This week is a banger!
This week is gonna be a banger! Big Boy Modified season kicks off with USRA American Racer Modified Series from HOT Speedway, followed by the USMTS season firing up Friday and Saturday. We've also got the Northern Allstars Modified Dirt Series going green at Brownstown Speedway this Saturday! Wait, there's more! The CLASH on the COAST gets started at Northwest Florida Speedway TODAY! And we've got Late Models this weekend, too! But before we geek out too much on modifieds, lets recap what happened this past weekend.
π The Swamp Cabbage 100 at Hendry County Motorsports Park, the southernmost dirt track in the U.S., had 177 entries across 4 classes! Which makes sense with the massive purses up for grabs:
$22K Factory Stocks (68 entries): Ronnie Newsome (3x Champ)
$15K CRUSA Late Models (32 entries): Mark Whitener
$10K CRUSA Street Stocks (40 entries): Jeff Parsons
$5k 4.6 Fords (37 entries): Mason Cassidy
π The Bash at the Beach from Southern Raceway concluded this past Saturday, with "The Professor" Jonathan Joiner taking home the mini-series modified championship. Chris Spalding was Saturday's Modified winner, making him perfect on the season!
π The IMCA Modifieds head to NW FL Speedway tonight for the opening two nights of The CLASH on the COAST, followed by two nights at Deep South Speedway this Friday and Saturday. IMCA Stock Cars join the party as well this week, with both classes racing for $1K-to-win each night and $2.5K, and a rad trophy, to the mini-series points champion. In addition to Jonathan, Hunt the Front's Joseph Joiner will run The CLASH in the Andrews Autosport No, 10. Drew Janssen, Austen Becerra, and Todd Neiheiser were in attendance at Southern and are expected to run The CLASH too. Dylan Thornton, IMCA SuperNats Champ and proud #DirtInfo hat owner, is also expected to compete. Overall, I suspect we will get stout fields for both classes and compelling racing throughout the week. Catch it all on IMCA.tv.
π₯We've got Regional and National USRA modifieds kicking off at Heart O' Texas Speedway, starting Thursday with ARMS. USMTS then kicks off their season Friday and Saturday. The USMTS is my favorite series, and the USRA regional series have had my interest since inceptions as well.
And here's why! For starters, I catch the USMTS in person, at some of my favorite tracks, many times over the course of the summer. But beyond that personal reason, the USMTS has proven to be a very fertile battlefield for some of the sports future superstars. Former USMTS champs Ryan Gustin, the current WoO points leader, and Dustin Sorensen, last year's WoO RotY, are some of late model's hottest names. King Ricky the XI, and 2016 Grant Junghans USMTS RotY, RTJ has ample USMTS starts, and wins, to his credit. Current WoO and Lucas RotY contenders Jake Timm and Dan Ebert are stepping up this year following stout USMTS careers; fellow Lucas RotY Daniel Hilsabeck also has meaningful USMTS experience on his resume too. Heck, Brandon Sheppard has a USMTS win on his resume even! (https://usmts.com/news/news_article.asp?NewsID=62709). Bobby Pierce, Drake Troutman, Ethan Dotson, Tyler Erb, Jimmy Owens, Dillon McCowan, and Dustin Walker have all made USMTS starts throughout their career. Basically, if you like late model racing and want to see the future of the sport RIGHT NOW, then you should love the USMTS as much as I do!
I haven't even mentioned the number one reason that I am so down with the USMTS: THE RACING IS PHENOMENAL!! Last year's champ, Jim Chisholm returns to defend his title and is obviously one of the favorites this season. Tanner Mullens and Rodney Sanders are some of the returning contenders. There have been whispers Kyle Strickler will also join the fray, providing additional star power and competition to the always deep field. We've also got some young guns entering the fray this year, chief among them Trevor Hughes. I'm curious to see if Joe Chisholm gives the national tour a go this year or spends a season on the USRA Northern Lights Modified Series (who released their schedule this week). Josh Cain, Tripp Gaylord, Cole Queensland, and Dallon Murty may all hit the USMTS trail at some juncture this season, if not this weekend. Man, can it be Thursday already! I'm going to be glued to RacinDirt.com all weekend!!
βοΈ The Northern All-Stars Modifieds (and Late Models) start their season this Saturday at Brownstown with $1.5K for the Mods and $5K for the Late Models. I've been intrigued by this modified series and they're really putting together something worth following:$1.5K for each show, plus some high-profile races forthcoming. $5K for season champ and the Dewayne Ragland Trophy, points fund for top 10, $1,500 Arizona Sports Shirt Rookie of the Year, $1K Todd Steel Buildings Hard Charger of the Year. There is a lot to like here!
π«‘ Speaking of late models, Springfield Raceway has the MLRA Founders Tribute Race this Friday for $5,036-to-win and Saturday for $10,036-to-win. The event is unsanctioned, but will follow MLRA rules, with lots of former MLRA folks involved in race day activities. You can catch that on SpringfieldRaceway.tv.
π The Southern Nationals Series Spring Nationals gets hot and heavy this weekend from a pair of peach state tracks, Swainsboro Raceway $7,553-to-win on Friday and Senoia Raceway $10,553-to-win on Saturday. You can catch both nights on FloRacing!
Oh, and we have the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returning to Volusia this Sunday! What are you most looking forward to this week?
#dirtracing #racing #USMTS #USRA #Springfield #NorthernAllStars #modifieds #latemodels #dirttrackracing #IMCA
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