DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Brandon Sheppard, Riggs Motorsports partner for 2023 dirt late model national tour run | Daily 10-20-2022
The pieces are falling into place for Brandon Sheppard and his team for 2023. We've got those details, plus Trophy Cup starts tonight and more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, October 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
The dirt late model musical chairs game continues to add and lose seats, but just this morning we've had some more clarity added for 2023. We already knew Brandon Sheppard was out of the Rocket house car following the Dirt Track World Championship. We also knew he was planning on running his family owned B5 next season on a national tour. In recent days and weeks there have been rumors of him forming a partnership with another team, and the Roger Sellers' owned Double Down car has been mentioned. The partnership part was correct, the rumors just pointed towards the wrong team. At around 11AM ET today we found out that Sheppard is partnering with Scott Riggs and Riggs Motorsports for 2023, with their new team named Sheppard Riggs Racing. SRR will field BShepp full time on a national tour next season, along with scattered starts for Steve Sheppard Jr., Jason Riggs, and Jack Riggs. The team release says they won't decide which national tour to follow until after Speedweeks next January and February. The first event for this new partnership will be the Wild West Shootout at Vado Speedway Park coming up in early January. There is absolutely no reason to believe that this team won't hit the ground running right away next year. BShepp is one of the best ever and will be motivated to make his own way. His talent and experience, together with the support and experience from Riggs will be a potent combination. Sheppard said in the release that he's had a ton of interest in people being involved in his new operation, and it's easy to understand why. And obviously, if you weren't aware, the Riggs were looking for new plans after they planned to split with driver Tanner English following the 2022 Outlaw season. English will then be headed to Viper Motorsports to replace Max Blair, who himself is taking the second Boom Briggs' owned car from Josh Richards. So BShepp with the new SRR. Hudson O'Neal in the Rocket house car. English with Viper. Blair with Briggs. Moran out of the Twarog car. The Double Down car still open, at least for the moment publicly. Josh Richards on the market. As a sidenote here, the Rocket 1 will debut with O'Neal in the seat coming up at World Finals. We knew that team was going to start doing some testing together, and this will be a good opportunity to get that first race weekend out of the way before they get rolling in 2023. Still more to come with all of this.
Another piece of late model driver news for you today. This was something I saw on Dirt on Dirt, so obviously I have to talk about it. In recent years, Brodnax Shaker Motorsports, owned by JC Clary, has run in partnership with GR Smith, but they will have a new driver and team situation for 2023. Virginia crate late model driver Logan Roberson will jump up into the super ranks more often next year with the team, driving a MasterSbilt chassis. The driver known as Thugg Nasty was the RUSH Crate Late Model champion in 2022, and the new pairing will start their super schedule for next season during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks with Lucas. From there, they will decide on a schedule for the rest of the year. Roberson also plans on running his family owned crate car when possible. Over the past few years, he's made a handful of starts with both Lucas and the Outlaws. His best Outlaw result was a 16th at 411 back in 2019, and he was 17th at All-Tech with Lucas in 2020. In 2022, he was at Eldora for the Million, but missed the feature both nights. He was also 9th in a B at Hagerstown with Lucas back in April.
Alright, let's get to some racing tonight.
Out in California tonight at the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Trophy Cup 28 gets underway. 360 sprint cars will race for three days to earn their piece of the $200,000 total weekend purse. Each of the three features pays $4000 to win, and the points champion will get $13,000. There is other bonus money on the line, but if a driver wins the championship, they'll make at least $28,000 on the weekend, with each car that starts the Saturday feature guaranteed $5000 in winnings from the three days. The event also benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and according to an event release, they've contribued over $2.3 million to the organization since the event started in 1994. Thursday and Friday are prelim nights where drivers will earn points that will set them up for Saturday's events. We are well past 100 cars on the entry list for the weekend, but I'm not sure what the final tally will be. There were some drivers who had planned on running this event who will now not be in attendance because of the postponed National Open at Williams Grove. For example, Brock Zearfoss, Carson Macedo, and Justin Peck are all on the list, but they will all be at the Grove on Saturday. There are also a number of TBAs on the list as well. Either way though, the list is still stacked and the racing should be fierce all weekend. We will see names like Mitchel Moles, Justin Sanders, Kalib Henry, Ryan Timms, Corey Day, Shane Golobic, Cole Macedo, Ryan Bernal, Rico Abreu, Willie Croft, Dominic Scelzi, the Carrick brothers, Blake Hahn, Tyler Courtney, and a lot more. Buddy Kofoid is the defending Trophy Cup champion, while Rico Abreu, Jac Haudenschild, and Shane Golobic are recent winners as well. Tulare is one of the quintessential California bullrings, and Trophy Cup is always a fun weekend. Qualifying starts today at 4:45 pacific time, with the first racing at 6:15. If you want to watch from a distance, The Cushion has the livestream, but keep in mind that these three nights are pay-per-view only, and not part of a subscription. Thursday and Friday are $34.99 each, with Saturday $39.99. A three day pass is $99.99. If you want to buy, when you go to thecushion.com, click the browse button in the upper nav bar. Don't use the schedule page, as the Trophy Cup dates on it are not actually clickable.
The Keith Kunz Motorsports Giveback Classic is also here, and the event will take over Shane Stewart's Port City Raceway in Oklahoma for the next three nights. A big field of non-wing micros will race for the chance at either $15,000, or a ride with Keith Kunz during the Chili Bowl plus $7500. Whoever wins on Saturday night will get their choice of those two prizes. At last check they are well north of 100 cars, and the action should be wild. Thursday and Friday are split field prelim nights which setup Saturday's racing. Looking through the entry list, there are a lot of names you won't recognize, but plenty that you will including Brenham Crouch, Jade Avedisian, Cannon McIntosh, Chase McDermand, Emerson Axsom, Daison Pursley, Frank Flud, Jonathan Beason, Gavan Boschele, and Joe B. Miller. In the three previous editions of the event, Jesse Colwell, Brian Carber, and Steven Snyder Jr. have picked up wins. Colwell and Snyder chose the ride over the cash, while Carber famously took the cash. Afterwards though, a GoFundMe was started for Carber that ended up raising enough money for him to get the KKM ride anyway. In 2019, Colwell finished 11th in a Saturday B-Main, Carber was 12th in a Saturday C in 2021, and Snyder was out in a J-Main in 2022. It's a pretty cool opportunity to get into a high level ride for an event with a lot of attention on it, and we've seen some guys win that maybe we wouldn't have expected to do so. If you are in the area, this would be a great event to check out in person. They've done a ton of work to improve the facilities, and tickets tonight are only $15 for the grandstands. Hot laps start at 6 local time, and if you can't be there, you can watch it all live on FloRacing.
The streaming schedule has four shows on it today. FloRacing has the KKM Giveback Classic from Port City and Flo 24/7. The Cushion has night one of the Trophy Cup, and RacinDirt has the Spooker from Haubstadt. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Thursday. Please hit that like button, and subscribe to the show if you don't already.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!