DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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The days are officially numbered for this Florida dirt track | Daily 1-3-2024

Tyler Courtney and Dennis Erb Jr. make their series choices for 2024, plus a Chili Bowl update, and the real, actual future for East Bay Raceway Park. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, January 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

We'll start this show off with a few news items from the past 24 hours. I had gotten asked in recent days about the 2024 plans for Dennis Erb Jr., who was the 2022 World of Outlaws Late Model Series champion, and yesterday we got clarity. The Outlaws announced Tuesday that Erb will be back this season to make a run at series title number two. 2023 was a difficult year for the defending champion, ending the season way down in eighth in the standings. He did pick up a $30,000 win at 81 Speedway in June, but his top five and top ten numbers were down, as was his average finish. He was nearly 3.5 positions worse on average per night in 2023, versus the season before. In looking at his whole night, the time trial average was off a bit, as was his heat race finish, so that led to worse feature starts. And then come race time, he just didn't move forward as much as he did during his championship run. He and crew chief Heather Lynne definitely have some work to do to try and move up the order this season, especially against a full time field that looks like it will be stacked yet again. They did have two other strong victories last year though, both $23,000 scores against the Flo series at Spoon River and Davenport. Erb becomes the 15th driver to commit full time to the World of Outlaws late models for next season. Those drivers on the Outlaw side from a year ago who still haven't announced anything publicly include Chris Madden, Tanner English, and Brent Larson. We know Shane Clanton was without a ride, and there is no word on his dirt late model future either.

On the sprint car side, we got the High Limit announcement we'd been waiting on for a while, with the new national tour announcing yesterday that Tyler Courtney and the NOS Energy Drink 7BC will be their 16th full time squad in 2024. Courtney was the 2021 and 2022 All Star champion, and was probably on his way to a third straight title in 2023, before getting hurt in a crash at Eldora and being forced to sit out several races. Even though he didn't win the title, Sunshine did earn 11 wins this past year, including nine with the All Stars, and that late season Outlaw score at Port Royal. Once it feels like the High Limit and Outlaw fields are locked up, I would like to go through championship chances for all the teams. But at the moment with High Limit, it's clearly Brad Sweet at the top, Rico Abreu a close second, and then I think Sunshine is probably in the next group that includes Brent Marks and Zeb Wise. These guys should be right in the mix for that first round of charters following 2024. We are still about six weeks away from the High Limit opener, and I think we will creep a little closer to 20 full time High Rollers come East Bay. 17 sounds like a lock, but 18 or 19 is in play. On the flip side, the Outlaws are at 11 currently, with at least one more still to commit publicly. If you want more on High Limit, check out new series announcer Chase Raudman's YouTube channel. He's going to be posting season previews for all their full timers, and already has videos up for Spencer Bayston and Zeb Wise. I'll link to Chase's channel below and add it to the featured dirt racing channels at youtube.com/dirtrackr.

Speaking of East Bay, it sounds like 2024 will really be the end for the Florida race track. The demise of the facility has been a topic of conversation for several years now, but it's remained in operation. Even when the track and the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series announced the quote "Grand Finale" for October this year, some questioned whether or not it was true. But according to track promoter Al Varnadore, starting November 7th this year, the 28 acres that East Bay sits on will officially change hands, and quote "There will be no more East Bay Raceway Park. It will be another mountain of dirt left over from mining phosphate" unquote. In a story posted to outsidegroove.com, Varnadore talked about the challenges of operating the track, especially during their weekly racing season. He told Outside Groove that they do well financially in January and February, but that they don't make money the rest of the season. He pointed towards the rising series purses and the lack of streaming revenue as problems, and predicted that most weekly racing will be replaced by special events in the next five to ten years. You can see the full story about the track's end over at outsidegroove.com. East Bay's WinterNationals schedule starts January 17th and runs through February 17th. It includes Top Gun sprint cars, Crate Racin USA divisions, UMP modifieds, the Lucas late models, High Limit sprint cars, and 360 sprint cars. The track's regular weekly season will run March through October.

As we creep ever closer to the Chili Bowl, the entry list has swelled yet again. Cars will be on track this coming Sunday for a full practice day, before racing gets going officially on Monday with the first of five prelim nights. At least check, the list sits at 360 cars, and we now have prelim night lineups set and available to view over at chilibowl.com. Those lineups will probably continue to move and shift a bit over the next few days as cars get added and things get settled. If you are going to be playing in any of the Chili Bowl pools, those should be out soon as well. Keep an eye on social media for those links and details. Don't forget too, if you are playing the pools, grab a month of DIRTRACKR Plus for just $4.99. I've got all the Chili Bowl feature results back through the very beginning of the event, plus prelim nights back through 2005 all in the database. Over 2000 drivers are represented with full stat breakdowns, and analytical tools available like driver comparisons. You can also look through all the USAC national midget stuff, plus Xtreme Outlaw Midgets. With several big time guys not racing, like Kyle Larson, like Rico Abreu, like Christopher Bell, it feels like there are fewer locks these days for those picks, so the research will be key in making the right selections. You can do all of your pool research in just one place, and you can cancel anytime. Get details over at dirtrackr.com/getplus.

Looking around the other dirt racing shows this week, Passing Points has another down under episode, Hoogie's Garage has Steve Sinclair and Steve Beitler, Plum Wild has Lucas Ruark, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, Dirt Track Confessions, and Getting up to Speed. To see all the podcasts and their recent episodes, visit dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's it for the show today. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com and check out the streaming schedule. There is some racing that starts today down in Arizona with the IMCA Winter Nationals getting rolling at Cocopah Speedway. Ten race nights through January 13th, with modifieds, stock cars, northern sport mods, hobby stocks, and sport compacts all set to compete. Tickets and pit passes are available, and you can watch the action live on Speed Sport TV.

Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!