DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Skagit Speedway has a new owner, title fight continues for USAC midgets | DIRTRACKR Daily 8/3/21
Today is Tuesday, August 3rd, two thousand and twenty one. This is DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we get you ready for tonight's racing with the World of Outlaws Late Models, USAC Midgets, and ASCS. There is also news from the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, Skagit Speedway, and the Super DIRTcar Series.
Before we dive in, if you like what I'm doing here, please subscribe to the show, leave a review, and hit those follow and notification buttons depending on where you consume this. Make sure to follow @dirtrackr on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. And don't forget dirtrackr.com has a bunch more cool dirt racing stuff. Now, let's get going.
Coming off that epic weekend at Fairbury, the World of Outlaws Late Models are right back to it tonight at Outagamie Speedway in Wisconsin. This will be a nice little midweek stop before the series heads to Cedar Lake this weekend for the USA Nationals and another $50,000 payday. Outagamie is located in Seymour, Wisconsin, which is about 30 minutes outside of Green Bay. Tonight's race pays $10,000 to win and IMCA modifieds and stock cars are also on the schedule. Chris Madden continues to try and keep pace with Brandon Sheppard for the championship, with 86 points separating the two currently. Sheppard is the most recent winner at Outagamie, back in July of 2020. He led the final 18 laps, topping Darrell Lanigan and Nick Anvelink. While the Rocket house car is not winning this season as often as we've come to expect, the insane consistency has returned. Sheppard has only won 15% of the Outlaw races this season, versus 35% in 2020 and an incredible 44% in 2019. But over the last few months, Sheppard has racked up 17 top five finishes in his previous 18 races. And that does include wins at Mississippi Thunder, Lernerville, Gondik Law, and Red Cedar. Chris Madden is doing a hell of a job trying to keep pace though. He's got 18 straight top ten finishes himself and an average finish of 5.8 for the year, but that's just a tick off BShepp. That 86 point margin is about 43 positions, so Madden needs to continue trying to find ways to finish ahead of Sheppy on a nightly basis, like he did at Fairbury. Behind the leaders, Tyler Bruening continues to be the leading rookie, although I still think Ryan Gustin gets a win before the year is out. I also thought we were seeing a turnaround from Ricky Weiss, but a 19th at Fairbury was a step in the wrong direction for his team. Cade Dillard will also be looking to bounce back from a 21st place result in the PDC. You can watch the action live tonight on DIRTVision.
A quick note about DIRTVision if you are an active user. The service debuted a new website yesterday along with new apps, so you will have to do a little legwork before you watch again. That means resetting your website password and updating the apps on your devices. Check your email for detailed instructions.
The USAC National Midgets have been off for a few weeks, but they get going again in a big way starting tonight at Grandview Speedway in Pennsylvania. The series will race five times in five nights as part of Eastern Midget Week, which also includes stops at Action Track USA, Bridgeport Speedway, Bloomsburg Fair Raceway, and Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. Buddy Kofoid enters as the series points leader, but he's not running away with it. Defending champion Chris Windom is only 37 points back in second, and Emerson Axsom is 68 points back in third. Axsom has been on the rise lately, with with seven finishes of fourth or better in his last eight races. That also includes the most recent race win, back on July 17th at Jefferson County. Justin Grant has been very good lately as well, with an average finish of 3.8 over his last five races. For Kofoid, he's got 16 top tens in 18 starts, but those two outside top ten finishes have come in the last eight races. He needs to gain back some of the consistency he started the season with. So far in 2021, Kofoid and Tanner Thorson are tied with the most series wins at four each. Axsom, Windom, Thomas Meseraull, Logan Seavey, Kyle Cummins, Corey Day, and Daison Pursley all have wins as well. Looking at tonight at Grandview, Chris Windom is the most recent winner, back in 2019. This will be the series fourth time at the track. There should be stout fields all week, with the series regulars plus plenty of invaders and locals like Alex Bright. If you can't be at Grandview tonight, watch live on FloRacing.
If you want some winged sprint car action tonight, the ASCS National Tour is headed to Lakeside Speedway in Kansas. They are coming off a busy Sprint Week where Ryan Timms lit the series on fire with four wins and the sprint week championship. We've also got a tight points battle going on and the 360 Knoxville Nationals coming up this weekend for the competitors. Currently Blake Hahn has only a five point advantage over Matt Covington, and rookie JJ Hickle is only 38 points back in third. Hahn and Timms share the series lead for wins with five apiece. With so many young guys trying to prove themselves this year, we've seen some crazy races in recent weeks with the national tour. If you aren't watching these guys and girls yet, I would definitely recommend tuning in. You'll certainly be entertained and you'll get to witness some of the future stars of sprint car racing. If Lakeside isn't near you, you can watch live on both FloRacing and RacinBoys.
Back on Saturday, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame announced the winner of the Priority Aviation Sponsorship for the Knoxville Nationals. The Black Pearl #101 out of Ohio was the winner of the competition and the $20,000. The car was piloted for several weeks by Australian newcomer Lachlan McHugh, but he had to return to Australia, leaving the car without a driver. We found out yesterday that Cale Thomas will wheel the 101 at the Nationals with the sponsorship. McKenna Haase finished second and will win a $10,000 sponsorship, and Robbie Kendall finished third and gets $5000. Thomas recently filled in for Spencer Bayston in the McGhee 11, and finished 6th with the All Stars at Humboldt. He's based in Indiana and can often be found racing in Ohio. If you don't know Cale's story, go find Open Red episode number 171. Me and Ross interviewed him a few years ago, and I think you'll become a fan after listening.
There was some intriguing news yesterday about the future of Skagit Speedway in Washington. Long time promoter and owner Steve Beitler is passing off the track to a new group called 55 Promotions. The group is made up of Kevin Rudeen, Mike Anderson, and Peter Murphy. Rudeen is the owner of the 26 sprint car that Cory Eliason pilots with the All Star Circuit of Champions. Anderson owns the 18 sprint car that Jason Solwold pilots on the west coast, and Peter Murphy is a former racer who now promotes Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, California. Skagit is home to the Dirt Cup for 360 sprint cars, it traditionally has a World of Outlaws weekend, and is home to a nice weekly program including sprint cars and modifieds. I think by all accounts, Murphy has been doing great things with his work in California, and Kevin Rudeen has pumped a ton of money into sprint car racing in recent years, with his promotion of the Rayce Rudeen Foundation race with the All Stars and added bonuses and purse increases at many events through the season. This will be the second track acquisition that he's been apart of this year, as he's also involved in the ownership group of Port City Raceway, which is the micro sprint track that Shane Stewart took over this year in Oklahoma. 55 Promotions will take control of Skagit in September, and according to the release will have a special announcement about the track at the Knoxville Nationals. Stay tuned for that. For fans and competitors at Skagit, I think this is great news. I would not be surprised to see facility upgrades and bigger events at Skagit in the coming years.
The Super DIRTcar Series announced another schedule change yesterday with the addition of Brewerton Speedway to the 2021 slate. The series will head to the famous New York track on Tuesday, August 17th, and when they do it will be for $10,000 to win and a guaranteed starting spot for Super DIRT Week. Tickets are already on sale, and the card will also include DIRTcar Sportsman. For more on the big blocks and to see the updated schedule, check out superdirtcarseries.com.
There are eight shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the World of Outlaws Late Models at Outagamie, FloRacing has the ASCS at Lakeside and the USAC midgets at Grandview, Speed Sport has some local action, and more. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope you have a good Tuesday. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!