DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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The search for speed can lead you down (familiar?) paths... | Daily 10-10-2024
Tanner Thorson's sprint car changes paying dividends, and we'll show you what he's been up to. Plus it's a pivotal weekend for the Lucas championship, and we'll talk what other dirt racing you can get into coming up. Let's go!
It's Thursday, October 10th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Lucas Oil Speedway last night the host for the Kubota High Limit sprint cars. This one was a makeup from the June weekend that got rained out. The championships are settled, so all that's left is the race wins and the cash from here on out. In the feature on Wednesday, it kind of didn't pay to be challenging Brad Sweet out front. The two guys that were his closest contenders both ended up suffering mechanical issues, and Sweet went on to the win. High Limit victory number nine for Sweet, and he now leads all drivers on the year in that category. He's got nine, Corey Day and Rico Abreu both have eight with two more races to go. Those two challengers for Sweet who had trouble were Ryan Timms and Tanner Thorson. From the fourth starting position, Timms, back in the Liebig car, drove around the NAPA 49 on lap 10 for the lead but his time out front was short lived. When Kerry Madsen crashed on lap 14, Timms ducked into the work area during the caution, giving the lead back to the Big Cat. Timms later shared to social media he had a fuel leak and had to get it rectified. He did drive back through the field to a ninth place finish. Thorson ran second for a lot of that feature from that point, but he bowed out with eight to go when the engine expired on his 88 car. At the end, Tyler Courtney and Spencer Bayston rounded out the podium. Quick spotlight here on Bayston, from all the chatter, he's losing this ride after this weekend, but he's been pretty good here lately. Five straight top fives, and top tens in seven of his last eight. It's easily been his best High Limit stretch of the season. There are a bunch of rumors about his future, but I don't know that I'd believe a lot of them just yet. I don't think his position is nearly as settled as some have been saying. If he keeps racing like this though, somebody will give him a shot. The High Limit teams are off today, and on the move to Texas. They close out their 2024 season this weekend with two nights at the Texas Motor Speedway dirt track.
I want to talk more about Tanner Thorson here. We mentioned a few days ago that he's been running a coilover setup on his sprint car in recent weeks, and it seems to be paying dividends so far. He picked up two second place runs with POWRi at Texas last weekend, and was easily in line for a podium last night had the engine not gone kaboom. For most of the season, Thorson has been running a traditional torsion bar setup on that 88 sprint car, but brought this new coilover setup out at TMS last week. And real quick, if you don't know what a coilover is, it's basically combining your shock and spring into one unit. Usual sprint cars run shocks, and then the torsion bars serve as the springs. Anyways, it's not been an easy rookie year for Thorson, with just 15 top tens in 46 races. He's actually down on race starts from all the other full timers, because he missed the Port Royal weekend for the birth of his child. There have been some bright spots though, including early in the year at East Bay, winning his prelim at Gold Cup, and a second place run at Riverside. Coilovers though are something that Thorson is familiar with from the midget side, here is a photo of his Chili Bowl car on coilovers, and he seems to be finding some speed with them right now. This type of setup isn't something you see much of in sprint car racing, even though it had a moment many years ago. The other coilover car we've seen this season was the Sammy Swindell, Shawn Wood, Flea Ruzic car that debuted at the Knoxville Nationals. Just a few days ago, Flea shared a photo to Twitter of the second version of their design that will make it's debut at World Finals here in a few weeks. I'll definitely be stopping by to check that one out. I've compiled a bunch of photos that I wanted to share to compare Thorson's car and Swindell's car, plus the standard torsion bar stuff. The first one is the front of Thorson's car and Swindell's. Both coilovers, and you'll notice no front torsion bars. But where Thorson's car has the coilovers mounted in the expected places where the shocks normally go, remember that Swindell car had the right front mounted inboard. On the rear, here is a three way side-by-side, with the left most picture the standard look. You'll see torsion arm, plus the stop for the other side. The middle photo is the Swindell car, and the right is Thorson's. You'll see how the frame looks different there, and even though there is an arm similar to a torsion arm, it's not connected to a bar. There is also no place on either of the coilover cars for there to be a torsion stop. At a time where so many things are the same from sprint car to sprint car, I'm hopeful that Thorson and the Swindell/Wood/Ruzic trio can find some speed and performance. I think it's fun to see some guys go off the beaten path.
Alright, let's run through and preview some of the other racing to come this weekend. First, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will be at Brownstown for two nights, Friday and Saturday. $10,000 to win Friday and $50,000 to win on Saturday. More importantly though, drivers must leave this weekend in striking distance of the points leader to go to Eldora for the Dirt Track World Championship having a shot at the Lucas title. Devin Moran leads Jonathan Davenport by 10 points right now, with Ricky Thornton Jr. 60 back, and Tim McCreadie 80 behind. RTJ and McCreadie especially need to have strong weekends if they want a real chance next weekend. Looking back through 2020, Moran has a Brownstown win, RTJ has one, and McCreadie has two. As for average finish there, McCreadie leads all drivers at 5.9, with Moran at 6.6, Davenport at 8.2, and RTJ at 9.2. Should be a good weekend to hit the track in Indiana, and there will be no lack of pressure on these guys.
At Lincoln Speedway in Central PA on Saturday, the World of Outlaws make their final appearance in the state for this year. This one is $20,000 to win and replaced the two day show that was originally supposed to be at Selinsgrove. David Gravel currently has 86 points on Carson Macedo for the championship, and things are pretty much settled I think in the standings. Macedo would need a heroic effort and trouble for Gravel, and we might see sixth place change hands between Sheldon Haudenschild and Logan Schuchart. Nothing much else is in play. Gravel won the other race at Lincoln this season, and a win on Saturday would really cement his championship position.
In New York at Oswego, it's going to be a busy next few days for Super Dirt Week. The Wednesday action was postponed, reshuffling the schedule for the rest of the event. Cars will be on track today starting at 12:40PM eastern. The Pro Stock feature is Friday evening, followed by the 358 modified Salute to the Troops 150. And Saturday evening, features get going with the 75 lapper for the sportsman competitors, followed by the Super DIRTcar Series 200 lap main event that pays $52,000 to win. Mat Williamson looking to repeat in that one.
The USAC sprint cars hit Lawrenceburg Friday and Saturday, with $20 grand on the line there for the finale. Logan Seavey continues to control the standings, with Brady Bacon running out of races to catch. The USAC sprint car season will wrap up in a few weeks at Red Dirt Raceway.
If you're looking for other late model action, the MLRA is at I-70 tonight, and then Tri City on Friday. And the Comp Cams series has good money on the line at Magnolia in Mississippi.
Other open wheel action includes both NARC and the Sprint Car Challenge Tour racing in California. The NARC 410s are at Tulare on Saturday, with Justin Sanders and Cole Macedo still locked in a tight championship battle. The 360 Sprint Car Challenge Tour joins them at Tulare with Andy Forsberg closing in on that title over Braden Chiaramonte. The POWRi midgets are spending the next three nights at Port City, joined by micros. Cannon McIntosh will win the POWRi midget national championship, with Broc Elliott on his way to the west title. The FAST sprint cars are Atomic Speedway in Ohio on Saturday for their season finale. The champoinship there will come down to the final laps between Brandon Spithaler and Zane DeVault. And the ASCS National Tour heads to Benton Speedway and Paducah, Friday and Saturday. Sam Hafertepe still trying to run down Seth Bergman.
Alright, that's the Daily for this second week of October. Hope you guys get a chance to get out there and enjoy some of the final days of dirt racing this year.
Have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!