Portsmouth Raceway Park

Fast Facts: 40th annual General Tire DTWC

October 13, 2020, 8:32 am

By Robert Holman

DirtonDirt.com weekend editor

Event: 40th annual General Tire Dirt Track World Championship presented by Optima Batteries

Dates: Oct. 15-17 (modified prelims on Thursday; Late Model and Limited Late Model prelims and modified feature on Friday; Late Model and Limited Late Model features Saturday)

Track: Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park (high-banked 3/8-mile clay oval).

Purse: $100,000-to-win Late Model feature ($3,000-to-win feature for non-qualifiers).

Sanction: Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.

Last year’s winner: Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill.

Tickets: $65 for three-day general admission ($40 for ages 12-17 and $25 for ages 7-11); $75 for three-day pit pass (cash only). All pre-sale tickets must be picked up at the will-call window at the general admission gate. For more information, call (740) 858-6661 or email portsraceway@hotmail.com.

Websites: lucasdirt.com or portsraceway.com.

Track phone: (740) 354-3278.

Notes: The General Tire Dirt Track World Championship is the season finale for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. … For the sixth year in a row, the Carl Short-promoted race pays a race-record $100,000. … Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., and Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., won Lucas Oil Series races at PRP earlier this year. … The event format is back to the traditional qualifying and heats on Friday with consolations and the main event set for Saturday. … Modified prelims are set for Thursday. On Friday, Late Models and Limited Late Models contest their prelims and the modifieds compete in a $5,000-to-win main event. … Saturday’s action includes consolation races and the 100-lap main event, as well as a $4,000-to-win feature for the Steel Block Late Model Series. … The top 26 drivers who fail to transfer into the DTWC (via preliminary events) will be eligible to start a $3,000-to-win non-qualifiers' race. … The non-qualifiers’ race is known as the DirtonDirt.com Jim Dunn Memorial, honoring the late first winner of the DTWC who rallied from the rear for a stirring victory in 1981 at Pennsboro. … The DTWC has had 25 winners. … Portsmouth is the seventh track to host the DTWC; this marks the race’s ninth straight year at PRP. … There have been four winners in the eight DTWC events held at Portsmouth (Brandon Sheppard has three, Josh Richards and Scott Bloomquist have two apiece and Jimmy Owens one). … Owens has wrapped up his fourth Lucas Oil Series championship and will be crowned at Portsmouth. … Richards and Bloomquist are the event’s only back-to-back winners. … Sheppard is the race’s youngest winner at 20 in 2013. … Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., is the only home-state winner to capture the DTWC, earning $60,000 for his 2003 victory at Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky. ... Though 21 of the 39 DTWCs were held in West Virginia (18 at Pennsboro and three at West Virginia Motor Speedway), Richards was the first West Virginian to win the race. … Freddy Smith (Pennsboro and Thunder Ridge); Bloomquist (K-C Raceway and Portsmouth); and Shannon Babb (Bluegrass and K-C Raceway) are the only DTWC winners to win the race at two tracks. Smith is the only driver to win at Pennsboro and then win the DTWC at a different venue. … The track seats 4,000 spectators with 300 more seats in the pits. … Masking is required and officials urge social distancing.

DTWC winners

(Complete race history)
Year: Winner, hometown
2019: Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, Ill.
2018: Josh Richards, Shinnston, W.Va.
2017: Josh Richards, Shinnston, W.Va.
2016: Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, Ill.
2015: Scott Bloomquist, Mooresburg, Tenn.
2014: Scott Bloomquist, Mooresburg, Tenn.
2013: Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, Ill.
2012: Jimmy Owens, Newport, Tenn.
2011: Don O’Neal, Martinsville, Ind.
2010: Earl Pearson Jr., Jacksonville, Fla.
2009: Jimmy Mars, Menomonie, Wis.
2008: Brian Birkhofer, Muscatine, Iowa
2007: Chub Frank, Bear Lake, Pa.
2006: Shannon Babb, Moweaqua, Ill.
2005: Scott Bloomquist, Mooresburg, Tenn.
2004: Rick Eckert, York, Pa.
2003: Darrell Lanigan, Union, Ky.
2002: Shannon Babb, Moweaqua, Ill.
2001: Bart Hartman, Zanesville, Ohio
2000: Wendell Wallace, Batesville, Ark.
1999: Steve Francis, Ashland, Ky.
1998: Freddy Smith, Knoxville, Tenn.
1997: Marshall Green, Dalton, Ga.
1996: Billy Moyer, Batesville, Ark.
1995: Jack Boggs, Grayson, Ky.
1994: Ronnie Johnson, Chattanooga, Tenn.
1993: Freddy Smith, Baton Rouge, La.
1992: Ronnie Johnson, Chattanooga, Tenn.
1991: Freddy Smith, Kings Mountain, N.C.
1990: Jack Boggs, Grayson, Ky.
1989: John Mason, Millersburg, Ohio
1988: Donnie Moran, Frazeysburg, Ohio
1987: Larry Moore, Dayton, Ohio
1986: Billy Moyer, Batesville, Ark.
1985: Freddy Smith, Kings Mountain, N.C.
1984: Jack Boggs, Webbville, Ky.
1983: Freddy Smith, Kings Mountain, N.C.
1982: Charlie Swartz, Ashland, Ky.
1981: Jim Dunn, Roseville, Ohio

DTWC purse

Feature event
1. $100,000
2. $20,000
3. $10,000
4. $7,000
5. $5,000
6. $3,500
7. $3,200
8. $3,000
9. $2,800
10. $2,500
11. $2,450
12. $2,400
13. $2,350
14. $2,300
15. $2,250
16. $2,200
17. $2,150
18. $2,100
19. $2,075
20. $2,060
21. $2,050
22. $2,040
23. $2,030
24. $2,020
25. $2,010
26. $2,000
Non-qualifiers’ race
1. $3,000
2. $1,500
3. $1,250
4. $1,000
5. $900
6. $800
7. $750
8. $700
9. $650
10. $600
11. $500
12. $400
13. $350
14. $300
15. $250
16.-26. $200

Event schedule

(Subject to change)
Thursday, Oct. 15
9 a.m.-6 p.m.: Camping registration open
11 a.m.: Grounds cleared and secured
11 a.m.: Ticket will-call open
Noon: Pit gates open
2 p.m.: Grandstand gates open
5:30 p.m.: Drivers’ meeting
6 p.m.: Modified hot laps
6:45 p.m.: Modified time trials
8 p.m.: Modified heat races
9:45 p.m.: Modified consolations
10:30 p.m.: Modified non-qualifiers’ race
Friday, Oct. 16
9 a.m.-6 p.m.: Camping registration open
11 a.m.: Grounds cleared and secured
11 a.m.: Ticket will-call open
Noon: Pit gates open
1 p.m.: Grandstand cleared and secured
2 p.m.: Grandstand gates open
5:30 p.m.: Drivers’ meeting
6 p.m.: Hot laps
- Limited Late Models
- Late Models
- Legends
Opening ceremonies
Competition
- Limited Late Model time trials
- Late Model time trials
- Legends heats (8 laps)
- Late Model heats (15 laps)
- Modified hot laps
- Limited Late Model heats (10 laps)
- Modified feature (30 laps)
- Legends feature (20 laps)
- Limited Late Model consolations (12 laps)
Saturday, Oct. 17
9 a.m.-6 p.m.: Camping registration open
11 a.m.: Grounds cleared and secured
11 a.m.: Ticket will-call open
Noon: Pit gates open
2 p.m.: Grandstand gates open
3:30-4:30 p.m.: Dirt Racing Outreach service
5:30 p.m.: Drivers’ meeting
6 p.m.: Hot laps
- Late Models
- Limited Late Models
Opening ceremonies
7 p.m.: Competition
- Late Model consolation races
- 40th annual General Tire Dirt Track World Championship (100 laps)
- Award presentations
- Limited Late Model feature (25 laps)
- Jim Dunn Memorial non-qualifiers’ race presented by DirtonDirt.com (25 laps)

Tickets

Thursday
Three-day general admission (18-and-up): $65
Three-day students (12-17): $40
Three-day youth (7-11): $25
Three-day child (6 and under): free
Reserved seating: Additional $5
Three-day all access pit pass (all ages): $75
Friday
Two-day general admission (18-and-up): $65
Two-day students (12-17): $40
Two-day youth (7-11): $25
Two-day child (6 and under): free
Reserved seating: Additional $5
Two-day all access pit pass (all ages): $75
Saturday
One-day general admission (18-and-up): $50
One-day students (12-17): $30
One-day youth (7-11): $15
One-day child (6 and under): free
Reserved seating: Additional $5
Camping
Primitive camping: $40
Online reservations: thedtwc.com/camping