DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Tanner Holmes' first time driving a midget, and I was there! | Daily 12-21-2022
Brandon Sheppard is back full time with the Outlaws, and we'll run through the updated field. We've also got several news items, and we'll talk Tanner Holmes testing at Millbridge. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, December 21st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Right after I got done recording and posting yesterday's show, I hopped in the car and hustled up to Millbridge Speedway. I had gotten an email while putting the show together from Tanner Holmes that he was going to be at Millbridge for the afternoon getting some practice laps in before the Chili Bowl. Millbridge is about 40 minutes from the house, so I grabbed my camera gear and headed up there. If you maybe missed it from before, I am sponsoring Tanner at the Chili Bowl with DIRTRACKR. Just some small support, but it's the first time we are sponsoring a race team and I'm excited about it. As the show grows, I want to try and find other ways to support the community. I got to hang out for like an hour and see Tanner make some laps in the Chad Boat car, and actually meet him face to face for the first time. Really neat opportunity to watch Tanner get comfortable and these laps will be super valuable in his first attempt at the Chili Bowl here in a few weeks. Chad and his guys are bringing a bunch of cars to the Tulsa Shootout, and then they'll turn right around and have eight midgets at the Chili Bowl, so they are busy right now getting everything ready to go. It's interesting all the little connections with this deal and my small support of Tanner. Me and him are from the same area of Oregon which I've mentioned before. But he also drives an Outlaw kart for QRC, owned by Jimmy Elledge, who my dad has worked with in the past. We interviewed Chad on Open Red a few years back, and I've actually changed tires for Chad when he was running some NASCAR stuff. So lots of connections all around. Tanner has a little bit more outlaw kart racing to do before Chili Bowl, and then we'll see him on Sunday, January 8th for the practice day. I don't have any plans right now to go to the Chili Bowl, but I'll definitely be watching from home. If you want to see more from the test day, keep an eye on Tanner's YouTube channel, as I'm sure he'll have something posted soon.
Yesterday on the show I hinted at some late model news that was going to break yesterday, and it came out around 4PM ET time, with the announcement that Brandon Sheppard and the new Sheppard Riggs Racing team, utilizing Longhorn Chassis, will follow the World of Outlaws in 2023. Sheppard is a four time series champion, and has 81 career Outlaw wins, but ended up going full time with Lucas last season in the Rocket house car. He said in the release from the team that they liked the flexibility available with the Outlaw schedule to run some races elsewhere, including other crown jewels, and even some Summer Nationals shows. They had initially talked about waiting until after Speedweeks to make a decision, but they changed their minds, instead wanting a clear plan for the year right off the bat. So we'll see Sheppard at Vado for the Wild West Shootout January 7th through the 15th, and then the team will hustle to Florida to be ready to roll with the Outlaws on January 18th at Volusia. The 18th at Volusia is a practice day with racing starting on Thursday. So with the addition of Sheppard, here is where we are right now for full time Outlaws. We've got Tanner English, Max Blair, Boom Briggs, Chris Madden, Payton Freeman, Nick Hoffman, Gordy Gundaker, Ryan Gustin, Brent Larson, Todd Cooney, and Missouri driver Dustin Walker. That puts us at 12. Dennis Erb Jr. returning would be 13. We still don't know about plans for Tyler Bruening and teammate Shane Clanton, who sort of shared the Outlaws in 2022. And Josh Richards' future is still up in the air.
In some other late model news that came out this morning, the FloRacing Night in America Series is returning for the third year, and their schedule is out. 13 races from April 18th through November 11th. 11 pay $23,000 to win, one is $20k, and the finale is $54,000. The tracks are Eldora, Brownstown, Spoon River, Lincoln, Marshalltown, Davenport, Florence, Fairbury, Tyler County, 411, Tri-County, and Senoia. They'll run in April and May, take a break for the summer, and return for the second half in September. The champion gets $50,000, or $75,000 with perfect attendance. And again, except for the final weekend at Senoia, all races are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Jonathan Davenport was the inaugural champion in 2021, and Brandon Sheppard bagged the title in 2022.
A couple of other news bits for you today. Kyle Reinhardt will not return to full time competition with the All Stars in 2023. He'd run the previous two seasons, finishing eighth both years driving for Jeff McCall and Wayne Quackenbush. Along the way he bagged six top fives, 23 top tens, and had a win at Joliet in 2021. He found out late that McCall was pulling back, so he's trying to put his own team together for next year. He told Jeremy Elliott that he's going to focus on Central PA and then maybe travel outside of the area if he can find more sponsorship and support.
Also, Bernie Stuebgen confirmed on Twitter last night that he and Scott Ronk will not continue with the Terre Haute Action Track in 2023. They, along with Reece O'Connor, took over promoting the track last season, but things went sideways later in the summer. The future for the facility is in doubt, especially with the fair board torn on what to do. It's a shame, because I know those guys sunk a ton of money into the facility making upgrades.
Last night we got the third straight week of David Gravel live streams, this one featured Rico Abreu as the guest. No bathroom trips during the show, which broke a two week streak, and I failed this week to be controversial enough to get a mention. There was nothing super ground breaking in their conversation, but lots of good stuff along the way. Rico did say he's planning on attempting all the High Limit shows and running for points. He'll do that alongside a sizeable World of Outlaws schedule that will most likely start at Volusia in March. He did reiterate that he's not interested in running the full Outlaw schedule for the championship. For him the freedom to race when and where they want is too important. We do know that Rico will be at the Chili Bowl this year, again back with Keith Kunz. He will utilize a new number, with his car sporting the 24 like his sprint car. The entry list has not been updated yet to reflect Rico's attendance, but I'm sure that will happen very soon. You can watch that video over on Gravel's YouTube channel.
I've got more shop photos to share today from show watchers. The first couple are from Legends car racers Cale Maybin and Cale Riggs. Cale Maybin runs on dirt in Ohio with his Legends cars, looks like he's got a few in the shop there. I know the photos are a bit small. Cale Riggs runs at Vado Speedway Park in New Mexico and is 15 years old. Legends cars are pretty popular around the country, they can be raced on all sorts of race tracks and usually use a motorcycle engine. Their big main shop is actually located not far from Charlotte Motor Speedway. My other shop photo is from Chris Dolack, who does marketing and communications for the World Racing Group and the World of Outlaws. Dolack's son Tyler has run outlaw karts at Millbridge and places like English Creek. They have lately transitioned to some pavement stuff out at the GoPro Motorplex. If you have your own shop photos to share, send them to me via DMs on social media, or to info@dirtrackr.com.
Just a couple of new podcast episodes out this week. The Dirt Nerds are talking the Eldora Million, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Rico Abreu, and Hoogie's Garage has Gordy Vogelaar and Micah Slendy. To see the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
It's again quiet on the streaming front with just FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now on the schedule today. To see the full daily streaming schedule with those links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Alright, that's it for the show today. Have a good Wednesday. We'll be back here tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily.