rain moved in. The race’s new date on Wednesday, May 27, puts teams in an unusual circumstance as they prepare to chase $30,000 next week.
For a World of Outlaws team like Larson’s, they’re used to building setups for a track using notes that are a year old, if not more. Getting to go back to Marion Center only 12 days after he last raced there means he can run the exact same parts and pieces he finished second with last week, a prospect that has Larson optimistic about his chances of picking up right where he left off.
“I feel like every year you go somewhere, you learn something,” Larson said. “You’re changing things, always evolving and hopefully growing. This time around, we’ll just go back with exactly what we ran there last time. A lot of the time, from one year to the next, you probably wouldn’t copy your notes exactly. You would have learned a few things along the last season that you would apply towards where you’re at, blend your notes and blend what you’ve used. But here, we’ll go back exactly where we were and start off there. I feel like we can be a bit better, so we’ll kind of incorporate that as the night goes along.”
There may not be as many variables to consider next week as Larson is used to, but the task at hand will still be a little different. The Showdown was a 25-lap sprint contested while the sun was still up, while Wednesday’s main event will be a 60-lap contest under the lights on a significantly slicker and slower surface that will require an entirely different skillset to remain at the front.
“Things change so much in this sport,” Larson said. “As soon as you think you’ve got something figured out, then the track conditions change a little bit or somebody else figures something out. I know a lot of guys were just kind of trying things out that night because it was a prelim night, didn’t count for points or anything. You’ll see a few more guys that are pretty hot there that maybe were just mediocre last time there. It’s really hard to say. I’m hopeful, but I don’t have any expectations.”
Once the checkered flag flies at Marion Center, Larson will load up and head west to Ohio for his first visit to Wayne County Speedway since 2019. From there, all eyes will turn to Mansfield Speedway for the inaugural Blaster 57 Special on Friday and Saturday, May 29-30. If the $57,000 winner’s payout on Saturday wasn’t enough to lure racers to the revitalized track, the eye-popping figure of $5,700 to start the Feature certainly is.
As someone who has spent his career scrapping to keep the dream alive, Larson is especially appreciative of a purse structure that goes a long way toward keeping teams like his on the road.
“It’s definitely huge, just making the show is a big deal,” Larson said. “It’ll definitely help the week’s pay. Really cool to see someone paying attention to the start money like that. I haven’t looked at the pay through the whole field, but small guys really appreciate good start money like that. Hopefully, it’ll bring some cars over there for them.”
Larson and the rest of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision will continue the 2026 season at Marion Center Raceway (Wednesday, May 27), Wayne County Speedway (Thursday, May 28) and Mansfield Speedway (Friday-Saturday, May 29-30). Find tickets and more information on all three events by clicking here.
Want to watch the World of Outlaws? Stream every race live on DIRTVision.
After Strong Connor Bobik Memorial Opener, Larson Eyeing More Marion Center Speed
MARION CENTER, PA (May 21, 2026) – Last Friday night at Marion Center Raceway, Pennsylvania favorites Logan Zarin and Jared Miley stole the spotlight with their Connor Bobik Memorial prelim Feature wins. But they weren’t the only underdogs having an impressive night.
Marion Center might not be the first place you would expect Lake Elmo, MN’s Brent Larson to be fast at, but fast he was. As the first car to go out for Qualifying in Friday’s program, the “B1 Bomber” laid down a lap that no one else could match to earn his first Simpson Quick Time Award in four years.
Larson may have let Zarin slip by him in the first corner, but he held strong in second the rest of the way, keeping the likes of Tyler Erb, Ryan Gustin and Nick Hoffman behind him in the 25-lap Showdown. The first four months of Larson’s ninth season as a member of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision has had its highs and lows, but between his Marion Center runner-up and his full-field top five at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Larson has proven he can be a frontrunner when everything lines up.
“You can be pretty good, and if you’re a tenth off, that can be the difference between starting on the front row and starting 12th,” Larson said. “I don’t really look into things with expectations too much. We have run well [at Marion Center] and I look forward to going there. I prefer that size track over 1/2-miles, I guess. A lot of times, when you prefer something, one or the other, you race a little bit better at those kind of places.”
Larson’s Friday showing had him excited to build on that result on Saturday until the rain moved in. The race’s new date on Wednesday, May 27, puts teams in an unusual circumstance as they prepare to chase $30,000 next week.
For a World of Outlaws team like Larson’s, they’re used to building setups for a track using notes that are a year old, if not more. Getting to go back to Marion Center only 12 days after he last raced there means he can run the exact same parts and pieces he finished second with last week, a prospect that has Larson optimistic about his chances of picking up right where he left off.
“I feel like every year you go somewhere, you learn something,” Larson said. “You’re changing things, always evolving and hopefully growing. This time around, we’ll just go back with exactly what we ran there last time. A lot of the time, from one year to the next, you probably wouldn’t copy your notes exactly. You would have learned a few things along the last season that you would apply towards where you’re at, blend your notes and blend what you’ve used. But here, we’ll go back exactly where we were and start off there. I feel like we can be a bit better, so we’ll kind of incorporate that as the night goes along.”
There may not be as many variables to consider next week as Larson is used to, but the task at hand will still be a little different. The Showdown was a 25-lap sprint contested while the sun was still up, while Wednesday’s main event will be a 60-lap contest under the lights on a significantly slicker and slower surface that will require an entirely different skillset to remain at the front.
“Things change so much in this sport,” Larson said. “As soon as you think you’ve got something figured out, then the track conditions change a little bit or somebody else figures something out. I know a lot of guys were just kind of trying things out that night because it was a prelim night, didn’t count for points or anything. You’ll see a few more guys that are pretty hot there that maybe were just mediocre last time there. It’s really hard to say. I’m hopeful, but I don’t have any expectations.”
Once the checkered flag flies at Marion Center, Larson will load up and head west to Ohio for his first visit to Wayne County Speedway since 2019. From there, all eyes will turn to Mansfield Speedway for the inaugural Blaster 57 Special on Friday and Saturday, May 29-30. If the $57,000 winner’s payout on Saturday wasn’t enough to lure racers to the revitalized track, the eye-popping figure of $5,700 to start the Feature certainly is.
As someone who has spent his career scrapping to keep the dream alive, Larson is especially appreciative of a purse structure that goes a long way toward keeping teams like his on the road.
“It’s definitely huge, just making the show is a big deal,” Larson said. “It’ll definitely help the week’s pay. Really cool to see someone paying attention to the start money like that. I haven’t looked at the pay through the whole field, but small guys really appreciate good start money like that. Hopefully, it’ll bring some cars over there for them.”
Larson and the rest of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision will continue the 2026 season at Marion Center Raceway (Wednesday, May 27), Wayne County Speedway (Thursday, May 28) and Mansfield Speedway (Friday-Saturday, May 29-30). Find tickets and more information on all three events by clicking here.
Want to watch the World of Outlaws? Stream every race live on DIRTVision.