DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Kyle Larson, Jonathan Davenport lead FloRacing Late Models to Farmer City | DIRTRACKR Daily 9/21/21
Today is Tuesday, September 21st, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Coming up we'll preview tonight's FloRacing Night in America late model show which will include an appearance by Kyle Larson, plus we'll take a look at Tanner Thorson's season to date and more.
Before we get going, if you'd like a free and easy way to support what I'm doing subscribe and follow the show and leave me a review on iTunes or wherever you watch or listen. You can also follow @dirtrackr on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. And dirtrackr.com is home to a bunch of cool dirt racing content, including analytics, updated news and a lot more. Now let's dive in.
The FloRacing Night in America Late Model Series is back in action tonight at Farmer City in Illinois for round number six. The midweek series was off all summer, and returned to action last week at Fairbury following the World 100s at Eldora. Brandon Sheppard took down the $15,000 win over Tanner English and Bobby Pierce and Jonathan Davenport continues to lead the series points standings. Tonight's race at Farmer City is a $10,000 to win show and we should again have a very nice field of cars in attendance. According to Dirt on Dirt, we should see Davenport, Shannon Babb, Brian Shirley, Kyle Larson, Pierce, Sheppard, Mike Marlar fresh off that Knoxville win, Tanner English, Jason Feger, the Gundakers and more. McKay Wenger is also expected to race, but not in his own 42 machine after having engine issues last week. He'll be in a car owned by Boom Briggs. Behind Davenport in the standings, Kyle Larson and Bobby Pierce are in pursuit, with Mike Marlar and Tanner English completing the top five. So far through five races in 2021, we have yet to have a repeat winner. Davenport won the opener at Tyler County, Devin Moran won at Atomic, Larson took Brownstown, Pierce won at Tri-City, and Sheppard was the winner last week. What's interesting, is we don't have a repeat winner at Farmer City this season either. Between MARS, World of Outlaws, Summer Nationals and DIRTcar action this year, we've had six different winners in Spatola, Pierce, Sheppard, Babb, Wenger and Shirley. I'd say things are pretty wide open for tonight. Following tonight's show there are three races remaining on the FloRacing schedule including October 7th at Tri County in North Carolina, October 12th at 411 in Tennessee, and October 20th at Volunteer, also in Tennessee. The champion of the series will take home $20,000, with the top ten in the standings all getting paid out. If you can't be at Farmer City tonight, obviously the event will be streamed live on Flo. Keep an eye out for event updates on social media through the day, as the track did receive rain over night and at last check they were assessing the facility. It doesn't appear as though more rain is coming through.
Back in April, literally within a week of each other, I did Daily shows about non-wing guys not getting enough attention and respect and what was possible for Tanner Thorson's 2021 season. The non-wing show was April 6th, and the Thorson show was April 13th. I still feel the same way five months later about non-wing guys as I did back in April. I think the racing this season with the USAC sprint cars and midgets has been incredible to watch, and I don't feel like it gets enough attention. There are some incredible drivers and characters in those divisions, and between the winged racing and big time late model stuff, those guys and that racing gets lost in the mix. It almost makes me wish that some of these guys would transition to winged racing, a la Tyler Courtney, just so they can get some respect for their talent. Names like Brady Bacon, CJ Leary, Chris Windom, Buddy Kofoid, Justin Grant, and Kevin Thomas Jr. should be much more front and center. I know there are a myriad of reasons for why they don't, but that's a topic for another day. One of the drivers with USAC that is having a banner year is Tanner Thorson. He's running the full midget schedule and is a rookie in the sprint car, driving in both for Reinbold Underwood. I said back in April that I think some stability could do wonders for Thorson and sticking through the season with one team has certainly paid off. While he most likely won't win either championship, he's still in line for a top five points finish with the midget and will be the leading rookie in the sprint car. He's been missing a bit of the necessary consistency in the midget through 28 races so far this season, but the speed and the winning is still there. He's matched his win total from a year ago at seven, and with 14 nights still left there are plenty more opportunities for him to pad those stats. When he starts up front in the midget, he's actually doing a better job in 2021 versus 2020 of finishing there, but his achilles heel this season has been qualifying. He's been timing in three and a half positions worse this year than he did last year, which means he's having to work harder to climb out of holes. It's led to worse average feature starts and finishes. It's definitely something to work on for the future. In the sprint car, Thorson has been down right impressive in his first full season campaign. He was fast right out of the gate, winning twice in his first nine races, and since the middle of June has been very consistent. After back to back 12th place runs at Bridgeport and Selinsgrove, Thorson has finished in the top eight in 17 of 20 races and that span includes three wins, at Lincoln Park, Huset's and last week at Circle City. He's currently on a streak of eight straight top six runs, and he's the hottest driver with the series with an average finish of 2.4 over his past five races, and 4.2 over his last ten. He's had no problem keeping pace with the likes of Bacon, KTJ, Leary, and Grant in recent weeks, and only KTJ and Grant have more wins than he does. On top of his performances, Thorson is just entertaining to watch. He's not afraid to make big moves on the track, and he speaks his mind off it. For example, see his Sprint Week dust up with CJ Leary at Lincoln Park. Thorson has been through a lot of cars and teams in the past and has developed a bit of a reputation, but you cannot deny his talent and ability, and he might be paired up with the perfect organization for him in Reinbold Underwood. If you haven't been keeping up with USAC this season, I'd definitely recommend jumping in. There is still some great racing to come, and Thorson will definitely be one to watch through it all. You can find full breakdowns on Thorson's season results and stats at dirtrackr.com/analytics.
The season is officially complete at Skagit Speedway in Washington and the new owners are wasting no time in getting to work on facility improvements. If you might remember from earlier this year, Steve Beitler sold the track to a new ownership group that includes car owners Kevin Rudeen and Mike Anderson and California promoter Peter Murphy. They've already announced big plans for the Dirt Cup next season, and yesterday they began work on improvements to parking and seating. The parking area is getting some new access roads and will have laid out spaces. And around the track they already starting work on ripping out the old bleacher boards to begin adding in improved seating. With all of the dirt tracks we've lost in recent years it's nice to see some good news for a change about a race track. As a native of the Pacific Northwest, I'm really looking forward to following the progress at Skagit this offseason. If you'd like to follow along, find @skagitspeedway on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
If you're a dirt racer yourself, registration is now open for two big upcoming events. Both the World Short Track Championship at Charlotte and the Tulsa Shootout have opened registration for competitors. The World Short Track Championship is a DIRTcar event at Charlotte at the end of October that features a bunch of different divisions. And the Tulsa Shootout is the micro event at the Tulsa Expo that leads into the Chili Bowl. Details on World Short Track can be found at dirtcar.com, and racers can register for the Shootout at TulsaShootout.com.
There are three items on the streaming schedule for today. DIRTVision has Outlaw karts from Millbridge, and FloRacing has the Flo Night in America Late Models and Flo 24/7. 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!