DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Employees out? Updates on the evolving High Limit/All Star situation | Daily 10-19-2023
Ricky Thornton Jr. has dominated late model racing this season, but can he walk away with the Lucas title? We'll talk about it, plus things are brewing with High Limit and the All Stars and I've got some details on it, plus what could be another new sprint car series, and we'll talk Trophy Cup and the Outlaws at Devil's Bowl. Let's go!
It's Thursday, October 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
The final week of racing at Eldora Speedway for 2023 starts tonight, and it wouldn't be Eldora if it wasn't big. The Dirt Track World Championship is on tap Saturday, plus racing for a bunch of other divisions including modifieds, super stocks, and steel block late models. For you competitors and fans that are going to be in town, you'll need to eat all week and I've got the place for you. Located just six miles down highway 118 from the race track is the Whistle Stop Bar and Grill. It's located right on main street in Ansonia, Ohio, and they've got you covered for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Besides being all about good food and drink, the Whistle Stop is also all about some dirt racing. And not just saying they are, but actually putting their money where their mouth is. They've done partnerships with Sheldon and Jac Haudenschild, Rico Abreu, Chris Windom, Cap Henry, the Dirt Nerds podcast, Eldora itself, and the Whistle Stop has become a regular supporter of this show. On top of their in-house experience, you can also order online at whistlebarandgrill.com and take it back to the track with you. So if you want to support those that support racing, grab some friends and make the trip right down the road to The Whistle Stop, Ohio's favorite train depot. If you stop in, make sure to tell them DIRTRACKR sent you.
We'll get back to Eldora and the Dirt Track World Championship here in a minute, but let's update you on some sprint car stuff happening right now. We are still awaiting official word on the future for High Limit and the All Stars, but things are brewing today. It sounds like several current All Star employees have been notified in the last 24 hours that they are no longer needed going forward. One in particular, Steve Topper, posted to his Facebook account just a little bit ago quote "Not the phone call I wanted but I knew it was coming 4 years on the road an I had a great time met some great people and got to work with some great drivers it was definitely an experience" unquote. He obviously doesn't mention the series by name there, but it's clear what this means. I've also reached out to some other industry friends and gotten this confirmed. The chatter all along has been that the All Stars could be the target of an acquistion by the High Limit group, and if indeed a deal is done now, this would be a sign of that. I'm a bit surprised that they wouldn't explore keeping some of these folks on, but maybe they already have their eyes on employees for 2024. Rumors abound that things could become public in the next few weeks as the Outlaw season begins to wind down, so something could happen literally at any moment. Expect one announcement for the All Star deal and another for the schedule.
Along with all of this, we've documented on this show that Brian Carter and WRG could potentially explore a regional series, and we watched Kevin Newton debut his Maverick Sprint Car Series just a few weeks ago in Indiana. Another one to keep an eye on is a potential series brewing from Chris Tilley. If you don't know, Tilley has the Iron-Man Late Model Series and modified series, but he is dipping his toe into the sprint car world next week at Atomic, on October 28th, with the help of Atomic promoter Charlie Vest. They are going to run a $3000 to win show under the Iron-Man Sprint Car Series banner, with eyes on a potential schedule for 2024. Tilley is at Eldora this weekend as part of the Dirt Track World Championship and I talked to him for a few minutes today. He said they've had some interest from tracks and folks in the community since announcing this Atomic race, and that they could look to put something together on a regional basis, possibly around Ohio and maybe Pennsylvania. Tilley's late model schedule has been focused mainly on the southeast, but it has run shows in 2023 in Ohio at Atomic, Hilltop and Wayne County, plus he co-sanctioned the Outlaw show just a few weeks ago at Brownstown in Indiana. He said their plan is to take it slow and see how things develop with some of the other series moves. As we get closer to knowing what the future is for High Limit and the All Stars, some of these other manenuvers we've seen are a good illustration of just how all of this unrest will create ripple effects down the line. I bet you never thought we'd be playing sprint car dominoes when 2023 got started.
Today at Eldora the Dirt Track World Championship kicks off, and we'll have action every day through Saturday. On the schedule for tonight is modified qualifying, heats, and B-Mains, plus a full show for the super stocks. Friday includes the modified main event plus the prelim action for the steel block late models, and Lucas qualifying and heats. And then Saturday is the steel block main event, plus the Lucas Bs and feature. There is weather around the next few days, so keep an eye on social media and the Eldora website for any changes in the schedule. Besides the full list of Lucas regulars, the entry list for the super late models should be stout. You can expect Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, Dale McDowell, Mike Marlar, Nick Hoffman, Tanner English, Dennis Erb Jr., and a whole lot more. The Outlaw late models are off until World Finals, so this weekend at Eldora has no other big super competition. At this moment, if things stick to the schedule through Saturday, my plan is to go live on YouTube right before the Lucas main event. We'll do a watch along stream if you want to head over and join in. We've obviously never seen something like this before in dirt racing, and I thought it might be cool to all watch it together. Keep an eye out on the DIRTRACKR socials and YouTube for the notification.
All week we've been spotlighting the four drivers with a chance at the Lucas championship. We did Devin Moran Monday, Jonathan Davenport Tuesday, Hudson O'Neal yesterday, and for this final show of the week we've got Ricky Thornton Jr. RTJ has been driving the SSI Motorsports car full time since 2020, although he did some fill-in driving in 2018 as well. He was a Lucas rookie in 2021, and was very solid in each of his first two seasons out on the road. But after finishing third in the standings last year, I don't know that anyone expected the record-breaking performance we've seen from RTJ and crew chief Anthony Burroughs this season. 23 Lucas wins (the most ever in a single season), and 41 top fives in 51 starts will easily turn into a million dollar plus campaign. I've talked about this stat a few times this year, and it's held all the way to the end. In Lucas competition, RTJ still hasn't finished in positions six through ten. All of his top tens are also top fives. Pretty strange. Overall, Thornton has raced 116 times in 2023, and has 36 total wins. Not all of those are in a dirt late model though, as during his quote unquote off days, he's raced a bunch in micro sprint competition at tracks like US24, Sweet Springs, and Wayne County. We've had 292 days in 2023 to this point, and 116 races means RTJ has been in a race car about every 2.5 days this year. I love that about this guy. He's just a damn race car driver. Even after the Lucas season ends this weekend, he's still got World Finals, the National 100, the Flo finale at Senoia, plus the Dome on his schedule. And then it sounds like a trip to Tulsa is on the cards for the Tulsa Shootout at the end of the year. RTJ just never stops racing. Like a lot of you have already talked about, it's going to be a massive bummer if the 20RT doesn't end up winning the championship this year because they have been the absolute best all season. Ranking win chances at Eldora, I would put Thornton behind Davenport and O'Neal, and in front of Moran. They haven't been bad at Eldora recently by any stretch of the imagination, they just haven't had the level of finishes those other two guys have. A prelim win plus a third at the Dream in June, before finishing fourth in the big show was good. They were third and second on prelim nights at the World, but the 100 lapper didn't go great. They finished 12th after starting 19th, but it seemed like maybe it became a test session, as the 20RT was in the pits a few times under caution making adjustments. I do think they've got some work to do if they are going to be bring the fight to the Rocket 1 and the 49. As we've done with the others, drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts on RTJ headed into the final weekend. Can he get it done and close out the championship?
Out in California, Trophy Cup 29 gets going today at the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare. 360 sprint cars with something like $225,000 in payouts available through Saturday. Each of the three features pays $4000 to win, and then the weekend champion will take down $13,000. As of last Sunday, we were in the 90s for pre-entries for Trophy Cup, so no lack of cars will be in attendance. Shane Golobic is the defending Trophy Cup winner, while Buddy Kofoid was the guy in 2021. Both are entered again this year, as are names like Mitchel Moles, DJ Netto, Austin McCarl, Tanner Carrick, Hunter Schuerenberg, Tyler Courtney is in the Works Limited 57 with Paul Silva, Dominic Scelzi, Zeb Wise, Rico Abreu, Justin Peck, Logan Seavey, Chase Randall, Aaron Reutzel, Justin Sanders, and many many more. Drivers score points all weekend to set themselves up for Saturday's action. You can see the full format rundown at trophycup.org. If you can't get to Tulare this weekend, the livestream is available via pay-per-view from The Cushion. Thursday and Friday are $38.99 each, Saturday is $44.99, and you get a three day pass for $109.99.
The Outlaws head to Texas tomorrow to begin the final ever race weekend at Devil's Bowl Speedway. Home to the debut of the World of Outlaws in 1978, it's fitting that the series will close out the racing history of the property on Saturday night. World Racing Group has bumped the weekend purse to add a little something extra, and we are getting down to the final few nights for David Gravel to try and close down the championship lead Brad Sweet currently has. It's 66 points with five race nights remaining. What's not great for Gravel though, is Brad has a pretty solid history at Devil's Bowl. Two wins in his past ten races there and an average finish of 3.9. Gravel's average finish is 7.5, and while he's led laps, he has yet to win a feature there. The two are pretty evenly matched at Charlotte, so Gravel really needs to maximize his finishes this weekend to have a chance come World Finals. Other drivers with recent success at Devil's Bowl include James McFadden and Logan Schuchart. Some other guys who could use good runs this weekend include Sheldon Haudenschild, who we talked about earlier this week. And Carson Macedo hasn't been in the mix as much down the stretch here. He hasn't won since the Jackson Nationals in August, and that was also the last time he led laps. After being in the championship fight through much of the summer, they've fallen away a bit towards the end. After Devil's Bowl is done on Saturday, the Outlaw teams will have a week off before World Finals gets going on November 1st.
Alright, that's it for the show this week. Thanks again to BAPS Motor Speedway and the Whistle Stop for supporting this week's episodes. If you'd like to partner up for a future show, drop me an email or DM. I'd love to help your business reach thousands of dirt racing fans and industry people. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com and check out the streaming schedule, plus the analytics section, and the latest news.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday.