US refrigeration expert wants to freeze out sprintcar classic rivals

The Pennsylvania-native, who will contest his second Flying Horse Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Allansford's Premier Speedway from January 19-21, is heading into his fourth season as a full-time driver in America's World of Outlaw series in 2024.

The 33-year-old, who finished an equal career-best ninth in the series last year, has been immersed in racing since a young age.

He started racing go karts at nine years old, progressing through the different types of cars until he began driving 410 sprintcars almost a decade ago.

Zearfoss, who races with his family-owned team, said it was surreal he now gets to compete alongside some of the heroes he grew up watching in the WoO series.

"I started out going to Williams Grove as a kid with my dad and watching in the infield, watching Sammy Swindell, Lasoski (Danny), Kinser (Steve) Donny Schatz, watching those guys and now I get to race with some of them," he said.

"It's pretty cool to see the people that I grew up watching, I get to actually race with them but also it's the experience that they have racing because they've been doing it that long it's phenomenal. You learn every time you're on the race track racing around them guys.

"I'm fortunate to have a family that is capable and allows me to live out my dreams. So this has always been a dream of mine to race with the World of Outlaws since I was a little kid watching them. Not many people get to say that."

Zearfoss worked in refrigeration before joining the WOO.

"It was a cool job, not as cool as being a race car driver but hopefully I don't ever have to go back to that," he said.

"It's always good to have a craft that you're good at in case something else doesn't work out. I think I'm OK at racecar driving for now. Hopefully I can get better at it and continue to do it."

Zearfoss is teaming up with WA owner Sean Carren again for an assault on the Classic and has collected a couple of podiums racing in the west this month.

He finished 16^th racing for Carren in the 2023 classic and despite some drama "really enjoyed it".

Unsurprisingly, he would love to salute in the A-main this time around.

"We want to win the classic but our classic started with a little bit of drama having to change that motor," he said.

"That showed how good the race team is. We got that motor changed, we didn't have any lapse at all. That was my first time being at Warrnambool and we were (running) quick times.

"I know the car's good. I was very comfortable racing the track from the get go so I'm pretty confident that we can go there with the same speed we had the last time and be a little bit better and put ourselves in contention to win the race."