Dirt Empire Magazine - Vol. 3 - Issue 16 - Jun/Jul 2023

Issue 16 • Volume 03

JUNE/JULY 2023

OWNER/PUBLISHER

Adam Cornell

EDITOR

Justin Zoch

SUBSCRIPTION COORDINATOR

Abigail Cornell

WEBSITE COORDINATOR

Shaun Cornell

WORDS

Ashley Allinson, Ashley Zimmerman, Bert Lehman, Bill Blumer Jr., Bob Mays, Brett Swanson, Chad Meyer, Chris Romano, Cyndi Stiffler, Danny Burton, David Sink, Doug Kennedy, Doug Seeger, Elizabeth Madley, Eric Arnold, Gary Costa, Greg Soukup, Jessica Jenkins, Joanne Cram, Joe Duvall, Kelley Carlton, Kevin Oldham, Larry Weeks, Lee Ackerman, Melissa Coker, Mike Spieker, Odell Suttle, Scott Erickson, TJ Buffenbarger, Todd Heintzelman, Vahok Hill

PICTURES

Adam Mollenkopf, Andy Newsome, Bill Miller, Bill Taylor, Bob Mays, Bob Yurko, Brad Plant, Brandon Anderson, Brendon Bauman, Brian Bouder, Bruce Palla, Buck Monson, Buzz Fisher, Carey Fox, Chad Wells, Chris McDill, Chris Pederson, Conrad Nelson, Dan DeMarco, Danny Howk, David Campbell, David Giles, David Hill, David Pratt, Dennis Krieger, Don Laidlaw, Donna Rosenstengel, Doug Burgess, Doug Vandeventer, Glen Starek, Gordy O’Field, Greg Stanek, Greg Teel, Heath Lawson, Jacy Norgaard, Jason Orth, Jason Spencer, Jason Wells, Jeff Bylsma, Jim Collum Jr., Jim DenHamer, Jim Zimmerline, Jimmy Jones, Joe Orth, Joe Secka, John Dadalt, John Lee, John Rothermel, Jon Holliday, Joseph Swann, Josh James, Ken Kelly, Lee Greenawalt, Leif Tillotson, Mark Funderburk, Mark Sublett, Matt Butcosk, Michael Diers, Michael Moats, Mike Campbell, Mike Damic, Mike Feltenberger, Mike Howard, Mike Musslin, Mike Ruefer, Millie Tanner, Patrick Miller, Paul Arch, Paul Gould, Quentin Young, Rich LaBrier, Richard Barnes, Rick Neff, Rick Sherer, Robert Wing, Rocky Ragusa, Ron Gilson, Ron Sloan, Ryan Northcote, Scott Swenson, Seth Stone, Steve Walters, Tanner Dillin, Tara Chavez, Terry Page, Tim Aylwin, Tim Hunt, Todd Boyd, Tom Macht, Tony Hammett, Travis Branch, Troy Junkins, Tyler Carr, Tyler Rinkin, Zach Yost, Zakary Kriener

6

8

PAGE 18

Mike Marlar takes a moment out of his busy racing schedule to answer a few of our questions before he jets off to another victory in his 157.

FEATURES

14 #DEASKS – TYLER NICELY

We took your questions to one of the best modified racers in the country and you wanted us to ask him about his heroes, how he has become such a good mentor himself and why in the world he wanted to run a kart track while also transitioning into a late model career!

18 MIKE MARLAR – THREE DECADES OF WINNING

Sometimes it’s the quiet ones. Mike Marlar has been a force in the world of dirt late model racing for over 30 years and he just keeps putting up wins and chasing Crown Jewels without courting controversy or letting the noise get to him. We get his thoughts on his whole career and have him assess his sport.

24 REVIEW IN PICTURES – KING AMERICA XII MODIFIEDS

While all the mod maniacs dodged showers throughout the weekend, Minnesota’s Dan Ebert didn’t mind at all as he drove to a dominating victory for his first ever victory in Humboldt Speedway annual clash.

34

JUSTIN PECK – A GRINDER GETS GOING GOOD

Justin Peck spent a long time racing his family car, ride hopping and trying to find the right place – and division – but he landed with Tom Buch’s race team and they are building a World of Outlaws level team. It’s been a grind for Peck but the dream has never been so close for Peck.

50 HEATHER LYNE – THE MAGIC BEHIND DENNIS ERB JR.

Heather Lyne and Dennis Erb Jr. have been racing together for a long time and the newly minted two-time Crew Chief of the Year shares her story about not worrying about fitting into a man’s world and how her engineering degree is her secret weapon in the pit area.

Photo: Austin Bumgarner

fore WORD

DELETED

I hate that whole concept. It goes against everything I believe in. It actually makes me angry just thinking about it.

By Adam Cornell

COULD YOU IMAGINE you are working on your car, getting it ready to race and suddenly the company that sold you your carburetor a few years back, comes into your shop, unbolts the carburetor you purchased and removes it from the car. As they walk out the door with YOUR carburetor they say “Oh, you can’t use this one anymore. But you can purchase our new model at full price. Thanks for being a loyal customer.”

I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t make it too far out of the shop without some kind of blunt instrument being used on a cranium or two.

With the digital world that’s absolutely what has been happening recently. As we were preparing to layout this issue, we got a notification through our software that the fonts we’d purchased several years back would no longer work and we’d have to buy new ones. Not different fonts, it would be the exact same type face, the exact same look and would do the exact same thing that the old ones used to do… but we’d have to buy the new version if we wanted to use it now. The old version literally would no longer work in the software. They completely obsoleted it.

This is the new world. You will not own anything. Nothing tangible will be in your possession. You will rent everything and if you don’t pay this month’s fee, you will no longer be able to use it. Your children and grandchildren will not inherit anything from you. Your rental subscriptions will terminate, everything will be gathered up and removed and you will no longer exist in any form. Deleted. It’s like some bad sci-fi film from the late 60s staring Charlton Heston or something.

It’s one of the reasons I wanted to produce an ink and paper magazine as opposed to just starting a blog or podcast or website. Don’t get me wrong, I read blogs, watch/listen to podcasts and view way too many websites, all on a daily basis. I’ve downloaded digital books and I’ll stream movies. But when it comes right down to it, I don’t actually own any of them. I could view them one day and go back to look again and poof, deleted, gone, kaputski. The company could just say, “Oh, yeah. That title will no longer work on your player or reader or whatever. You’ll have to buy the new version.” It is the new principle: rental over ownership ushered in by the age of the internet. You get to experience it but you don’t get to own it, not really.

When it comes to print, there’s a staying power. It’s an historical snapshot into that moment in time. Much in the same way that a photo captures a split second of racing action, a magazine or book captures and preserves a moment that cannot be taken away unless it’s purposefully destroyed. There’s value to that. You will have to come into my house and physically burn my copies of Dirt Empire Magazine to get rid of them. And to completely destroy any history of it, you’d have to track down every subscriber and every retail purchaser and break into their homes and burn their copies. Good luck with that. It makes me feel pretty good that Dirt Empire will be out there for a very long time.

It’s one of the reasons we here at Dirt Empire spend so much time putting each issue together. I recognize that there’s a good chance that an issue of Dirt Empire will be in someone’s hands after I’m dead and gone. Hopefully that’s a long time from now, but I think about these things. Imagine: the year is 2067. An historian is looking back on the early 21st century and chronicling the history of American dirt track racing. The same magazine in your hands right now is being carefully handled in, say, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Museum. They look at the

photos and read the articles. They study the shape of the vehicles, the images of the faces of the people featured, the photos of the internal combustion engines, the dirt, the smoke, the action; all frozen in time for eternity.

Viewed through this spectrum, every issue is a collector’s issue. That’s pretty cool. It makes me want to work harder and causes me to appreciate every moment I have the privilege of helming this title even more. I’m honored that you’re reading these words and that as you peruse the rest of this issue, something you see will excite, intrigue, inform or otherwise entertain you. And maybe, just maybe it will be fun and interesting enough that you’ll come back and read it again, maybe a couple of times. That brings me the greatest amount of joy.

I promise I will never come into your home or office, swipe it out of your hands and tell you there’s a new version you’ll have to buy now. This magazine is yours to keep. Forever. You now own a part of the Empire. I don’t know about you, but that’s reassuring and feels pretty good.

Now, before someone deletes it, let’s go racing!

Photo: Melissa Tousley

from the EDITOR

By Justin Zoch

I’VE ALWAYS ENJOYED Jacksonville Speedway and probably always will. I’ll admit, it has been a long time since I’ve been there, as it is a good eight-hour haul from my home in Minnesota, but there was a time when I snuck over to J-Ville three to four times per year to check out one of the country’s best quarter miles. It was one of the few Friday night weekly sprint car programs in the Midwest and was one of the tentpole tracks that kept sprint car racing alive in the Illini State through the 1990s and early 2000s before the advent of the MOWA Series gave stability and notoriety to the region. It gave a place to race for the likes of the Weyants, Standridges and the guy who won everything when I was going – Bobby Hawks.

It’s an awesome place with a classic covered grandstand and a small town feel that makes for my favorite type of

“IN ONE OF THOSE ‘WHY NOT’ MOODS. NOT SURE THIS HAS EVER BEEN DONE BEFORE, AND SOME IN THE BIZ MIGHT THINK I’M CRAZY FOR DOING IT – BUT THOUGHT I’D SHARE THE ECONOMICS OF OPENING NIGHT – WHICH WE WERE THRILLED WITH… HERE’S THE BUSINESS-SIDE OF FRIDAY NIGHT AND THIS ISN’T FOR ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN FULL TRANSPARENCY WITH OUR FANS AND TEAMS”

racing experience and I loved those nights, if not the drives home. Despite the growth of the sport as a whole, I would consider weekly sprint car racing to be on the endangered list going forward and I love what Jacksonville has done and has been able to do with their program. But, it hasn’t been easy and they had an excellent post giving great insight into the economics of weekly racing on their Facebook page recently after their 2023 season opener. I’ve excerpted some of the best bits below because it really does show just how tight the margins are for racetracks these days.

“In one of those ‘why not’ moods. Not sure this has ever been done before, and some in the biz might think I’m crazy for doing it – but thought I’d share the economics of opening night – which we were thrilled with… Here’s the businessside of Friday night and this isn’t for any purpose other than full transparency with our fans and teams… There were 702 adults that were in the grandstand. 50 of those were season passes. 105 teenagers. Total grandstand deposit was $10,300. There were 378 pit passes sold at $30 for a total deposit of $11,350. Total deposit was $21,650 from the gates. Expenses: Payout to racers was $16,850… Help and ambulance + $1,950, Insurance $1,000. Power and lights roughly $250. Water roughly $250. Rent monthly $1,000. Total expenses = $21,300. So, from racing operations alone on a really good opening night, the was about $300 right side up.”

The post then details that the expenses picture does not account for gas and diesel for their equipment or an expensive tire that needed to be purchased or any number of other ongoing expenses that come up every race night.

The post continues “Of course, that’s not the whole picture. Fortunately, we have some great sponsors, we sell food and beverage, get a little from Dirtvision and host parties out there to keep the ship afloat over the course of the year. I’m totally not complaining about and we all enjoy every minute we get to operate a race

track… I point this out to illustrate why we charge what we charge… why we pay what we pay… why every bit of signage/ advertising we can find makes a world of difference to a race track for unexpected bills and improvements and why we just can’t hand out season passes to every fundraiser or charity that asks – or let every friend we’ve ever met in for free.”

This is such a reasonable and rational explanation about the reality of running a racetrack these days and it deserves a wider audience. The post ends with a lesson for all of us as we get out to support our tracks this summer and decide where to spend our entertainment dollars. If you love something, you’ve got to support it anyway you can. As the post concluded, “Moral of the story – this isn’t an us vs. them game. This is an all of us together can make it work game.”

NOTES & SUMMER NATIONALS ANNOUNCE WEEKLY POINT FUNDS

A new points fund distribution has been established for the 38th edition of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals – one that rewards Late Model drivers for their weekto-week commitment to racing as much of The Hell Tour as possible.

The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum hopes to see you this summer for our “Track Tribute to Williams Grove” exhibit, which will be on display May 1 through October 1, and features the cars, memorabilia, and much more from one of the most revered tracks in sprint car and motor racing history, Williams Grove Speedway near Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Up to ten sprint cars and several items of memorabilia will be exhibited in honor of the famous central Pennsylvania half-mile!

The cars that are scheduled to be on display this summer include the John Gerber #15 driven by Tommy Hinnershitz to the first feature win ever at Williams Grove in May of 1939, Ted Horn’s “Baby” #1, the Miracle Power Special #2 driven by Hinnershitz, the Roy Morral #880 driven by Smokey Snellbaker, the Bogar #99 driven by Jan Opperman, the “1 of 1” #69 driven by Van May, the Boops Aluminum #1 driven by Lynn Paxton, the Weikert #29 driven by Doug Wolfgang, the Harz #88H driven by Fred Rahmer and the Beam #88 driven by Todd Shaffer.

“We feel this is a tremendous tribute to Williams Grove,” says Museum Coordinator Bill Wright. “We’ve tried to take a good cross section of cars and memorabilia from one of the most historic venues in the east. We’d be remiss if we didn’t thank the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing (EMMR), the Woodland Auto Display in California, Brian Coffey, Jeff Durr, Adail Gayhart, Barry Klinedinst, Bob Risser and Todd Shaffer. I think we have a collection that will invoke the memories of any sprint car fan who has ventured to Central Pennsylvania!”

Similar to the weekly bonus points funds that Summer Nationals competitors have been accustomed to competing for, the entire 2023 Late Model championship points fund will be distributed part-by-part on a weekly basis. The sum of $125,500 will be paid out in total, awarded to the top-10 finishers in each individual week’s points standings.

Overall points standings through all five weeks will still be kept, and a 2023 DIRTcar Summer Nationals champion will be determined, despite its weekly prize money distribution.

At the end of each week of racing, the top-10 drivers in that week’s points standings will be awarded points fund checks – $10,000 to first place, $5,000 to second, $3,000 for third and so on. To be fully eligible to receive a points fund check in any given week, drivers must have a valid 2023 DIRTcar Membership and attempt to qualify for each race in that week.

OHIO LANDMARK KEAR’S SPEED SHOP CLOSES

After 54 racing seasons, the iconic Kear’s Speed Shop in Ohio has officially closed. According to a message on their website “The building is empty, the sign is down, and the checkered flag has officially waved for Kear’s Speed Shop. As we move onto our next chapter, we wanted to pause and thank our racing family for all of your support and friendships over the past 54 years. We

also wanted to thank those of you who helped with our closing in one way or another. We have great memories that we will always treasure, and we look forward to seeing you again in the future.”

Congratulations to Shirley Kear and the entire operation on a wonderful career in motorsports and best of luck in the next chapter of their lives.

Photo: Rick Sherer

2022 Summer Nationals Champion Bobby Pierce.

Photo: Mark Funderburk

skull CANDY

HOW DRIVERS PROTECT their noggins has always been a place for self expression and artistry.

We love checking out the helmets about as much as we love checking out the cars while strolling through the pits.

Every once in awhile, we see a few helmet designs that we think the rest of the

model racer Max Blair used his helmet for two things - show how much he loves Miami Dolphins football and to give props to his two kidsMclane and Hayes.

No sponsors, no logos, just clean pure lines for Brian Shirley.

Brandon Sheppard ran a special Veteran Golfers Association scheme at the Gateway Dome and had this special helmet to accompany it.

Photo: Ryan Roberts

Photo: Ryan Roberts

Photos: Ryan Roberts

Late

The beauty of being a race car driver like Forrest Trent is that you never really have to stop playing with your Hot Wheels and living out those dreams you drew up on the living room carpet.

Photo: Ryan Roberts

Photo: John Lee

Photo: John Lee

Garrett Smith goes with a clean vintage look on his lid (above left) while Minnesota sprint car racer Trevor Serbus goes with a different kind of vintage look with his bomber style helmet.

We appreciate photographer John Lee climbing up on the cage to get the finest details of Adam Andretti’s helmet before he pushed off at the Chili Bowl.

DIRT EMPIRE

ASKS

TYLER NICELY

DIRT EMPIRE ASKS NICELY...

Dirt Empire is taking questions provided by YOU and will seek out your favorite drivers to get you the answers to your long awaited questions! All you have to do to submit your question is just Like Dirt Empire on any social media and include #DEasks with your question. Then watch for the next issue to see if your question is featured!

BY ASHLEY ZIMMERMAN

IF THERE’S A CHALLENGE to be had in the world of dirt track racing, Owensboro, Kentucky’s Tyler Nicely might just tackle it and with his past history used as the predictor, he may very well conquer it. A veteran on the Summer Nationals Hell Tour, Nicely is very familiar with grit,

determination, and the drive that it takes to find success while under extreme pressure. It came as no shock when towards the end of the 2022 season, Nicely began to test and develop his driving behind the wheel of a late model and begin the transition into a lifelong dream of racing late models fulltime. As if the delicate balance of a summer racing schedule in a modified sprinkled with late model races wasn’t going to be challenge enough, Nicely recently added the title of track promoter for local go-kart track Rockport Raceway to his now growing list of endeavors. Nicely’s Hell Tour successes and top contender status is a strong indicator he intends to put nothing short of 100% maximum effort into all of his 2023 racing goals on and off the track.

With such an extensive range of

experiences, Tyler Nicely made for a more than perfect candidate for this issue’s segment of #DEAsks, where Dirt Empire takes your fan submitted questions and picks the minds of drivers across dirt track racing to give not just the answers but the emotion and story behind just how they have the answer!

Dirt Empire: You’ve recently taken over a local go-kart track, Rockport Raceway, as a promoter. What made you want to become a promoter?

TN: Two years ago, I promoted an asphalt track in town, where we just had week night shows. It was pretty successful. The guy that used to promote this track, I was over at his shop, he asked me if I would be interested in doing it. I talked it over with a few friends, and my family, and we all agreed to give it a try. So, here we are.

Photo: Rocky Ragusa

Photo: Ryan Roberts

DE: What do you think will be some of the biggest challenges as a promoter?

TN: My biggest challenge will be trying to balance my summer racing schedule, since I’ll still be running my full summer schedule with the Hell Tour for National Points with the modified. That will be the biggest challenge, finding balance to still be able to race.

DE: What are some of the things you look forward to accomplishing and new ideas you want to bring to the table?

TN: The racetrack has been in our area for quite some time, so mainly just upgrading the racetrack and having a good turnout. I like doing stuff for the kids. There’s not a whole lot to do in Owensboro [Kentucky], so on Wednesday nights, we’ll have power wheels races for the kids and also have kids’ activities alongside of the go-kart racing events.

DE: Speaking of karts, you have quite a bit of experience in the world of go-karts having a team and helping Cole Falloway. Do you think having the driver’s perspective will help you on the promoter’s side?

TN: Cole is a really good friend, so whenever we started racing together, we started going to a lot more go-kart races, which allowed me to see how a lot of people run their shows and see how we could make things better for drivers. One of the big things we did at the asphalt track was increasing the pay back. We had a couple of races where if you made the feature, you made all of your money back. That’s one thing with go-kart racing, if you don’t make the top three, you aren’t making any money. We’re just trying to

give back to the racers a little bit and run a fast efficient show to make people want to come back.

DE: We’ve had the opportunity to interview a lot of young drivers who have help from drivers who kind of mentor them. Specifically we’ve interviewed Cole Falloway who credits getting a lot of help from you. What has driven you to want to give back and help younger drivers?

TN: Well, I was fortunate enough that when I started racing to have Paul Miles - he was actually the one that got me started racing. Then when I switched over to Elite Chassis, Nick Hoffman and I have been really good buddies and they’ve always been there for me. Cole comes from a good family, we’ve been family friends, so when he made the step up to a modified, I told him that I would help him out. He’s actually the one, that if it wasn’t for him running so well in go-karts, our team wouldn’t run as near as good

as it does. It just kind of balances out, I keep him running in the modified, and he keeps us running in the go-karts.

DE: Cole has been not only successful in the go-karts, but also in the modified. Is it as fulfilling for you to watch someone you’ve helped win versus actually winning yourself?

TN: You know, Cole is very thankful, he’s very thankful for the little bit that I help him, and I enjoy helping people who are thankful. It’s very rewarding knowing that the both of us can go just about anywhere in the nation inside of the UMP world and compete at the top.

DE: What would you say has been some of the most valuable advice you were told starting out that you could pass along to other drivers at the start of their careers?

TN: The biggest thing, and the thing that took me a while to learn, you have to be aggressive, but you also have to be smart

“THEY’RE REALLY FUN TO DRIVE, AND I’M SURE THE LATE MODEL WILL BE FUN TO DRIVE ONCE I FIGURE THEM OUT, BUT I JUST LIKE DRIVING A MODIFIED.”

-TYLER NICELY

Photo: Rocky Ragusa

Nicely and Cole Followay (left) have become great friends and they spent some time together at Fairbury last summer.

Photo: Ryan Roberts

when you’re aggressive. You have to be there when it counts, you have to get as many positions as you can. Be smart behind the wheel, make good decisions, don’t put yourself in a place that’s going to take you out of the race.

DE: You’ve recently made the jump yourself from a modified to a late model. What is the most challenging part of making that transition?

TN: The biggest challenge has been learning how to drive the late model. I drove a crate late model and it was totally different in the way that you attack the race car. I feel like on the late model side, the harder you can drive the car, the faster you’re going to go. I’m really looking forward to transitioning fulltime to the late model, I want to run my full modified schedule this year, and then hopefully within the next year we can go fulltime late model racing. That’s obviously everybody’s dream as a dirt racer is to

make it to that stage, so we’re going to dabble in some races.

DE: What do you think made you want to make the move from the modified to the late model?

TN: Just the recognition, the way the dirt late model world is right now. That’s the top tier, there’s recognition with everything getting televised or streamed, more drivers and teams are getting noticed as far as sponsors and money goes. Those are obviously the best drivers on dirt right now, and I just want to be a part of it.

DE: Speaking some of this season, you said you are going to return to the Hell Tour. What are some of your favorite stops on the Hell Tour or favorite stops on your schedule in general?

TN: The biggest race I look forward to every year is the Merrill Downey at

Lawrenceburg Speedway. That race and also the Let It Ride 55 at Tyler County. That was the biggest race I had ever won, so I look forward to that every year. Besides that, on the Hell Tour I just look forward to getting to race every single day. I love racing, and I love being able to get to do as much of it as possible.

DE: Transitioning from the late model to the modified, what do you think you’ll miss the most about running a modified?

TN: Quite a bit, maybe. That’s what I started out in; I have a love for modified racing. Modified racing is tough, it’s not as tough as late model racing, but with as much as we travel to all of the big races when you show up, there’s at least five to seven guys that if their cards go right, any of them could win. They’re really fun to drive, and I’m sure the late model will be fun to drive once I figure them out, but I just like driving a modified.

Photo: Paul Arch

Nicely getting after it at one of his favorite tracks - Fairbury in Illinois. He’s had some of his biggest moments there.

Photo: Rocky Ragusa

Nicely getting some early season laps at Volusia Speedway Park to kick off the 2023 season.

DE: What have been some of your career highlights or things that really stick out to you when you look back over your racing career?

TN: Winning Eldora for one, also the Fairbury Super Nationals, we’ve won a couple preliminary nights there. We’ve raced both of the dirt miles in the modified, the Indy Mile and the Du Quoin mile and that was really neat with the modified. Of course, winning the Merrill Downey in 2015, I feel like that was where I really got my name out there, so I’ll always go back to that race. That race kind of got me going, it was really key for me.

DE: Who has been your biggest help when adjusting to the late model? Who do you go to for questions?

TN: Now a days, it’s Ryan Rosenow with Jerovetz Shocks. He’s my modified shock builder but he’s gotten me hooked up with a couple of people, and hooked up with Fox Shocks, so he’s probably been the most help. I still go to Nick Hoffman. Last year, when we went to Tri-City Speedway, he gave me a couple of ideas to try. Right now, I feel like I have to become a better driver in the late model before a lot of people can help me. I have to figure out how to drive these things and all of that.

DE: What was your why for wanting to race and make a career out of racing?

TN: When I started racing, I always wanted to do it for a living. I’ve watched Nick Hoffman, Kyle Strickler, guys like

them, and they’ve all made a living at it. I obviously want to be a fulltime late model driver. But, if that doesn’t go to plan, we have a family business running a salvage yard, we’re kind of running a mobile crushing crew right now, obviously if racing doesn’t go well and I can’t make a living out of it, I’ve got a plan to be able to take care of my family, make sure there is food on the table and clean diapers. Hopefully though, if I’m smart about things, things will all go the right way and we’ll be racing late models fulltime.

DE: Has there ever been a time in your career where you doubted yourself

and if you should keep going?

TN: There’s been a couple of times. With the modified, when we were racing those fulltime, and things weren’t going our way, and we weren’t winning, you feel like you aren’t where you should be. I’ve thought about it then, but my heart always comes back to just wanting to race for a living. My dad did sell out one time, and I was lucky enough to get a ride for a year with another guy, things didn’t pan out, so then my dad bought back in and we just keep plugging away. My dad has always told me, quitters never win, so we just keep trucking along through the tough times.

Photo: Josh James

Photo: Ryan Roberts

Victory lane at Red Hill Raceway in late April, 2023.

3 DECADES OF WINNING

BY ASHLEY ZIMMERMAN

WHEN IT COMES TO racing careers defined by longevity, consistency, and success, in the world of late model racing it would be remiss to overlook the nearly three-decade long career of Tennessee native Mike Marlar. Throughout thirty years of racing, Mike Marlar has amassed nearly three hundred feature wins and

MIKE

claimed a World of Outlaws championship in 2018. Even more notably, Marlar has not only climbed behind the wheel in NASCAR, but he’s tried his luck in a Cup Series Car, the Xfinity Series, and the Nascar Truck Division. This includes representing the world of dirt track racing in impeccable fashion by placing fourth at the 2019 Eldora NASCAR trucks race, his debut into the NASCAR ranks.

Marlar’s extensive win list, while

impressive wholly in statistics, pays an incredible homage to the unmatched competitive consistency Marlar has demonstrated throughout the course of his career. Most notably, Marlar has won the Knoxville Nationals three times over in 2016, 2017, and 2021. Feats that teams with large corporate backings and commitments to a national touring series dream of obtaining, Marlar has accomplished in underdog fashion.

MARLAR

Marlar has clearly never been the driver to count out, more than evident in a most recent battle at Volunteer Speedway where Marlar finished fourth behind favorites Kyle Larson and Jonathan Davenport. With fans deep in the buzz about driver crossovers into NASCAR, and contenders for large purse races, Dirt Empire took time to chat with the veteran of both and get his take on it.

Dirt Empire: Having had a chance to race at all levels of NASCAR, was NASCAR something you were aiming to get to?

Mike Marlar: Not early in my career but as my career progressed it became something I was more interested in.

DE: When it comes to late model drivers crossing over to race NASCAR

on dirt, you’ve had some of the most notable success finishing fourth in the NASCAR trucks race at Eldora in 2019. How did you give yourself the best advantage to finish so well? What do you contribute to your success in that race?

MM: For that particular race, I had to use some strategy and that race was slick and slow enough that I could use my

Photo: Mike Musslin

experience and not rely as much on the equipment.

DE: When drivers are given the opportunity to cross over to NASCAR opportunities on dirt, what do you think are some of the most overlooked factors that fans should take into consideration when they are looking at driver’s results or potentially maybe criticizing that the driver’s experience wasn’t a success?

MM: I think you have to consider how well funded the team is and their access to technology. I would also add that if you look back at about any NASCAR driver’s career, they tore up a lot of stuff and made a lot of mistakes before they got to be what fans probably consider a successful driver.

DE: If given more opportunities to cross back over to NASCAR, would you take them? Would you prefer they were asphalt or dirt opportunities?

MM: I would love to do some asphalt racing on the one mile or bigger tracks.

DE: Glancing back over your career wins, it’s very notable to mention you have won quite a few races more than once, including the Knoxville Nationals, which shows a very high level of consistency in your program. Is this something you’ve naturally built or have you worked to build consistency like this?

Photo: Ryan Roberts

Marlar rockin’ the black livery at a World of Outlaws event in Plymouth, Indiana, during the 2021 season.

Marlar celebrates a Prairie Dirt Classic preliminary win but a finale night victory in the Crown Jewel has eluded him thus far. Photo: Ryan Roberts

MM: A little bit of both. Some tracks you have a natural feel for but me and my team do work hard to bring fast race cars to the track every time.

DE: You don’t typically commit to and run with one series. What is the reasoning behind this? How do you feel your career has benefitted by not running with a set series all of the time?

MM: The honest answer is that I have always had a small team with no corporate backing so we never really are able to make plans beyond the immediate future. It has probably hurt my career to not be able to run a series every year. On the flip side to that, it does give us additional time to prepare if we need to take the time to do so.

DE: Is there a race each year that stands out as one you’re always excited about running at? Is there a reason for it? Atmosphere? Racing surface? Competition level?

MM: There is not a particular one I am excited for but I am generally excited for the summer season. I look forward to leaving the shop, staying on the road, racing as much as I can, for as much money as I can, against the best competition possible.

DE: When you started racing, who did you look up to and hope your career would be just as incredible?

MM: With lots of good racers to take inspiration from, I never aspired to be like anyone else. I have always wanted to give it my best effort night in and night out and just see what that effort tallies up to in the end.

DE: Having had such a lengthy career, how have you watched the sport of dirt track racing and late models specifically evolve and what have been some of the changes you’ve been the most supportive of? How has it changed in ways that you see as negatives?

MM: I like how the sport has evolved. Our cars are cooler and faster than they have ever been which keeps me interested in evolving with it. I think the sport is in good hands with World of Outlaws and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series calling most of the shots. I think they give us enough freedom for evolution and keep us tamed down so it doesn’t get out of control.

DE: Is there a specific type of track that you feel suits your driving style the most? How do you prepare for the ones you know challenge your driving style?

MM: I think clean, smooth, momentum tracks where you can move around in multiple grooves best fits my style. For the ones I struggle on, I watch a lot of videos to see where I am missing it and study aeriel photos. It’s the ones that I struggle on that keeps me interested in going back until I figure them out. I want to go to the ones I run bad at more than the ones I run good at [laughs]!

DE: With over two hundred wins throughout your career, you’ve obviously had the chance to experience your fair share of low points as well. How do you work through those times and keep pushing to get to the next win?

MM: We never let our lows get too low. At the end of the day, we still get to race for a living. We know if we do our jobs to our potential, the wins will come.

DE: Is there someone you turn to for advice or just motivation when you find yourself struggling the most? How have they helped you the most? MM: I am very fortunate to have a good circle of people that can help me with advice for just about anything. For motivation, I just look at the bank account!

Photo: Paul Arch

I LIKE HOW THE SPORT HAS EVOLVED. OUR CARS ARE COOLER AND FASTER THAN THEY HAVE EVER BEEN WHICH KEEPS ME INTERESTED IN EVOLVING WITH IT.

- MIKE MARLAR

DE: Everyone loves to ask about the wins that stand out the most, but what’s a win that sticks out as the one that got away?

MM: I can’t really think of one that “got away,” but I have been on the podium at the World 100 and would love to have just passed one or two more cars.

DE: What are some of the things you focused on during the off season, that you hope to see improvement on during the 2023 race season?

MM: Not really related to the race team but I fractured two vertebrae in my back at Wheatland last season and I did a lot of physical therapy in the off season to get strength back in my back.

DE: What would you classify as your team’s biggest accomplishment in the 2022 race season?

MM: We had a great season, won 14 races, but probably our biggest accomplishment was the 21 straight top five finishes from mid-June to August on the national level.

Photo: Tyler Carr

Photo: Austin Bumgarner

Mike Marlar races NASCAR’s Kyle Larson in the 6 car. Marlar is one of the few racers from the late model universe that also has experience in NASCAR’s pavement circles.

review in PICTURES

Photos By: Todd Boyd

EBERT CLAIMS THE CROWN

ON A WET WEEKEND on the prairie, Minnesota’s Dan Ebert bested Terry Phillips to win his first ever King of America event at Humboldt Speedway in Kansas. Ebert took the lead from Thursday night preliminary feature winner Phillips just past the halfway point of the USTMS event and drove away from the field and kept the pace quick enough to beat the rain showers, which began falling as Ebert celebrated in victory lane. The score over Phillips and Iowa’s Cayden Carter was worth $12,000 and was his third career USMTS victory.

If you’re a fan of modified racing - any kind of modified racing - this page should prove that you need to get to the King of America race weekend in Kansas in 2024 for this kind of action. There are even modifieds on the undercard and Kris Jackson drove the J2 to the victory in the USRA B-mods finale on Saturday night.

Like a scene from a dirt track version of Days of Thunder, photographer Todd Boyd captured this gem during sunset at Humboldt Speedway.

John Sheets didn’t have a great start to his season as he described on his Facebook page - “It didn’t really go as planned. The car took a hard hit and flipped after getting into some oil from a motor that blew in front of us.” Cole Boston is in the 33C.

Chase Holland, who hails from Success, Missouri, didn’t quite find that but he did make the big show on Saturday, though he slipped from 12th to 20th in the rundown. Even so, the car looked awesome.

Jacob Hodges is in pursuit in his 14J USRA B-mod during action throughout a weekend that featured great racing that had to take place between rain showers throughout much of the weekend.

Indiana’s Will Krup gets a little familiar with the 58x of Oklahoma’s Gary Christian during A-main action. Krup would do the best of this duo with a 15th place run in the finale.

dirt on the PAGE

SAMMY! For a dirt track fan of any vintage, that simple word instantly conjures up emotions. Sammy Swindell is not only one of the most prolific winners in the history of sprint car racing but also one of the most interesting and polarizing figures in the history of the sport. The new full color “Sammy!” covers it all in his autobiography with the aid of two of our time’s greatest writers, Bones Bourcier and Bob Mays, and covers everything from his life on the road, his relationships with owners and fellow racers, his forays into NASCAR and Indy Car and all of the mechanical ideas and innovations that changed the sport forever.

The following excerpt is from his time paired with Harold Annett and the famous black TMC number one. His legend grew to new heights in this era and it offers real insight into his career at its midpoint. Sammy’s still winning and still active but took time to put it all down on paper so that we can all follow the journey of one of the most intriguing careers in the history of dirt track racing. As Bourcier said in his introduction, “This book is not an exhaustive, year-by-year look at Swindell’s career. He and I did not examine every little victory; hell, we may have even overlooked some of the big ones. The goal was to produce a story not of a racing career but of a racer, period. He’s a complex guy, but never a dull one. I know this much: Anyone who watched Sammy Swindell across the last 50 years saw something special. Now they can sit back and get his version of it.”

SAMMY!

50+ YEARS OF WINNING AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

THE MAN IN BLACK

GOODBYE, BLUE MAX; HELLO, TMC

My time with Raymond Beadle ended after 1987. He was entering a time in his life when he was downsizing his racing operations. I don’t know if he had stretched himself too thin or not, but I’m sure it took a lot of energy and a lot of money to run his NHRA team, his NASCAR team and our sprint car team. Something had to give, eventually. The first thing to go was the sprint car team and it wasn’t much later that the Funny Car team closed up. Three years later, Beadle shut down his NASCAR team, even after he and Rusty Wallace had won the Cup championship in 1989. Raymond got into ranching – cattle and horses – after he left racing. In 2014, he had some heart issues and he died that fall.

I won a lot of races driving for Raymond and I think it was good for sprint car racing that he fielded a team for five seasons. He raised the profile of the World of Outlaws; having a legend from another form of the sport involved in sprint cars was a big deal and so was the fact that Raymond attracted national sponsors.

But there’s something I’d like to clear up: Beadle’s team was not the unlimited-money deal that some people thought it was. After Raymond made up his mind to leave, he

offered to turn the whole deal over to me; he said he’d give me the truck and trailer and the Kodiak sponsorship, too. I looked at the numbers and at what it would take for me to start a team – putting up a shop, hiring people – and I kept coming back to the conclusion that the budget just wasn’t there. Raymond was able to make it work because he already had his facility in Dallas, plus the engine shop. Starting from scratch, without those assets, didn’t make sense.

I was okay with that, because this was another one of those situations where I slid right out of one ride and into another. Harrold Annett, who had bought Gary Stanton’s chassis business and moved it to Des Moines, had owned sprint cars for a while. Mike Brooks, an Iowa driver who’d done quite a bit of winning out that way, had driven Harrold’s cars for several seasons. I drove some Florida races for Harrold at the beginning of 1987 and it was obvious that he had good equipment.

At some point later in that same ’87 season, Kenny Jenkins suggested to Harrold that he put me in the car again. I can’t recall if Harrold and Mike had split up, or if they were having trouble with the car and were looking for my input. But I remember running Harrold’s car twice that autumn –in a special show at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City and a regular weekly event at

Knoxville – and winning both times.

Harrold and I talked about maybe doing something together in the future and, once it was obvious to me that Beadle’s team was closing, things came together pretty easily. I had myself a ride for 1988 and, as it turned out, for the next several years.

I mentioned earlier that LaVern Nance’s cars had been #1n long before I got there and that at Beadle’s team it was Raymond himself who decided that our cars would be #1. Well, Harrold’s cars had always been #12 and that’s the number we ran when I did those two races in 1987. But when we made up our minds to get together full-time, one request I had was that we run the car as #1. By that point, it felt like that was my number. Harrold and I were a good fit, because we had similar philosophies. His business, TMC Transportation, was one of the biggest flatbed trucking companies in the country and he insisted that every truck in his fleet was always clean. If you’ve seen those black and gold TMC trucks on the highway, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I felt the same about my racing: I liked my stuff to look right. I wanted it to stand out. If I could, I wanted it to look brand new every day.

So we fit together from that standpoint. I’m not sure Harrold would have found that to be the case with too many other sprint car racers in that period. A lot of owners and drivers couldn’t care less about that side of things.

Just like his trucks, Harrold would go the extra mile to have his race car – his whole team, really – looking good. He didn’t have a problem spending extra money to chrome everything and this was at a time when a lot of people loved to say that chrome didn’t make a race car any faster. Well, Harrold Annett definitely wanted his cars to be fast, but if they could also look better than everybody else’s, that was even better. I operated that way, too, going back to the days when I won those championships with

LaVern Nance’s cars. I wanted to get to the track with everything looking just right, with the car prepared and ready to race and, if possible, with everybody on the team cleaned up and looking good, too.

I would preach this to my guys: Let’s show up at the track with all the work done, wearing our team shirts, looking like we’re there to win. When everybody else in the pits is sweating, scrambling to get their cars ready and they see us calmly waiting for hot laps that can only work to our advantage. And in this game, you need to maximize every advantage you get.

What always amazed me is that more teams didn’t understand this. Race after race, they’d be working on their stuff right up until the last minute and we’d unload our nice, clean car from our nice, clean trailer. You

could tell from the looks on their faces that they were thinking, “How do they do that? Were they up all night? Don’t they sleep? How are we ever going to beat that?”

I’m sure that this intimidated the other teams, but there was more to it than that. It’s also about giving yourself the best possible work environment. It’s easier to open up the trailer and get to work when you know everything is in order.

Keeping everything clean and shiny has another benefit: It’s a good diversion.

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a lot of interesting people over the years and some of them had a real influence on me. Smokey Yunick was a good example. Smokey was one of the most famous mechanics in racing history, whether we’re talking about NASCAR or the Indy 500 and probably

Sammy scoots around Greg Wooley (Wooley 23) at Eagle, Nebraska in 1988. A few years previous, Swindell drove Wooley’s NCRA Dirt Champ car at the Devils Bowl. In that race Sammy lapped the Nance House car owned by LaVern’s son, Carrol, which ended up causing some hard feelings in the Nance camp. (Bob Mays photo)

The green flag waves at Oklahoma City in 1989. Mike Peters (Court Grandstaff 66) Donnie Crawford (TelStar 55), Andy Hillenburg (2), Aaron Berryhill (Berryhill 97) and Terry Gray (Scott Brown 61a) represent the competition for Sammy (Annett 1). (Joe Orth photo)

everyone reading this has heard of his shop in Daytona, with its sign: SMOKEY’S – BEST DAMN GARAGE IN TOWN.

I got to know Smokey pretty well, to the point where I considered us to be good friends. Our relationship started when somebody took me to his place and the two of us got talking. I asked Smokey a lot of questions and he asked me some and we just hit it off. I liked him and I could tell that he liked me.

Every February, when we were in that area to race at Volusia County Speedway, he’d let me park our motorhome and transporter at his shop and we’d work on our car there. Naturally, over the course of those days, we’d talk some more.

Smokey was into all kinds of racing, so he was open to new ideas. He would look at some of the things I was doing with our sprint car and say, “Hey, have you tried this?” Then he’d walk me around his shop and I’d ask him about different projects he’d done there. I think he saw that I had the same curiosity that he had.

Whenever we talked, that’s how it went. He’d share a little bit, I’d share a little bit and we’d both get smarter. Well, that’s probably not the best way to put it; I’m not sure anything I said made Smokey Yunick smarter. But I know I learned from him and I liked that he listened to me and thought about what I was saying.

Smokey was famous for bending the rules; that’s what he’s best remembered for. But he also had a sly way of having something weird on his car that attracted attention, something obvious, so that when he pulled into the pits, everyone would stare at that one weird thing and completely miss the trick stuff that was elsewhere on the car.

There’s an art to that: Lead their eyes over here and they won’t even look over there. I

used that same trick a lot myself.

In the stock cars and Indy Cars that Smokey worked on, he’d have a grille different from everybody else’s, or a mysterious bulge in the bodywork. With our sprint cars – especially when I drove for Harrold Annett – the paint and chrome had the same effect.

We chromed a lot of things, even our jackstands. That really got people’s attention. The guys from the local teams would be pointing at our jackstands, instead of looking at the parts of the car that would help me beat them later on.

You’d be surprised at how many racers, good racers, get distracted by that stuff.

Before he joined the TMC team, Chris Santucci worked on Bobby Davis Jr.’s car. He told me about somebody on that team complaining about all the equipment I had. I guess they figured that because my stuff always looked fresh, we must have had 12 engines and 10 rear ends and 15 of everything else. That’s why we won so much, they thought.

Apparently, one of those guys said, “Sammy’s always got new wheels, every single time he goes racing.”

All my chrome had gotten into their heads, I guess.

Then Chris came to work for me and he said, “Where are all the new wheels?” He told me about the way those guys had talked at Davis’s shop and that he expected to see boxes full of new wheels, all stacked up in the corner.

I said, “Nah, our stuff just looks new because we pay attention to it. We clean it, shine it and go down the road.”

We won 20 races in 1988. Fifteen of them were with the World of Outlaws: eight A-mains and the rest preliminary nights. The others were a strange mix: a weekly show at Knoxville, two non-sanctioned races in Illinois, a Manzanita feature with a new group called the United Sprint Association, even a USAC feature at Knoxville. USAC had been experimenting by running a handful of events with wings and this Knoxville race was one of those. It happened to fall on an open night for me and Knoxville was close to TMC headquarters in Des Moines, so we

Sammy (Harrold Annett 1) rips the lip around John Gerloff (Gary Swenson 24B) on his way to the front of the pack. (Bob Mays photo)

When the weather conditions warrant, the power of these outlaw sprint cars is easy to see. At Tulsa early in the 1988 season, Sammy has steam coming off his right rear because temperatures along with humidity in the track can cause a vapor to form on the surface of the rapidly spinning right rear tires. This is one of the reasons the World of Outlaws have been the most popular sprint car circuit for many years. (Bob Mays photo)

went over and won it.

All in all, it was a pretty good year. When we weren’t winning, we were close to the front and our consistency put us second in the final World of Outlaws points. We had great cars – Challenger chassis, Gaerte engines – and solid mechanical help. Chris Santucci and Clifford Young were with me when we got the TMC team rolling and Toby Lawless started working with us not too long after that. The four of us were the core group of that team for quite a while.

I kept the cars in Memphis and Harrold gave me a lot of freedom. He was another hands-off owner; he had enough on his mind every day, with the trucking company that he didn’t want to worry about his race team, too. That was just one more way that we were a good fit. At that point, he was the right car owner for me and I think I was the right driver for him.

In all the years he’d been a car owner, Harrold hadn’t sent his team on the road very often. Now his equipment had won from the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa all the way out to Manzanita in Phoenix and up into Minnesota and North Dakota. So Harrold was happy and our black TMC #1 was on its way to becoming one of the most recognizable sprint cars of its era.

Sammy enjoying a bit of solitude before the signal to push off. (Joe Orth photo)

JUSTIN PECK A GRINDER GETS GOING GOOD

BY ASHLEY ZIMMERMAN

ENTERING THE 2023 race season,

Justin Peck sat atop one of the highest of highs on the roller coaster ride called racing sprint cars. Peck, however, has experienced the lowest of lows in his path to secure his current fulltime ride with Buch Motorsports. In 2022, Justin Peck won a career-high eight All Star Circuit of Champions feature events (nine total wins for the season over all), finished second in series championship points for the second year in a row. Falling short of winning the championship, and goals of winning ten features, Peck raised the bar on unfinished business, setting sights on goals that will allow the team to build toward tackling the World of Outlaws. Having once felt the low of his outlaw

dreams potentially dashed through his own mistakes, Peck has learned the values of pushing forward, and winning the mental battle that races the hardest and quietest throughout every race season.

Despite having committed only to the High Limit series for the season, Peck has nearly 100 races packed into a schedule just as strenuous as running a national touring series for the Buch Motorsports team. Dirt Empire sat down with Justin Peck to talk about his schedule capable of allowing the Indiana native to not only finish business but begin to bring new life to the dream of being an Outlaw.

Dirt Empire: Let’s start by talking a little bit about this season.

You’ve committed to the High Limit Series schedule. This has left some wondering, where does that leave you

with the All Stars schedule?

Justin Peck: The only series we are committed to is the High Limit Series, which is the eleven or so races. We are planning on running as many races as we can - last year we ended up with 99 races. The car owner wants to run over 100 races this year. So, that’s our goal.

DE: Obviously the payout with the High Limit series makes the entire schedule quite enticing, but is there a particular stop on the schedule you are the most excited for or go into with the most confidence?

JP: Kokomo and Bridgeport, those two tracks a part of my top five racetracks that I’ve ever raced at. I’m really looking forward to going to Kokomo, that’s my favorite track in the whole country. I’ve run quite a few midget races there, and a few winged sprint car races there, I’m

Photo: Paul Arch

just excited to get back to there. Kokomo would for sure be number one.

DE: In January, you were quoted in an interview as being the hungriest for a win at Eldora. What makes Eldora special for you?

JP: Well, anyone that’s ever won at Eldora is a somebody and a lot of those guys have gone on to get into the Hall of Fame and become legends in our sport. All of the races at Eldora are huge, especially this year with the Eldora Million. Winning at Eldora makes your career, winning the Million would really make your career. I don’t see us [sprint car racing] having any higher paying race than that, so it would be really cool to win it. Eldora is just one of those tracks that has a lot of prestige. Like I said, if you win at Eldora, you are a somebody, and that would be pretty cool.

DE: With the Eldora Million being on everyone’s mind, will you have any visits to the track prior to the Million to help you prepare? How are you working toward preparing for such a large race?

JP: We’re going to be able to run the Let’s Race Two races with the World of Outlaws, so we’ll get to have two nights on the track before going for the night before the Million. For us, it will be kind of Knoxville style, or what we call Knoxville style at the shop. I’m going to guess most guys are going to go there with a fresh motor, that maybe only has one or two nights on it, to make sure everything is how they want it. I’m sure most guys are going to take their favorite car there. For us we are just going to try to dial in our car, find the right combination of everything that we want to run. I think we know what motor we want to run, which is the same motor we ran last year at the Kings Royal and set quick time with. We’ll try to go in there with a similar package, try to trick out some components, lighten our stuff up a bit more. It’s kind of funny, having the Million right before the Kings Royal, it almost feels like the Kings Royal is non-existent, but you’ll roll right from the Million into the Kings Royal, and have the potential to win two really, really big races.

DE: What have you done to help prepare you for such a rigorous schedule?

JP: It’s really a lot a lot of planning. I’m fortunate enough to work with some really cool guys. Sean [Strausbaugh] takes care of and plans out our trips, figures out the hotel reservations, and the logistics of

getting back and how everything will work, and that really helps a lot. You have to stay hydrated and really learn your body. You don’t really think about it, because it’s not like we’re going out there hitting each other, or running around a football field, but it’s still going to be 100 degrees outside, wearing a three-layer fire suit, a head sock, shoes, gloves, sitting next to a 200-degree motor, and it gets HOT. You really have to take care of your body and try to prepare yourself in that aspect.

DE: Are you still living in Indiana while the team is based out of Pennsylvania? How has this played a role in the logistics and planning?

JP: Well, I mean, I technically still live in Indiana. But I spend most of my time out in Pennsylvania and stay at the shop. Tom Buch has an apartment right there by the shop, so Kurt [Williamson] and I live there. It’s nice that I get to be in the shop almost every day. We have a gym in the office that I use. I try to lift every day and try to hang out at the shop and really try to figure out our program. It seems like

Kurt and I spend most of our nights sitting on the couch watching the last couple of races, trying to figure out our program and how to make our stuff better.

DE: In previous interviews you’ve mentioned that when you began transitioning into winged sprint car racing, you were working at Hoosier. Do you feel having an experience working for Hoosier has benefited you where tire issues are concerned? How did you balance having a day job in the motorsports industry and a schedule as competitive as yours?

JP: Hoosier Tire was great to me. I worked at Hoosier Tire Midwest, which is Mike Allgaier, Justin Allgaier, and the Allgaier family that take care of Hoosier Tire Midwest. They treated me really well, they let me take off whenever I had a race, and let me come back whenever I wanted to come back and work, so I really have to thank those guys. Over the past winter, I didn’t necessarily leave, but I wasn’t able to give my 100 percent best effort from an employee standpoint, I really wanted

Photo: Paul Arch

to focus on my racing and dial myself in as best as I could. I don’t think I ever had any inside scoop, but I had first-hand knowledge of, if the track is this way, you want to cut your tire that way, or sipe it this way, or differences in durometer, or this side wall is stiffer here. It was nice to have first-hand knowledge of some of that stuff. Tony Burkhart, the store manager of the Brownsburg location, helped me out with a lot of that kind of information and tricks of the trade.

DE: With 100 races on the schedule, what are some of your favorite tracks to compete at? What makes them stand out as a favorite?

JP: I’d say Lincoln Speedway is probably the one I’m most happy at, I usually always look forward to going, it always seems like our package is really fast there. It always seems like a track that suits my driving style. But that’s also the same reason why I love going to Bridgeport over in New Jersey. It’s nice rolling into a track you know that you’ll be fast at, you can feel like you can have some confidence. This whole sport is mental, it’s mentally grueling, and if you don’t have any confidence, you’re not going to be willing to drive it as hard as you need to, or do the things you need to, to be successful on a racetrack. I’m definitely looking forward to going back to Lincoln and Bridgeport.

DE: Last season, you finished second

in points with the All Star Circuit of Champions. What does it mean to you to be at the top of a series like the All Stars after just a few years ago not having a full-time ride?

JP: It all happened kind of fast really. I say it happened fast, but my goal when I was eleven or twelve years old was to be a sprint car driver and to try and join the World of Outlaws. That’s when I realized that I wanted to be a sprint car driver but at the time I was just a micro kid. I was a non-wing guy, running midget stuff, filling in at a couple non-wing sprint car races here and there. But it’s really cool, when I traded for the wing stuff, I started running around Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, places like that, and when I first got into it, I couldn’t hold a candle to guys like Tim Shaffer, Chad Kemenah, Dale Blaney, that were at all of those races. It’s been a dream come true, really. It’s pretty cool and humbling to look back on the stuff you went through, and then realize, man, I’m fighting for championships at the highest levels of motorsports. It’s really cool, but the

job is not done. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to win a championship either of the years we were with the All Stars and now we’ve kind of shifted our focus to trying to prepare ourselves to try and go for a World of Outlaws championship in the coming years.

DE: In 2022, you won eight All Star series races, what do you feel your team or you did differently to be able to rack up the wins in comparison to your previous season with the All Stars?

JP: You know, we just built our package. I also got a lot better as a sprint car driver. In the years prior, let’s say 2019, I

Photos: Dan Demarco

Photo: Mike Campbell

Peck has found a lot of speed in Central Pennsylvania over the past few seasons and he broke through with a huge win at Port Royal in March of 2021.

Peck runs a Midget at Gas City in 2019 before he made the switch to full time winged sprint car racing.

bet I ran only 40-50 races, and in 2020, probably only 40. But prior to 2019, I probably only ran 20-25 winged sprint car races a year. Just seat time was huge and being around a great group of guys like Sean, Kurt, and Tom Buch. Getting more experience working together, figuring each other out, and figuring out what I want to feel, and me figuring out what they want to hear when I get out of the race car. Just getting dialed in.

DE: When you look back over your career from midgets until now, what’s the one memory that always sticks out for you?

JP: [he laughs] It’s kind of stupid, but I remember, it was about 2016, my dad and I were trying to race the full POWRi midget schedule. We were going to the first night of the POWRi Speed Week, for a total of five nights in a row. This was against all the hot dog midget guys; this was back when most of the big name USAC guys ran POWRi stuff also at the time. We broke down on the way to the racetrack and had to leave my dad’s truck at the mechanic’s shop to get it worked on. I called my buddy Rich, who luckily was coming to the races and he brought his Chevy 1500 pickup truck over. We hooked up to that and rolled into the pits

with the fender wells dragging on the tires, the trailer about bottomed out on the hitch. We ended up running third that night and ended up running second in the POWRi championship that year. It’s just one of those memories. Back then, Keith Kunz had five or six cars with guys like Rico Abreu, Tanner Thorson, Spencer Bayston, he had this big team with a lot of great drivers on it. Here we pull in, I park right next to their rig, with a truck that broke down on the way there, rolling out two cars from a trailer that they barely fit in. It was just a really cool memory, that my dad and I were able to roll in that night, with all of that stuff stacked against us, still pull of a third-place finish, and get some laughs out of it. That is a memory I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

DE: Looking at the 2023 race season, what is at the top of your “I have to accomplish this” list?

JP: You know, our goal is to win 12 races this year. On top of that, we want to win a Crown Jewel and a World of Outlaws show. I’ve never won an Outlaw race in my career, unfortunately, so that’s number one. Last year’s goal was that we wanted to win ten races, we won nine total, so we came up a little short, which just makes us that much more motivated going into this.

DE: You’ve said in other interviews that your parents have primarily helped in your racing career and you’re getting to this point, now that you’re in a secure fulltime ride, how do they continue to help and support you?

JP: My dad listens to all of BS when I call him at two in the morning after a race. [He laughs] That’s number one right there! I joke with my mom a lot and tell her that she’s my assistant, but my mom would bend over backwards to help me do anything. It’s really cool, they are always just a phone call away, and they are never shy about helping me.

DE: Growing up racing midgets, obviously racing has always been on your radar, but what became your “why” for wanting to make racing your career?

JP: It’s just what I had a passion to do. I never really saw myself doing anything else. It was something I always wanted to do. It was weird, I kind of had a little bit of an odd career, well maybe not odd, but it was definitely different. In the quarter midget stuff, I won absolutely everything, no matter what we were doing, no matter what cars we were in. When I went into

Photo: Paul Arch

Running hard on the inside at an ultra fast Volusia against Zeb Wise, who along with Peck, represents the next generation of stars working their way up to the World of Outlaws level.

the micro stuff, I was still winning, but it got a little tough, and by the end of it, I don’t think we were necessarily dominating, but we were winning a lot, we were someone that people looked at as a contender every single night. When we stepped up to the big leagues, and started racing midgets, and tried to go run sprint cars, it was a whole different ball game. There was two years there, I don’t think I won a single race, just trying to dog it out and become somebody. You know, my dad was a pavement late model driver, so he didn’t really know much about dirt open wheel racing, so we were just trying to figure it out together. It was tough, but it’s been pretty rewarding. I think that I just developed a passion for trying to be the best, trying to be better, always working towards a goal, and winning races. It’s just what I have a passion to do, it’s what I feel like I was put on this earth to do.

DE: Earlier you touched on that racing is very much a mental sport and going two years without a win could be really hard to push through mentally. How did you get through this? What would you tell someone in a similar scenario?

JP: The best champions started at rock bottom. You know, everyone knows my personal struggles, I failed a drug test with the World of Outlaws, got suspended, and while I didn’t get kicked out of the sport, I felt like I was never going to get hired and didn’t feel like I was going to

make it. Through that time period of being at rock bottom, sitting out for sixty days, seeing everyone say that I’m a this, that, a druggie, I’m not going to do anything, it just flipped a switch. I always tell everyone, there’s a positive to everything, you have to take the good with the bad.

Photo: Travis Branch Photo: John Rothermel

Peck kicked off his season in fine fashion with a top-five finish at Volusia in the second World of Outlaws event of the season.

Peck racing the throwback Kramer Williamson pink livery. Peck and the Buch teamed raced this throwback at the Knoxville Nationals in 2021.

If it wasn’t for me going through that struggle, I don’t know if I would be in the position that I am now. That was when I flipped that switch and said I’m going to grind it out until I make it. That was back in 2018, at the end of 2019 I got a ride with Pete Grove. That was my first real full-time gig to drive race cars and make a living driving race cars. I was fortunate enough to get hooked up with John Trone after that, and now I’m with Tom Buch, and it’s been a hell of a ride.

DE: Briefly, let’s talk about the big picture of sport. With technology constantly evolving and new sponsors venturing into the world of sprint car racing, if you could manifest one change to the sport, what would it be?

JP: Oh, I don’t know, that’s a good one. If I could make one change, that’s kind of a tough one to say, because I’m sure a lot of people would disagree with this. Sprint car races are a lot more fun and entertaining to watch than NASCAR races. I don’t know exactly what the change to make is, and we don’t need to get more corporate, or on television all the time since we have live streaming, but I feel

like we could really grow the sport if we could get on Fox a few Saturday nights. Get the Outlaws, USAC, late models, bring a little bit more attention to our sport.

How we do that, well I don’t know, that’s just my suggestion, I’m just a steering wheel holder, I’m not a promoter!

Photo: Dan Demarco

Albion, Pennsylvania

DENNIS LUNGER

BESTING CROHN’S AND WINNING RUSH TITLES

BY DOUG KENNEDY

MOST RACE CAR DRIVERS get their start when they are in their mid to late teens or even their early twenties but that certainly wasn’t the case for 54-year-old Pro Mod driver Dennis Lunger.

Lunger has been racing for 20 years, which means he didn’t get his racing career jump started until he was 34 years old, but he has certainly made up for lost time since he is one of the more productive racers in the Western Pennsylvania region. For the last six years he has been the champion of the RUSH Pro Mod Series. He also won six straight titles at Stateline Speedway as well, but doesn’t acknowledge the one in 2020, that included but one race all season long, a race that he won. Even though he won that race, Lunger doesn’t want to count it as winning a one race title.

“We will be going for number seven, as long as there are enough racetracks to run,” Lunger said of his plans for 2023. “It’s getting tougher to find racetracks to run.”

Lunger began his racing career in

a spectator stock, something he did for two and a half years, before his life changed forever in 2004 and racing took a backseat to getting healthy. Once his weight dropped dramatically, Lunger checked into a hospital where he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, a disease that involves blockage of the intestinal track. Surgery was required in which three feet of his small intestine and six inches of his colon were removed.

After three months of recuperation, Lunger began the 2005 season with strong trepidation. Two racing friends, Doug Eck and Ron Davies, provided Lunger with two car bodies, giving him the opportunity to compete in the outlaw cadet division. With success at a minimum, Lunger considered parking the car and just trying to regroup and focus on the future of his racing career.

That’s when two of Lunger’s loyal fans, Ron and Don North, stepped up to the plate, providing financial support that got Dennis back onto the racetrack and into an E-Mod.

Additional financial support came from Reuben Schwartz, the owner of Schwartz Construction. He would be the key

sponsor of Lunger’s race car beginning I n 2007. “We were like brothers and had developed a great friendship,” Lunger said of Schwartz.

Besides racing at Raceway 7, a request by Schwartz, Lunger also began racing the E-Mod full-time. By 2008, Schwartz not only continued to provide financial support, but also became the team’s car owner as well. Schwartz also convinced Lunger to race a super late model. To accomplish this, Lunger sold all his E-Mod equipment, which included the trailer and bought a Rocket Late Model from Wayne Chinn.

In 2008, Lunger, racing a crate late model for the first time, won the Chiller Thriller at Mercer Raceway. The following year, he won the track championship at Raceway 7. By 2010, Lunger now had a super late model and two crate late models in his racing stable. The following year, he developed a relationship with Shane McDowell and converted his cars from a Rocket to a Warrior Chassis. At the time, McDowell was providing chassis support for Richard Childress Racing and for Dale McDowell, a star with the World of Outlaws.

But health issues once again arose for Lunger. There was a second operation in 2012. This time, they removed two feet of the small intestine and some of the colon. He spent nearly two months in the hospital recuperating.

Once he was healthy enough, Lunger returned to the racetrack and started to get some positive results in 2015, winning 13 features in a crate late model.

At the time, even though Lunger was a very accomplished racer, he admits that his racing career didn’t really take-off until the 2015 season. Lunger once again got the opportunity to race a modified in 2016. The team brought Travis Martineau on board as their second driver and he had a modified that was idly sitting. That

modified intrigued Lunger so he and Travis made a deal that would allow him to drive the second crate late model while Lunger would get the chance to drive the modified on a limited basis. By season’s end, Lunger had accumulated 15 wins in his crate and two more in that modified.

Lunger liked the modified so much that he traded his backup crate late model for it. “We were still doing some crate racing,” Lunger said. “We won 19 total features including seven straight at Stateline. Twelve of the 14 nights, we won.” After trading for the modified, Lunger converted it into a Pro Mod and the results were incredible. The highlight was winning his first RUSH Pro Mod championship. There would be 17 more

Pro Mod wins in 2018 and his second straight RUSH Pro Mod championship. Those wins were split between the Pro Mod and his Outlaw Mod.

He won his third straight RUSH Pro Mod championship in 2019, which included 17 feature wins split between the Pro and Outlaw Mods. He won titles for the second straight year at Stateline but a major change occurred at the end of that season when the Schwartz/Lunger relationship was dissolved.

“For three seasons, there was a lot of disagreements,” Lunger said. “It was like the more we won, the less fun we were having. Things had just changed. I walked into his office and said to him that it would better for us to part ways. I took

Photo: Ken Kelly

Lunger running his late model during the 2016 season at Humberstone Speedway in Ontario.

Lunger’s been a master at Stateline Speedway and he’s rewarded with yet another checkered flag.

everything with me which included two cars and two motors. These were two of my modifieds. The third modified that we were winning all the races with was called ‘Old Faithful’. To keep it in the Lunger racing family, Jack Rickard purchased that car.”

Even through the strangeness of the 2020 COVID season, Lunger was still able to win nine features and capture his fourth RUSH Pro Mod title. However, medical issues would once again beset Lunger and his Crohn’s disease flared. In July of that year, he went in once again to test out a new procedure to aid in dealing with Crohn’s. “It actually worked because it bought me an additional year and a half before I had to get any surgery,” Lunger said.

His third surgery occurred in October of 2021. “There were two blockages, so they cut three different sections out, one in the colon, another in the small intestine and a third in the large intestine,” Lunger related. “People ask me all the time how I can race competitively with the Crohn’s. It’s hard to answer, but when I get into my race car I’m totally focused on the task ahead of me. Being in a race car is basically the only time that I feel no pain.”

In 2021, Lunger had 21 feature wins in three different modifieds. “I used my entire modified stable,” Lunger said. He won the Stateline title and also the RUSH

Pro Mod title for the fifth straight time.

Going into this past season, Lunger once again got into crate late model racing when he purchased an older crate and sold one of his three modifieds. He raced it 15 times with only one win. “We were breaking all the time,” said Lunger, “so that was the end of the crate late model.” Lunger did win 20 features and captured his record sixth straight RUSH Pro Mod championship. He also scored the Econo Mod title at Eriez Speedway.

As Lunger settles into the 2023 racing season, he has two mods which he will use at different venues and races. The first is a 2022 Shaw that he will use for his Pro Mod and a 2023 Shaw that he will use for UMP and the Econo class.

According to Lunger, his biggest moment in racing came when he did the trifecta at Stateline. He became the first driver in track history to win a feature in three different cars and classes on the same night - Pro Mod, Outlaw Mod, and Crate Late Model.

The RUSH Series has been very good for Dennis Lunger throughout his Pro Mod career. “I love the series. I think it’s the best thing going. I honestly don’t see how people are racing and can afford not to run under the RUSH banner. Their payouts are incredible and they have great tech management as well.”

DENNIS LUNGER’S SUPPORT SYSTEM

Jack and Connie Rickard, Sunnyside Farm Transit, Close Racing Supply, Minard Run Oil, Angela’s Café, West Penn Collison, Hess Technology, Schaeffer’s Oil, TWM Brakes, Beacon Lubricant, the Cotter Family, the Bennett Family, Ron North, DJ Jimmy, Paul’s Trading Post, English Tire, Race 1, Tragler Precision, and Truform Racing Products.

Lunger’s race car features a prominent purple ribbon, which is the color of Crohn’s Disease awareness, a condition has battled throughout his racing career.

short track STARS

Oley, Pennsylvania

CRAIG VAN DOHREN TAKING THINGS ONE YEAR AT A TIME

BY RANDY KANE

WHEN YOU’RE TALKING about dirt modified chauffeur Craig Von Dohren, last season is a really great place to start. A longtime fan favorite, Von Dohren added another NASCAR Weekly Series Northeast Regional championship, 18 feature victories, including his sixth career Freedom 76 triumph, a win in the annual Bruce Rogers Memorial “Money Maker” extra-distance event and his 13th Grandview Speedway 358 Modified track championship. The campaign included his induction into the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame in Weedsport, New York in July, plus all that while the 59-year-old full-time race driver ran his win streak to 43 consecutive racing seasons in which he captured at the least one victory in each year he’s raced. Von Dohren’s consistency streak is second in dirt modified racing history to only fellow Hall of Fame driver Alan Johnson, who has

won in 48 consecutive years. Simply put, he dominated.

“I take everything one season at a time,” Von Dohren noted. “We just keep plugging away. All the accomplishments won’t really sink in. The Hall of Fame thing, I’m very grateful to have been selected. It’s just something I’ll pay more attention to once I retire and I look back on it. I don’t get too high or too low. I don’t pay attention, honestly. That’s just not me. Racing is what I chose to do and I love doing it.”

GETTING STARTED

Von Dohren has always had racing in his genes, following his dad, Peter, and his older brother, Barry, racing karts at the age of 9. At the age of 16, Von Dohren, who spent his childhood being raised on the family farm in Oley, Pennsylvania, began racing modifieds with little idea of what his racing career might become as his brother had a few years earlier.

“Barry bought the former Mike Meals modified car from nearby Fleetwood and he raced the number 1B weekly at the Reading Fairgrounds. It just was a family thing,” explained Von Dohren. “They raced before me and after I got involved I just kept moving up.”

In 1980, Von Dohren won his first career modified feature on August 1 of that year

Photo: Scott Bender

Photo: Scott Bender

at Big Diamond Speedway steering the familiar Von Dohren Stables family-owned No. 1C machine. Von Dohren was 16-years and 11 months of age.

THE RESUME

Von Dohren’s resume proves he can run with the best of them. He has won seven Delaware State championships, brought home four Coalcracker championship events at Big Diamond and collected nine Forrest Rogers Memorial event wins at Grandview Speedway. He registered 137 career wins at Grandview, another 103 career wins at Big Diamond, with an overall total of 363 career wins at 13 different tracks in five different states as he gets going in 2023. Von Dohren has had a sort of Midas touch when it comes to goodpaying events.

Von Dohren’s first career win at Grandview came on April 25, 1981, at the age of 17 years and 8 months, while he was still a high school senior, making him to this day the youngest driver to ever win a modified feature in the rich 60-year history of the race track.

He’s earned 13 at Grandview and four more at Big Diamond. He also collected one at the since-shuttered Penn National Speedway in Grantville, Pennsylvania.

“Racing is such a roller-coaster way of life. It’s a high wire act each year,” submitted Von Dohren. “I’d tell my

Van Dohren has always been fast at Big Diamond and he’s been fast for a long time there. He first won there in 1980 and, then, 41 years later, he got his 100th victory in August of 2021.

kids to go try another hobby or way of life. Go do something else. Racing is so tough these days and expensive. There is no steady income. If you win you need to squirrel your money away. If it rains out the following week you need money for that week. I’ve done it for a lot of years, but I have other things outside of racing which I do, but that’s me. It’s like that is my 401K, you might say, once I retire from racing. I never thought I’d be racing

some 45-years later. My wife tells me all the time I still have a lot to do once I decide to get out of racing.”

RETIREMENT, INJURIES AND LEGACY

Through the years Von Dohren has collected more trophies, plaques, awards and all sorts of racing hardware than he knows what to do with. He has never been one to build a special trophy room or a place to display it all.

Photo: Rich Kepner

“There’s no trophy room. That’s just not me,” commented Von Dohren, who’s simply known in local racing circles as “CVD.”

“I’ve got things in boxes and the things I display collect a lot of dust. By no means do I want people to feel I don’t appreciate the rewards. I certainly do. I am thankful and I’ve been blessed, but it is something I’ll appreciate a lot more once I retire and look back at everything I’ve done. Over the years I’ve missed a lot of weddings, picnics and parties because I’m racing every weekend. That’s what I chose to do.

“Once I finally do consider retiring from racing I’ll need to just go away and stay away from the race track probably for twoyears to get it out of my system. If I am around the track or the cars I’ll get the itch again. I’m always racing to win. If I no longer can win or remain on top, I’ll know it’s time to hang it up. I won’t just be out there hanging around. Once I’m done I’ll know it.

“Right now, if I win at Big Diamond on a Friday night, I go home thinking about what I need to do for Saturday night. That’s how I am wired. My wife (Kimberly) always asks why I can’t just go home and enjoy it for one night. That’s just not me. After each racing season I am rebuilding, ordering new stuff, talking with sponsors, just preparing for the next season. It’s just what I’ve always done,” noted Von Dohren, who’ll turn 60-years-old in August 2023.

In late 2020, Von Dohren was forced down low at Big Diamond into a euclid

infield tire marker. He hit the yuke tire, drove up and over it, bouncing high into the air with all four wheels off the ground and his jarring crash landing twisted and jerked his back all out of shape. Things improved slightly, but enough to finish out the season, however racing at Bridgeport at the end of the year, things really got bounced around and shook everything loose in his back.

“You kind of take things for granted, but I had a sore back still at Bridgeport and once I parked at the trailer I could not get out of the car,” Von Dohren explained. “I had no power in my leg and once I got out I laid down in the trailer. I was done. We were qualified, but I couldn’t go on. I couldn’t understand what was going on. The doctor told me stop racing and allow the swelling to go down. He said you’ll be healthy again and be fine. They talked about a back operation, but I wanted no part of that idea. There’s too much that could go wrong messing with your spine and back. I’m not a pill person either. I decided to try therapy.

“I got on a stretching program and it kept things loose. I had backaches and neck aches, but it was normal stuff to me. I was told there was arthritis in my back and for a while I used a heating pad and wore a lightweight velcro type back brace for support when I raced in 2021. In these cars, today, you bounce around and take a beating out there. It is what it is.

Eventually my wife and I got on a better eating program, I lost 20 pounds and my health just improved a great deal.”

“I might’ve had a concussion at some point from all the bouncing around you do inside the car, but never really was aware of it. I cut out a lot of carbs and sugars, went on the diet plan with her throughout the summer and into the fall and doing it made my head clearer and took away all my inflammation, too. I’m eating better, feeling better and in 2022 things just fell our way. It was a tremendous year. We worked hard, caught the right breaks and it had to be my best year,” Von Dohren revealed. Health wise, Von Dohren’s feeling better than ever, looking ahead to the 2023 racing season. He’ll return with car owner Bruce Brueche aboard the familiar number 30 machine on Saturday nights at Grandview and also run a bunch of special events here-and-there, plus the familiar Dave Dissinger owned 88X Oak Hill Farms modified car on Friday nights at Big Diamond. It might be good news for his long-time supporters, but it’s bad news for the competition.

“We sold our big block and we’ll do, pretty much, the same schedule again,” mentioned Von Dohren. “We’ll run 358 modified spec engine races. That way everyone in the race has the same engine. I just like racing that way better.”

Van Dohren sticks the landing after getting over an infield tire in Dave Dissinger’s number 88x entry at Big Diamond.

Photo: Rich Kepner

Photo: Scott Bender

Celebrating a huge win at the Freedom 76 event at Grandview.

a main FEATURE CREW

HEATHER LYNE

THE MAGIC BEHIND DENNIS ERB JR.

BY ASHLEY ZIMMERMAN

FOR MOST FANS, when it comes to Dennis Erb Jr, first thoughts typically spark on how unique the lengthy list of career accomplishments has been achieved by a team with much less funding compared to other fulltime World of Outlaws late model teams. However, it’s the over two decades pairing with crew chief Heather Lyne – recent winner of back-to-back Crew Chief of the Year with the World of Outlaws - that continues to showcase just how incredibly unique the team has become.

Lyne, a mechanical engineer by day, has worked side by side with Dennis Erb Jr since 2001, an impressive run in a racing relationship that rarely sees double digits. Being introverted and hardworking, she would much prefer to remain outside of the spotlight but she has now become the only woman to ever win a World of Outlaws late model championship. Lyne has been recognized as Crew Chief of the Year with every single series they’ve competed on, including the UMP and Lucas Oil Late Models. The World of Outlaws championship was the fourteenth title in her career as a crew chief.

With a work ethic backed with believing

THE PROFESSION I’M IN IS THE MALE DOMINANT MILITARY DEFENSE INDUSTRY. I JUST NEVER THOUGHT ANYTHING OF IT. I MEAN IT JUST SO HAPPENS I’M A GIRL. I JUST LIKE TO DO THINGS WITH MY HANDS. I LIKE TO BE OUTSIDE. I LIKE THE CHALLENGE. I’VE ALWAYS KNOWN THAT TO BE CONSIDERED HALF AS GOOD, A LOT OF TIMES YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO WORK TWICE AS HARD TO PROVE YOURSELF AT FIRST. AND THEN AFTER THAT PEOPLE WILL SEE THE MERIT THAT YOU BRING TO THE TABLE AND EVENTUALLY ACCEPT YOU. - HEATHER LYNE

you can do anything you put your heart into, she has paved a path deep in inspiration and changed opinions for the next generation of female crew chiefs, a place in dirt track racing that once felt a little like being alone on an island. While Lyne wasn’t able to ask questions of many women at the start of her career, she is an open door for the next generation to answer questions, offer advice through social media or post-race in the pits.

Logistically, Lyne spends many early mornings working her day job for an

aerospace contractor and utilizing PTO in the name of race day but we were able to snag a few moments of time en route to the shop to discuss how it all began, and how it all has worked out over twenty years.

Dirt Empire: You’ve been with Dennis Erb for just a little over 20 years so let’s talk about the beginning. What made you want to start working on late models?

Heather Lyne: Well, I watched NASCAR with my dad growing up, so I’ve always

Photo: Jacy Norgaard

had a thing for fast cars. When I was in high school, my mom and dad bought a lake house up in Wisconsin. I got tired of playing on the lake, I wanted to do something different and there was a dirt track in town, and I just fell in love with it. I went to the races and could not get enough. It took me almost a year to get my dad to go with me, he didn’t know anything about dirt track racing, and really just liked asphalt racing. I said I’ll take you to dinner, pay for you to get into the race. At 18, I didn’t have a whole lot of money, and I said if you hate it, we’ll leave. Well, he really got into it, so he sponsored a car for the rest of the year, and the following year my dad started driving hobby stocks and then moved on to limited late models. In June of 2000, when my dad’s car broke, mom wanted their weekends back, and they decided to stop racing, but I wasn’t ready to be done. I had watched Dennis [Erb] run the Hav-A-Tampa and win the Rookie of the Year in the few races that were televised. In 1999; my dad dared me to introduce myself since we both lived in Carpentersville. After work one day, in my work clothes, business attire, make up, whole nine yards, I went to the shop and introduced myself. I said, “hey if you need any help give me a call or let me know, I’d be more than happy, I don’t care if I’m washing cars, drilling out rivets, whatever it is.” The following day he had a race up in Pecatonica and I met him up there. That’s how it all started in June of 2001.

DE: How did you approach Dennis for the opportunity knowing you weren’t the typical expectation of a crew chief?

HL: My mom and dad raised me to believe you can do anything you want to do, do not let your gender, size, or anything limit you. You can do anything you want to do as long as you put in 110% effort. I’ve taken that to heart.

DE: By trade, you are an electrical engineer, also a male dominated industry. Did your experience of already working in male dominated industries make starting in another fairly smooth and less intimidating?

HL: Exactly, I was a tomboy as a kid. I helped my dad work, my dad’s a carpenter so I worked on job sites with him in the summers to earn some side cash. My profession I’m in is a male dominant military defense industry. I just never thought anything of it. I mean it just so happens I’m a girl. I just like to do things with my hands. I like to be outside. I like the challenge. I’ve always known that to be considered half as good, a lot of times you’re going to have to work twice as hard to prove yourself at first. And then after that people will see the merit that you bring to the table and eventually accept you. One of the things that Dennis used to say when I first started coming around, people would ask, what are you doing? Bringing a girl to the race track? And he would say, just sit right there and you watch. She works twice as hard as half

the men in the pit, and it’s still true to this day. I mean it’s just him and I so with only two people, you’ve got to get figured out a system to get it done. And we have after 22 years.

DE: Do you feel your background in engineering has been an added benefit for you in your role as a crew chief?

HL: I think it does. I’m very conscientious of time. I like systems and setting up repeatable processes so that way you can get similar results every single time. And if that process doesn’t work, you tweak it to make it better. Engineering is basically very scientific problem solving. So,

Photo: Jacy Norgaard

Photo: Paul Arch

identifying problems and trying to figure out a way to fix them better definitely helps in having that mindset.

DE: For other women who are hesitant to want to chase their dreams in motorsports that might be on the unconventional side due to being female, what advice or wisdom would you pass along to them?

HL: Don’t listen to the noise. Trust yourself. You know your capabilities and then reach out to other women in the sport or advocates for women in the sport. And that’s something I wish I would’ve had actually, somebody else to talk to about the things I’m feeling or witnessing, or how I interpret something because we think a little bit differently but reach out to those people. They’ll be more than willing to help you. I mentor people on the professional side in my engineering field and I’ve had young girls come up to me at the racetrack and ask me all sorts of questions and I have no problem given it’s the right time. You know, just don’t come up right before a feature, don’t come when we’re thrashing to get something fixed before a race. After a race or on a practice night, I have no problem talking to anybody out there, but reach out to those people.

DE: In a few other interviews, you’ve shared that it’s just you and Dennis when it comes to working on the car and being a team. What kind of trial

Photo: Jacy Norgaard

and error did you go through finding a system that made things smooth for you as a team? What kind of planning and preparation goes into race day to make sure things go as according to plan as they can?

HL: A lot of that happens at the shop before you even load up and leave. That’s the preparation of making sure the cars are ready, making sure tires are ready. That happens at the shop. You go to the track with your baseline, but then you tweak on your baseline. I have my maintenance check sheets that we go through every time the car hits the track. You go through it, and you have to do that same thing over and over and over again. You have to have a very repeatable process. It took quite a while for Dennis to relinquish control over some of those things because before I came on, he had raced for over ten years by himself really. He had his grandfather, who was in his 80s, that would go to the racetrack and then he would have some friends that would show up every once in a while. But he hasn’t had that consistent help where he had it at the shop and at the race track before I started going to help him. So, for him to relinquish that control was a challenge for him. And as I showed him that I’m capable of doing it and I can do it repetitively, and then if I do have an issue or a question, we talk about it, we look at it together, and figure out a path forward. Once you’re at the race track, he has his things you’re going to own every single time at the track and these are the things I’m going to own. Then if there’s an issue, we help each other out. Basically, he grooves and sipes the tires, works on all the shocks and springs because he feels better knowing what those numbers are. Then I make sure everything is tight on the car. The car is ready to go. Set the

tire pressure, fuel is set, helmet’s ready, got all the lineups. We really don’t have to talk to each other throughout the course of the night when things are going on. He knows his stuff and I know my stuff. And with it only being the two of us, if he doesn’t do it, I do it. And if I don’t do it, he does it. There’s not that third person to figure out if they did it. Before he pulls out of the pit, he’ll look at me from the cockpit, and I’ll stand next to the car and all I have to do is nod my head. He knows he can pull off and everything is tight; everything is ready to go. He doesn’t have to worry about that.

DE: It’s not often that race teams are able to build lengthy relationships, let alone for two decades, do you feel that the trust, friendship, and experience that has developed having worked together for this length of time gives you a bit of an advantage as a team?

HL: I think it’s huge. Like I said, you’ve got this system that works for the two of us where he knows what I’m capable of and what I have sitting on my plate. I know what he’s capable of and that jobs he has sitting on his plate and how we can negotiate that time crunch. In twenty years, racing has changed significantly where there is way more work to do than there was when I first started. It’s incredibly insane what we have to do at the shop and some of the research that you have to do just to be competitive out there. It’s a challenge. The other thing is I volunteer my help. I don’t get paid to do the racing stuff. I donate all of my time down at the shop and the racetrack. I do it just because I love it. I like the competitive nature. I like that we’re an underdog because we’re such an understaffed team and we’re underfunded from those regards. So, I enjoy that aspect of it. And to say you’ve been beat by a girl is kind of fun. But it

Photo: Jacy Norgaard

Erb and Lyne swept the Firecracker Faceoff at I-55 in Missouri last summer, winning $10,000 on Friday and $20,000 on Saturday night against the World of Outlaws.

has helped because, like I said, you have that trust and when somebody tries to come into that twenty-year relationship, it hard. It’s hard for them to come in. We’ve had some friends that’ll come for like a week at a time, like when we’re in Florida. Pete Parker’s son Jeff Parker comes to help us for a week and to kind of hang out. He wants to get out of Wisconsin. When you have to do a hot pit and when you have to come in under a red flag and things of that nature, because I’m only one person and Dennis is in the car, he’s not going to get out and help change a tire or whatever, I make my alliances with certain people that are at the track. There are certain teams that I can trust or certain individuals from other teams that I can trust to help me that I know will be there for me. I always make those alliances and that helps as well. We always go through beforehand, its like this is what I want you to do if Dennis were to come in and we go through that, so that way there is no confusion when it happens.

DE: In 2022, Dennis secured the World of Outlaws late model championship and you became the first female crew chief to earn a championship. Looking back to when you started, did you ever dream you’d have opportunities to reach goals such as this?

HL: I definitely felt he was a championship driver. Me being Crew Chief

of the Year is kind of like the cherry on it. I know I will basically work till I’m falling over to make sure everything gets done. I’ve been Crew Chief of the Year two years in a row on the Outlaws tour and to be recognized by your peers was a huge, huge accomplishment. I feel very proud of what we’ve been able to do.

DE: More often than not, race teams go into each season hoping to find themselves in championship contention but was there a point last season where the reality set in that you really were in a good place to win a championship?

HL: Yeah, when we left Florida. We went to Florida going, “we’re going to get this. We’re going to do this.” Just like every year, but something just felt a little different. I don’t know why. It was like this year we’re not really where we want to be, I’ll be honest. We’re definitely not where we want to be, but we have a lot of racing ahead of us. At the beginning of the year, we said we’re going to stop worrying about it because the year is huge. It’s long and we are just taking it one race at a time. If you have a bad race, don’t just sit there and dwell on it, figure out what went wrong and how to fix it and move on and just keep focusing forward. That mantra I think helped us get through some of the bad times.

DE: With your long list of accomplishments, is there anything

else you’d like to achieve or experience in the late model world? Do you have anything else on your bucket list?

HL: Oh yeah. A list of the Crown Jewels. I want ‘em! I mean, seriously, I’m not done. I want to win the World 100. I want to win the Dirt Track World Championship. I mean there’s a lot of races out there. We’re not done.

DE: Has there ever been a moment where you wanted to switch roles and try being the driver for once?

HL: Nope, absolutely not. I’m not a big attention person. I don’t want my name up in lights. I’m an introvert. I don’t relish the attention. I have learned to accept it. I have learned to work within it, both professionally and in racing. Back when I first started it was what are you doing bringing a girl to the race track? Nobody knew who I was. That’s the kind of person I am. The fact that I’m getting the recognition, I’m learning to accept people who come up and know me and there’s conversations and you know, fans and people reaching out is fantastic. It’s just not my normal.

DE: When you look back over your career as a crew chief, is there a particular moment or win that sticks out to you every single time? What makes it stand out?

HL: The 2016 Dream. The triple seven car tried to wreck Josh Richards as we were

Photo: Jacy Norgaard

coming for the checkered out of turn four. And we had a two-lap dash and I was just a bundle of nerves. That weekend started out poorly. We came out of a B main the first night we just dug our way out and kept digging and digging and digging and it was like “We won this thing, finally!” When Jared Landers did that, I was so mad and I went up to him afterwards and I go “if we would have lost this race, I would have kicked your ass.” He goes “I know that was wrong.” And I said “you’re right. You were getting lapped and you tried to wreck the second-place car as you were getting lapped.” Yeah, that one sticks out. Definitely.

DE: What has been some of the best advice you’ve been given throughout your time as a crew chief and how did it help you?

HL: It’s really just a whole lot of times been Dennis and I, so it’s a lot of him teaching me things and encouraging me to do stuff and then also yelling at me if I do something wrong. Basically, just keeping your head down and just keep working. I got that from my mom and dad.

Photo: Jacy Norgaard

shifting GEARS

CIRCLE TRACK MAINTENANCE AND SETUP MOBILE APP LAUNCHES

IT TOOK NEARLY three years of work to produce, but the all-new Circle Track App by Wehrs Machine and Racing Products has arrived. The idea for this app came from the mind of Chad Wehrs of Wehrs Machine. He’s known industry-wide for coming up with innovative products and his billet trickery. The initial idea stemmed from finding a way of cataloging and recording a dirt track car setup in an app so it could be referenced from race to race. That morphed into creating an app that could actually help with setups once the car’s info was entered in. This gave birth to a truly innovative piece of technology that only requires a mobile device a subscription and download and some time in entering in the car info. It streamlines the whole process.

The Circle Track App will keep track of your cars Maintenance, Parts List, Measurements, Setups for Multiple Cars, Race Day Notes, and a section for Trackside Tuning. This new race management app will allow you to create different chassis templates for multiple style cars with class-based measurements and trackside tuning help. Each tool has its own purpose to benefit your program. The maintenance section is used to place tasks on every part of your car so you and your team are prepared prior to race day. Similarly, the parts list section allows you to save your part numbers so you can quickly reorder when

necessary. The measurements section will serve as your “file storage” where you place critical measurements that must be referenced by your team at the race track. You can keep notes of each race night’s adjustments, weather, and results to make the necessary changes back at the shop. The Circle Track App is your setup book on the go. And if you are unsure on what setup changes to make, the app has got you covered. Pick your class and your handling issue and the built-in trackside tuning feature will give you some ideas to correct your car’s handling. It’s easy to see how this racing app could take your race team to the next level.

Following the purchase of the Circle Track App annual subscription, you will be able to download the app either on the

Apple App Store or the Google Play Store for Androids.

You can also launch the app through their website at circletrackapp.com.

shifting GEARS

SLOT CAR RACING

PREPPING FOR SOME OFF SEASON FUN!

BY MIKE FELTENBERGER

WHEN OUTDOOR RACING calls it a season in the Northeast, racing doesn’t stop, it goes indoors for the wintry cold and chilly early spring months. What started in the early 1960s with the Aurora Thunderjet has blossomed and a lot of companies are still supplying HO cars, engines and parts to the millions of slot car racers. Slot cars range from 1/87th scale to 1/18th scale. The hot HO scale car of the 1970s, the Aurora AFX hot rods, were replaced by the TYCO 440x2 series in the early 1980s.The TYCO cars are still used in all forms of slot car racing from road courses to ovals to even the slot drags.

Slot car tracks also have a few differences. Some use the metal railed track for the HO cars with their use of the pickup shoes while other use the braided contact copper railed tracks instead of the common pickup shoe.

The AFX cars were the source for some interesting chassis setups. Added magnets under the pickup shoes or

horseshoe magnets super glued to the rear of the chassis gave the cars the “will never fall off” feel to them.

Gone are the steering wheel controllers of the past, with the pistol grip and plunger type now virtually in every racer’s hand. Bodies that were once made of heavy plastic and screwed onto the chassis are now made out of paper or molded light plastic and are secured by double sided tape. Pickup shoes have come a long way since their infancy with ski-type and humped shoes being the choice of many, depending on the smoothness and track banking.

Tracks have various racing formats. Some use the timed runs where there are turn marshals who put a car that has fallen off back on and the distance run is used. Other tracks have the segment runs ,where you have a set distance of laps and when the first person completes those laps, the power is shut off and the remaining runners have their laps and segment

stopped at used for a total score after all lanes are run on. State of the art electronic scoring is used with the magnetic sensor at the start- finish line picking up the magnetic signal from the car as it passes.

The Berks / Lebanon Group Racers in Pennsylvania have weekly races in Reading, Kutztown and Myerstown with an average car count of 24 racers running various classes of cars, such as the modifieds, sprints, late models and NASCAR. These tracks honor their point champions with trophies and point fund money. Some hobbyists travel the country to compete and it is the challenge that attracts many individuals to try their talents in the smaller, electric form of racing.

Track design varies at many slot car tracks but Randy’s Raceway in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, runs regular events on a tri-oval.

The hard plastic bodies of old, like the number 666 have been replaced by computer generated paper bodies (29) that are secured by double sided tape.

A good look at a hot lap session at Shaeffer’s Speedway in Macungie, Pennsylvania.

action CAPTURE

Cole Perinie of Lowell, Ohio decorated the skyline momentarily at Skyline Speedway in Guysville, Ohio in late April. He was able to walk away and commented the following day on Facebook: “Man, this April thing has always been rough on me. Can’t thank everyone enough for reaching out and checking on me after last night! We will be back, just don’t know when or how as of now but we will be back!”

We’re glad you’re okay. We’ll see you back on the track soon!

Photos: Tyler Carr

engine builder SPOTLIGHT

By

CORNETT RACING ENGINES

THERE ARE LEGENDS in the engine building world, and then there are LEGENDS. None are bigger than Jack Cornett of Cornett Racing Engines. His story is fairly well known in the industry, but here’s a quick recap: Jack’s father, I.J. “Red” Cornett, opened an automotive machine shop in 1948 in the town of Somerset, Kentucky. In 1956 Jack was born and shortly thereafter began his life of engine building then and there. Though clearly hyperbole, (he didn’t actually start wrenching on engines before he could walk) Jack has said previously that engine building is pretty much the only job he’s ever had. With all of those years of experience after starting in the engine building and tuning industry at such a young age, Cornett honed his skills and applied all of his accrued knowledge into creating the top performing engines in the super late model dirt track racing scene.

“If we go back to 1989, we built an engine for Scott Bloomquist, and that really took us to the forefront of the industry,” Cornett said. “Then we had more and more success.”

During his storied career, Cornett has accumulated numerous Engine Builder of the Year awards from World of Outlaws, Lucas Oil Late Models and more recently, USMTS for his modified engines. But that’s not what brings a thrill to Cornett and his team of builders.

“Honestly helping a guy get to the championship or win a big race like the Dream or Million at Eldora, that’s the best,” Cornett said. “Engine Builder [of the Year] is nice, it’s a nice honor, but I’d rather help a guy win. That’s just me.”

Cornett Engines have powered many big-name drivers to victory over the years, including the afore mentioned Scott

not even close to all!)

Despite the decades of success which includes many championships, big crown jewel race wins and several hundred combined feature victories in World of Outlaws and Lucas Oil Late Model competition, there are still challenges that Cornett Racing Engines must face.

“The biggest right now is supply chain issues,” Cornett said. “If you go back before Covid, we were waiting two

Bloomquist as well as Jack Boggs, Rick Eckert, Darrell Lanigan, Jimmy Owens, Bart Hartman, Jonathan Davenport, Tim McCreadie, Mike Marlar, Brandon Sheppard and Kyle Larson to name a few (but

Photo provided by Cornett

or three months for things. Then with the shutdowns that extended out to sometimes seven months. And a lot of these companies we work with, they’re big enough that they had to shut down completely and then when they finally got back to work, they didn’t have enough people to even get back to the production level they were at before the shutdown. So, it’s like some of these suppliers are falling further and further behind.”

“When it comes to Jones [Racing Products], they are always pretty quick to get us what we need,” Cornett said. “I’ve worked with them for years. Before CJ I worked with his dad. They’re all good people and excellent to work with. We never have issues getting components from Jones.”

Working with companies like Jones Racing Products follows in line with Cornett’s ideology of trying to produce the best engines by using the best components.

“That means our engines aren’t the cheapest, but when you include longevity and durability as well as resale value, maybe it doesn’t work out to be as expensive as you might think,” Cornett said.

Another interesting challenge that Cornett perceives with the engine building industry is the lack of youth moving up

through the ranks.

“We have eight employees, and I think the youngest is in his mid-fifties,” Cornett said. “Having the next generation come in and learn the techniques and all, if it doesn’t happen soon, it’s not going to happen at all. I’m wondering who will be building the engines in ten to fifteen years. I know I’ll be retired by then. . . at least I hope I’ll be retired by then.

All hope isn’t lost, though when it comes to finding the next generation of builders. Schools like University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) have good engine building courses and work to place students as interns whenever possible.

“We had a good kid out here during spring break from UNOH and he stayed with us for the week. He wanted to learn the process and he did really well,” Cornett said.

With so much success already under

his belt, are there still any goals left to accomplish?

“I like winning,” Cornett said, only somewhat jokingly. “We’re all kind of up there in age, we call ourselves the overthe-hill gang but for us, winning never gets old. When one of our drivers goes out and wins we’re all happy and that’s what drives us.”

“It takes a lot of work to get to the top, but it takes even more work to stay there,” Cornett said. “We just keep trying to make the product better – run longer, improve the total package – power, longevity. We listen to the feedback of the drivers and work to keep making it better. We’ll keep doing that until we stop.”

Photo provided by Cornett

Photo: Tyler Carr

a main FEATURE

ZACH BODEN

BY BILL BLUMER JR.

WHILE HIS RACING ROOTS were burrowed into the pavement as a kid, 2022 Badger Midget Auto Racing Association champion, Zach Boden, eventually grew to be a dirt devil. You can’t blame the Cambridge, Wisconsin, native for his early years - he’s from the same hometown as NASCAR Hall of Famer, Matt Kenseth. Jefferson Speedway, a paved quarter-mile oval, is just down the road and Zach’s dad, Brian, campaigned stock cars there before Zach was born. When he was five, Zach started running karts with the venerable Badger Kart Club. He raced with them and other sanctioning bodies on paved road circuits for the next ten years.

For the remainder of his teen years, Zach took a break from racing. Then, in 2013 he teamed with dad’s old schoolmate, Hans Lein, to run the new Badger Micro Series (a feeder class for the BMARA) on the dirt. They had a lot of success, including many Badger wins and a POWRi North Micro title. Lein, who currently owns a car on the USAC Silver Crown trail, was a pleasure to work

with, according to Boden. It was a two car operation in the micros with Lein’s son, Vance Lein, driving the other car. “It was so refreshing to work with Hans. His number one passion is racing. During one season we ran fifty races and it was usually his idea to go,” said Boden.

In 2017, Boden hopped behind the wheel of, “The Red Deuce” Harlan Kittleson’s well known midget. Davey Ray, Danny Stratton and Cory Kruseman are just a few of the drivers who spent a season or more in this car. In the 2000s, guest appearances by the likes of Kasey Kahne and other open wheel notables were common. For Boden he knew he was getting into a well-maintained car that would be as fast as he could make it. It was a learning experience that paid off with a Badger Midget Series Rookie of the Year title.

The next year saw the pair crack the top ten in Badger points and in 2019, they scored their first win as a team at Wisconsin’s Wilmot Raceway. “Zach was really good in a micro and I knew his dad, so things just kind of fell into place in having him drive for me. Having a local kid in the car meant a lot, too. He was consistent all the way around and that

went back to his micro and karting days. I was happy with his progress,” recalled Kittleson.

During the entirety of the 2020 season through today, Boden has teamed with his dad on their own midget. That first season was the Covid year, with limited racing to be had in Badger. The staple of their schedule, Angell Park Speedway, was lost entirely due to the pandemic.

They still learned a lot by the time the 2021 season rolled around. Here, Badger was as tough as ever with National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Kevin Olson, topping the list of veterans campaigning most every night. Add vets Scott Hatton, Kurt Mayhew and Cody Weisensel to the equation and he was up against well over 150 years of combined experience. In the end, Boden ran a distant second to Chase McDermand for the Badger title. Boden was on the podium plenty, but never stood on the top step. McDermand took 10 checkered flags that year.

In the lead up to the 2022 season Kevin Olson was tragically killed in an offseason traffic accident, Hatton appeared to be done and McDermand moved on to the National scene. But

Photo: Casey Bollig

there was still plenty of talent to pick up the slack. Former Badger champ, Brandon Waelti, seemed revitalized. Todd Kluever, who has raced in the three top levels of NASCAR for Jack Roush, was getting the hang of the dirt and youngsters like Derek Doerr and Adam Taylor were coming on too.

Boden was up to the challenge and scored two wins, both at Plymouth’s dirt track. The consistency that his old owner, Harlan Kittleson spoke of, paid off, as Boden was regularly in the top ten. He made all but one main event when a power steering line blew during his heat and another one could not be found. He won the 2022 title by just eight points, the difference of a position or two in any given race. The runner up was Kyle Stark, piloting The Red Deuce.

Boden is quick to credit his help when it comes to the championship. As he puts it, with a tone of gratitude, “I get one good night of work during the week with my crew of Dad, Eric Ziegler, John Watson, Jeff Wolf and Bill Burrington.” At a time when work, family and other endeavors take more of everyone’s day, he appreciates people giving their time to maintain his car.

The Monday cleaning is often left to his son, Dallas. The eight-year old takes great pride in making sure the car looks good for the crowd. He’ll likely start turning wrenches in a couple of years and has an eye toward racing karts some day.

BODEN ON BADGER

The Badger Midget Automobile Racing Association is one of the oldest sanctioning bodies in the country, dating to 1936, and they’ve had various iterations over the years. The group currently runs an engine package that is different from the USAC or POWRi or the “National Engines,” as they are sometimes known. The Badger motor package has a bit less power and a lot less cost, compared to a National set up. But when you see evenly matched cars, with skilled drivers, going wheel to wheel, it’s hard to tell the difference. It’s not the first time in Badger history the club has run engines different from USAC or the primary midget sanctioning body in the country and, for Boden, it takes no luster away from his accomplishment.

“The best drivers from our region are competing. The horsepower doesn’t change the caliber of drivers or competition. Ten different guys are a threat to win every night,” Boden contends. To that last point he is spot-on. Badger stats show that in each of the last two seasons, with about 20 races run, an average of ten different competitors claimed a feature. They usually draw 25 cars a night.

As to his expectations for Badger in the future, Boden is very optimistic. Of the leadership, he says, “Quinn McCabe and Amy Schulz work tirelessly to make it run. They have a lot on their plate (be it race day or not) and they are good at handling situations. The series would not be where it is without them and I see it going in an upward direction.”

Boden runs Harlan Kittleson’s famous 2 to the inside of the late Badger legend Kevin Olson at Badger’s home trackAngell Park Speedway.

Photo: Casey Bollig

Zach and his crew watching the big screen at the Chili Bowl on a mid-winter race vacation.

Photo: Bill Blumer Jr.

TECH

By Ashley Zimmerman

FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS

AN INTRODUCTION

NOT EVERYTHING IS as it seems; this is a phrase we are all too familiar with and accustomed to in racing. A flashback to PRI 2022, the World of Outlaws announced 2023 would bring a new rule with the requirement of fire suppression systems on board in sprint cars.

It is important to note that the end goal for the implementation of the onboard suppression systems is to allot drivers extra time to get out of their car. Without a doubt, it is extremely easy to confuse the purpose behind a fire extinguisher and a fire suppression system. Where extinguishers will do simply that, extinguish a fire; a fire suppression system is meant to suppress the fire and slow down or prevent reignition of the fire. It is key to know that the end goal of implementing this new safety rule is to buy drivers time to get out of their cars.

The WoO has recommended four manufacturers where drivers may purchase suppression systems that meet the SFI 17.3 standards and have successfully passed testing. On the surface, these four manufacturers don’t seem that much different aside from pricing, but after doing some deep digging and reaching out to each manufacturer, not everything is as it seems on the surface!

Shortly after the list of approved manufacturers was released by the

World of Outlaws, we reached out to each of them with the same detailed list of questions and the expansive list of differences between the four systems was staggering. What stood out even more was that of the four manufacturers, SPA Tech, Safecraft, Lifeline-Fire, and Safety Systems, the transparency in their processes varied from clear as day to opaque and in one case silent.

Let’s talk some basics about the suppression systems before comparing any of the systems. With SFI 17.3, if any suppression system fails any of the parts of the approval testing, the system then has to pass that test twice in a row. Two auto tests are also performed. The systems consist typically of one nozzle, aimed primarily at the fuel pump by the feet of the driver. Each system has a thermal activated light that will trigger the system at specific temperatures to disperse either a gas or foam agent. The color of the light on the system will indicate the temperature at which the system is triggered. Once systems have been discharged, they must either be sent back to the manufacturer, or authorized service center of the manufacturer, to be charged. The turnaround time will vary, 1-3 days seems to be an average expectation. SFI requires each system to be serviced every two years, and requires the bottle portion to also be inspected

every six years. (Per Lifeline Fire, routine service on their system runs about $200 and to recharge the system it runs about $400. While other manufacturers did not share the costs, this does give an estimation of what to expect as additional costs.)

Only one of the SFI approved systems uses a foam agent - SPA Tech. When I was speaking with Dan from SPA Tech (who had participated in the R&D of their system) he advised they felt the foam agent was the best choice for a system like this because of the high reignition potential in a sprint car. With this decision, this does make their system a bit heavier and their bottle is a bit larger in diameter. While foam will not fil the air like a gas agent would, and has to be pointed directly at the fire point, it is important to note that the SPA Tech system has an additional nozzle pointed at the torso of the driver for additional coverage. Since the AFI testing does tend to lean in favor of gas agents, it is also much more difficult to design a system with a foam agent that will meet the standards for SFI 17.3.

This means that the other three systems utilize a gas agent - either 3M Novec 1230 or Dupont FE36. There is a percentage of gas required in the air, if too low the effectiveness of the gas goes away and re-ignition could occur. Gas is

The massive fire in the 1970s in Hutchinson, Kansas, that series are hoping is never repeated.

Photo: Bob Mays Collection

more of a three-dimensional agent which enables it to fill the cockpit of the car on discharge, and a supporting reason as to why Lifeline Fire chose to use a gas agent. The nozzle in the system is designed to spray in a 360-degree pattern, therefore the gas systems require only one nozzle.

While each system has a manual pull to discharge, there is also a thermal bulb that once the temperature rises to a certain degree will activate and discharge the system. It’s important to know that if the bulb is broken, it will also cause the system to discharge, both Lifeline Fire and SPA Tech have assured that the bulbs are fairly robust and while sprint car accidents can be quite violent the bulbs should withstand the force of an accident. While that seems to be the only common trait when it comes to the thermal bulb as not all activate at the same temperature. For instance, a yellow bulb is 175F, a red bulb is 150F, green is 200F, and blue is 289F. SPA Tech and Safecraft use a yellow bulb in their system, Lifeline Fire uses the red. This is an important detail as methanol fires tend to burn much cooler than a normal fire.

Installation per the SFI 17.3 rule has the systems bottle mounted underneath the seat and from explanation sounds to be relatively simple across the board with few concerns for incorrect installation. That being said, in looking at where the bulbs are mounted and the bottles connections are in the installation process does vary. While the three manufacturers I spoke with assure me that there is little room for accidental discharge outside of pulling the manual discharge chord, the bottle head too far forward in the cockpit of a sprint car puts your feet in a dangerous place risking the bottle’s safety. Location of the thermal bulb also varies and can be in a very close proximity of the headers for some. SPA Tech is the only system we found with the bulb mounted higher in the cockpit and the head of the bottle further toward the rear of the seat. Without checking the gauge of your bottle, if a system is accidentally triggered to discharge, unless the driver is there to witness it, there would be nothing glaringly obvious a gas system has gone off.

Let’s face it, safety equipment as a

whole most often gets selected based on funds available versus the funds it costs. All of the manufacturers have clearly passed the testing required by the SFI and will all aide in gaining driver’s crucial seconds in getting out of the car and to safety officials. (If they can get out on their own free will and the fire doesn’t reignite that is.) When looking at components and location for installation, it all looks the same across the board. But truly nothing is as it seems, they are very different and each team will have to make the selection they are most comfortable installing.

The SPA Technique Fire Suppression System.

The Fire Suppression System on Ryan Timms’ entry.

Photos: Paul Arch

series SPOTLIGHT

THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN Super

Late Model Speedweek has returned for 2023 after a six-year hiatus. The effort to bring the series back to life was spearheaded by long-time late model driver and builder, Jim Bernheisel of Jonestown, Pennsylvania. Bernheisel is the owner of Bernheisel Race Components, Lazer Chassis,

“Reviving the series has been something I have been thinking about for the last few years. It really picked up momentum late last year when I copromoted a race at Lincoln Speedway. It was an artistic success (albeit not a financial one) and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Bernheisel said.

The series in its old incarnation had its ups and downs but ran for nine years from 2009 through 2017 and featured championship winners like Rick Eckert, Tim McCreadie and Jeff Rine. The new series which runs from June 9th through

June 18th is already attracting local, regional and out-of-region drivers who are looking to compete at the seven tracks.

The series kicks off on June 9th at Clinton County Speedway in Millhall, Pennsylvania, with a $4000-to-win purse. The series moves to Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, Pennsylvania the next night, with a $5000-to-win feature. Hagerstown Speedway closes out the first weekend of racing with a $4000-to-win race. Two nights of mid-week races take place, first at Path Valley Speedway Park in Spring Run, Pennsylvania for a $4000-to-win race on Tuesday, June 13th. Thursday and Friday nights the racing moves to Bedford Fairgrounds Speedway for a $4000-to-win Thursday night and a $6000-to-win Friday night. Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania will payout $4000 on Saturday night with the Speedweek coming to a conclusion on Sunday, June 18th at Selinsgrove Speedway with a $5000-to-win payout. There’s also a

$5000-to-win award for the championship series for points as well.

The series is a welcome return and is going to bring about an exciting June series featuring some of the best super late model racing action in Central PA.

The series is already being planned for 2024, according to Bernheisel. Hopefully this means the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek has returned for good.

For more info about the series, go to: www.lmspeedweek.com or find the series on Facebook. Use the QR code below with your mobile device to jump to the series Facebook page for updates.

Bryan Bernheisel is committed to the entire series and will be behind the wheel of his number 119 Lazer Chassis, representing the Bernheisel family, as father Jim will be focused on managing the series rather than getting into a car himself.

Photo: Jason Walls / WRT Speedwerx

Photo: Jason Walls / WRT Speedwerx

Photo: Jason Walls / WRT Speedwerx

Jason Covert takes a turn at speed at Hagerstown Speedway - he will be just one of the many drivers taking on the full schedule of races and tracks during the 2023 Appalachian Mountain Speedweek.

Tyler Emory tuning up his number 72 at Bedford Fairgrounds Speedway. The track hosts two nights of the Appalachian Mountain Speedweek with a total of $10,000 to win.

review in PICTURES BATTLE OF THE BAY 2023

IN APRIL, the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Late Model Series presented by Born2Run Lubricants fifth annual “Battle of the Bay” Speedweek roared to life and featured intense late

We were fortunate to get some shots

Top 3 in the 3C Graphix “Battle of the Bay” points were champion Kyle Hardy (c), runner-up Trevor Collins (l) & 3rd place Nick Davis (r) (RUSH photo)

West Virginia’s Garret Paugh (#03) tries to fend off Canadian star Charlie Sandercock (#57). Sandercock won the Winchester event for his 1st RUSH Tour win outside of Canada. (Rick Neff photo)

model racing action.

of the action to share.

Kyle Hardy celebrates the victory at Potomac. Hardy also won at Delaware & captured the $1,000 3C Graphix “Battle of the Bay” Speedweek Championship (Diane Homberg photo)

Super Late Model star Dale Hollidge (#15) races side-by-side with Joe Martin (#10s), who has finished 2nd in the RUSH Tour each of the past 3 years (Travis Trussell photo)

Winchester standout Mike Franklin (#74) races with Garret Paugh (#03) & Kyle Hardy (#99), who went 23rd to 3rd in the feature. (Travis Trussell photo)

The Battle of the Bay will return in 2024. Mark it on your calendars so you don’t miss it!

Winchester regular Jeremiah Marshall (#56W) battles with New York standout Jason Knowles (#4) (Travis Trussell photo)

3-wide RUSH Late Model racing at Winchester with Delaware’s Trevor Collins (#72), New York’s Jason Knowles (#4), and Ontario, Canada’s Kyle Sopaz (#11) (Travis Trussell photo)

dirt CHRONICLES HENRY BANKS

By: Bob Mays

Henry Banks started his career with famed car owner, Mert Harris, driving a Miller-Schoefield powered sprint car in 1932. Although he crashed in his first race, he scored his initial victory two weeks later in Davidson, Michigan. He quickly became a regular winner and earned

a reputation for being fast but easy on equipment. Banks was a terror in the midget ranks and won 30 features in 1947 alone! Here he is at Lakeside

Speedway in Denver, Colorado before another successful outing. (Leroy Byers photo)

Banks moved into midget racing once the sport took hold in the mid-1930s and was in great demand as a driver. He landed a ride in Mike Caruso’s powerful car and won the American Race Drivers Club (ARDC) in 1941 with his teammate, Bill Schindler, second. After World War II, Henry formed an alliance with Lindsey Hopkins and drove his midget to 30 victories in 1947. Banks won the 1941 ARDC title driving for Mike Caruso but also found time to take his own midget to the west coast for some easy money. (Leroy Byers photo)

Henry (Lou Moore 8) battles Duke Dinsmore (69) at the treacherous Langhorne Speedway in 1950. Banks won the National Championship with consistent finishes and one victory at another treacherous track, Detroit, Michigan. Seeing great promise in his driver, Hopkins bought Banks a champ car for the 1950 racing season, with results coming immediately. Henry was consistently in the running with eight top fives, including a victory in the 100 miler at Detroit. All this resulted in Banks winning the 1950 National Championship. (Bob Mays collection)

Banks gets ready to tackle the brand new Southland Speedway in Raleigh, North Carolina, on July 4, 1952. The track broke up badly during the race and never had the champ cars back. It is now a housing development. Banks was even more consistent in 1951, with 13 top-tens in 15 races. If not for the spectacular year that Tony Bettenhausen had, winning eight races, Henry would have been National Champion two years in a row. (Bruce Craig photo)

shooter at LARGE RYAN NORTHCOTE

MAYBE YOU’VE NOTICED, but we here at Dirt Empire Magazine love us some racing pictures. This is our opportunity to honor the great photographers of our sport who are on the road throughout the season shooting race cars and drivers and chronicalling history. They are our shooters at large. Lone gunslingers who have choosen to wield a camera as their weapon. Ride on, shooters. Ride on.

As an Iowan, the Iowa State Fair and racing on its fabled fairgrounds holds a special place for Northcote and he got this great shot of 305 sprint cars running right in the heart of Des Moines. Racing stopped forever there in 2016, however.

Brad Sweet strapped in at Lake Ozark Speedway.

Does it get any better than this? For some of us, probably not. Northcote was in perfect position to catch Buckeye, Arizona’s Charles Davis Jr.’s perfect form at Terre Haute’s Action Track.

GET TO KNOW RYAN NORTHCOTE

Hometown: Knoxville, Iowa

Age: 37

Year Started Shooting: 2006

First Publication to Print Your Work: Knoxville Journal-Express and Hoseheads

Favorite Track to Shoot: Terre Haute Action Track

Favorite Division to Shoot: Sprints, Midgets and Silver Crown

Remaining Bucket List Races: I’d like to do any of the Speedweeks - Ohio, Pennsylvania or Indiana. Anyplace I haven’t been honestly.

Favorite Thing About Racing Photography: Aside from the fame and fortune, it’s the camaraderie in the corners.

Outside of race cars, what do you like to photograph: I’ve covered high school sports since I started, but lately, my niece and nephew are tops.

Camera Equipment: Canon 5Dmk4, 1DXmk2, 7Dmk2, 24-105mm f/4, 70-200mm f/2.8, 300mm f/2.8, 500mm f/4, and lots of accessories.

Rico Abreu.

Austin McCarl.

Photo: Dave Hill

Ventura Speedway in California is always near the top of any list of most picturesque raceways and this stunner from Northcote at Turkey Night could be ‘Exhibit A’ for their case.

Aaron Reutzel aggressively shreds a cushion at Granite City Speedway near St. Cloud, Minnesota, during his tenure in Dennis Roth’s 83.

David Gravel made his Silver Crown debut at the 2020 Bettenhausen 100 on Springfield’s Mile and produced an unbelievable finish by going runner up to Kyle Larson. The World of Outlaws star nearly joined the club of seven racers that won their debut with the series.

Right place, right time for Northcote as he was the only photographer to nab this shot of Iowa’s Brett Moffitt riding the wall at Knoxville’s NASCAR Truck event.

support these FOLKS

SUPPORT OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Dirt Empire Magazine is proud to have assembled a crack staff of freelance photographers and writers who blend their passion for the sport with their talent and artistry to make these pages pop. If you see an image that you’d like to own or need a great image for your shop, shoot them a messge and support them.

Austin Bumgarner - aandmphotography.smugmug.com

Bill Blumer Jr. - 24jgfans@gmail.com

Bob Mays - catsracin@yahoo.com

Casey Bollig - caseybolligphotography@gmail.com

Dan Demarco – deacon39@icloud.com

Jacy Norgaard - jacy@jacynorgaardphotography.com

Jason Walls - info@wrtwebdesigns.com

John Lee - highfly-n@comcast.net

John Rothermel - jcizzybu@ptd.net

Josh James – joshjamesphotos@gmail.com

Ken Kelly – kota360@hotmail.com

Mark Funderburk - funderburkracnfoto@gmail.com

Mike Campbell – mikecampbellphotos@gmail.com

Mike Feltenberger - starterone@aol.com

Mike Musslin - dirtnut777@gmail.com

Paul Arch - peanumber10@comcast.net

Rich Kepner – rkepner@comcast.net

Rick Neff - Facebook - @rick.neff.39

Rick Sherer - ricksherer@outlook.com

Rocky Ragusa - monksjunk88@yahoo.com

Ryan Northcote - ryannorthcote@gmail.com

Ryan Roberts - jryanroberts@ymail.com

Scott Bender - zrobert15@comcast.net

Todd Boyd – latemodel1967@gmail.com

Travis Branch – travisbranch21@gmail.com

Travis Trussel - Facebook - @theguy.inthetire

Tyler Carr - tcarr95vc@gmail.com

Greg Hodnett captuired in a beautiful shot at Knoxville Raceway, Northcote’s stomping grounds.

pit STOP