DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
FloRacing Late Model finale cancelled, World Short Track Championship starts, Bowser/Hobaugh team | Daily 10-28-2021
Coming up we are talking World Short Track Championship, improvements at Fairbury, the FloRacing late models, I've got a weird hard charger stat for you, and more.
Today is Thursday, October 28th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Tonight was supposed to be the season finale for the FloRacing Night in America Late Model Series, but as is probably fitting, the race at Tri-County Racetrack in North Carolina has been cancelled because of impending rain. The series did end up completing seven of the ten originally scheduled events, but if I counted correctly, races were affected by weather no less than 11 times this season. That's just crap luck. In the end, Jonathan Davenport was crowned series champion over Kyle Larson. That was clinched last week at Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee. Davenport ended the year with two wins and takes home the $20,000 title. Other drivers with Flo wins in 2021 included Devin Moran, Larson, Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, and Jimmy Owens. While it won't be a sanctioned race, Tri County promoter Ray Cook is considering rescheduling the Tar Heel 50 to a later date.
Elsewhere tonight, the World Short Track Championship gets underway at the Dirt Track at Charlotte. Nine divisions of racing will be in action with street stocks, 604 late models, 602 late models, UMP modifieds, pro modifieds, mini-stocks, hornets, sportsman modifieds, and pro stocks on the card. Drivers will compete for more than $120,000 in prize money, and it's not uncommon to see car counts approaching 300 for this event. This weekend is a great opportunity for some of these competitors to be on a big stage, as these weekly divisions don't often get as much attention. This weekend won't lack for star power though, as the late model divisions often attract names like Ross Bailes, Kyle Bronson, and others, and David Stremme, Matt Crafton, and others will be in attendance in the modified ranks. Tickets and pit passes for the event will be available at the track, but if you'd like to watch online, DIRTVision will have live streams of all three nights. Keep an eye on things tonight though, as the same weather that affected the FloRacing show is expected to be in the area here. The forecast does look much better for the rest of the weekend though. For more info on the event, visit dirtcar.com.
Fairbury Speedway in Illinois is definitely one of those can't miss race tracks on the schedule each summer, and things for 2022 are getting better. Track president Matt Curl announced yesterday some staffing changes, along with facility improvements and some more money on the line through the year for racers. Gunner Sullivan and Roger Stryker are joining Curl's staff, while track prep guy Chad Bauman will step away from his weekly duties into an advisory role. The track is also adding a new ticketing center, media center, first aid station, business center, and hospitality area which will all add to the track's stature. And the schedule will again be strong with the Summer Nationals coming through on June 18th, the Prairie Dirt Classic for the Outlaws on July 29th and 30th, the Spring Shootout on May 14th will pay $30,000 to win, and the FALS Frenzy in October is adding a $5000 bonus if a driver can sweep both features. This is all in addition to the weekly racing that happens at the track through the season. It's really great to see Curl and his staff making big investments at Fairbury, to not only the facility, but the schedule of races as well. For more info about the track, visit fairburyspeedway.com.
In some sprint car team news from yesterday, it was revealed that past Lernerville track champion Carl Bowser is teaming up with George Hobaugh to campaign cars in 2022. The new team will debut at World Finals next week, with Bowser utilizing the number 11, and Hobaugh continuing with his familiar number 40. The two drivers could potentially run different schedules, but I'm sure you'll see them plenty through Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Looking at the series points page at dirtrackr.com, we've just about got most of the big championships wrapped up for 2021. We already officially have champions for the All Stars, Lucas, Silver Crown, ASCS, and the IRA. Both World of Outlaws series aren't officially done yet, but Brandon Sheppard and Brad Sweet are on their ways. We know Bryant Wiedeman will win the POWRi midget crown, Dominic Scelzi is close to the King of the West title, and Matt Sheppard will be the Super DIRTcar Series champion. With just weeks left in the season, only the USAC sprint car and midget championships are in question at this point. Brady Bacon currently leads Kevin Thomas Jr. by 64 points with the sprint cars, and Chris Windom and Buddy Kofoid are locked in a tight one with the midgets, as they are only separated by 13 points. Each of those series still have several races left, and we will be well into November before we have resolution. This midget fight is similar to 2020, when the battle between Windom and Tyler Courtney went all the way to the end. That feels likely here again as well.
Before I close it out today, I've got a bit of a strange stat for you. I keep track of hard chargers for the eight series in the dirtrackr.com analytics database, and recently I put together the averages for all series. Between the eight, we've got sprint cars, both winged and non wing, late models, silver crown, and midgets. Formats vary, as do race lengths. But incredibly, five of the eight have nearly identical average hard charger gains. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, All Stars, Outlaw late models, USAC midgets, and USAC sprint cars all have average gains in the 10s. More specifically, we are looking at averages of 10.8, 10.81, 10.85, 10.98 and 10.06. The average Lucas charge is 13.44, the Chili Bowl is 15.22, and Silver Crown is 13.87. I think those three can be explained by longer races. Lucas and Silver Crown have a lot of races that are 100 laps. And the Chili Bowl has a smaller sample size, but plenty of laps to get to the front. The others being so close together though is a bit wild. So if you want to grab that hard charger bonus next season with one of those series, you better find a way to gain at least 10 spots to have a chance...
There are two items on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has night one of the World Short Track Championship from Charlotte, and FloRacing has Flo 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Coming up tomorrow we'll get into the racing coming up this weekend, including two shows for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and sprint car action out in California for the King of the West series. There isn't a ton of late model action on tap, but we will run you through what is happening.
That's it for the show today, hope you have a good Wednesday. 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!