DirtonDirt.com Dispatches
Dispatches: B-Shepp returns to winning form
Brandon Sheppard wins at Red Hill. (Josh James/joshjamesartwork.com)
The latest notes and quotes from Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events during the last weekend in April, including the MARS tripleheader in Illinois and Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association action at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo.:
B-Shepp's back
It may have taken 36 races, but Brandon Sheppard is winless no more. The New Berlin, Ill., driver who had yet to find his triumphant touch to begin the season at the wheel of his new Longhorn Chassis finally put it all together Sunday night in the MARS Championship Series event at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, Ill.
Sheppard led all 30 laps from outside the front row and topped Tanner English of Benton, Ky., for the $5,000 payday.
“Yeah, it feels awesome to finally get this first win out of the way,” said Sheppard, whose last win occurred Oct. 22 in World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series competition at 81 Speedway in Wichita, Kan. “Man, me and the guys have been working really hard. … It means the world to me.”
Judging the past two nights in his homeland, it was only a matter of time that Sheppard would put the nagging reality of being winless behind him. He finished second at Brownstown (Ill.) Bullring on Friday to Tyler Erb, briefly grabbing the lead with three laps to go only to lose out on the checkers by a half second. On Saturday at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway, Sheppard fell a car length short to Shannon Babb in a near-photo finish.
It’s certainly not a prototypical start to Sheppard’s season (last year he won six times through 36 races), but it’s progress, even if the win came among a slender 22-car field with only one fellow national touring driver to compete against in English.
“It’s been tough. There’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Sheppard said. “We’ve been getting rolling here really good the past couple of weeks. It feels really good to get the first one out of the way. Hopefully we have some more to come. We’re finally getting some consistency. We weren’t sure if we were going to come tonight, but as good as the past two nights have been, we’ve really wanted to come and try again.
“We’ve been right there at the end of the race the past two nights. We finally put a whole night together. We haven’t been able to qualify very good. We just keep getting better and better every night, just getting these cars to fit me. They’re a lot different than what I’m used to. Just really thankful for everything. Hopefully we can continue this consistency.”
English, who finished 3.692 seconds behind Sheppard, gladly settled for second knowing that he didn’t quite have what it took to match the winning pace.
“It’s not bad. We kind of put ourselves behind the 8-ball there drawing that five (pill),” English said. “I don’t know if I had anything for Brandon there. He was pretty fast. I would have liked to have a restart there, see what we can do. All in all, a pretty good night. To come out in one piece, that’s pretty good.” — Staff reports
Simpsons sweep
One night after Chris Simpson got the job done at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo., with the Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association, Chad Simpson turned right around on Saturday to complete the brotherly sweep.
Following through on a gutsy slide job that stymied race-long leader Jake Timm of Winona, Minn., the older Simpson capitalized on the lap-27 move to lead the final 14 circuits of the $7,000-to-win feature for his second series victory of the season. The younger Simpson finished second to give the brotherly duo a 1-2 finish for the second night in a row.
“At the end of the day, it’s just awesome, me and him running 1-2, whether that’s him on top or me on top,” Chad Simpson said. “It’s been a lot of fun this year doing that.”
Timm, who led laps one through 26, finished fifth and could never recover from Chad Simpson’s winning move where the Mount Vernon, Iowa, driver exploited a narrow turn-four exit to slide across Timm’s nose, thus breaking his momentum.
“Yeah, I kept gaining ground and gaining ground. And then he would slow me up in three and four — he kind of checked up all the time,” Chad Simpson explained. “He was doing what he had to do to kind of keep me behind him. I just knew we were getting close to the end of the race, and I had get aggressive there.
“I mean, I had him cleared. I knew I had him cleared. I was just hoping he would turn and probably cross me back over it’d be a little dicey there for a little bit. But he got into the back of me there. I didn’t mean to do that by any means, but we’re here to win races.”
Simpson, who said in victory he “came out with something a little bit different” setup wise compared to Friday’s runner-up, topped his brother by 1.713 seconds. Chris Simpson started fourth and couldn’t match his older’s speed around the bottom, particularly on the seven restarts that occurred throughout the 40-lap feature.
“I felt like I got in the wrong lane on all the restarts. The bottom was good at the beginning and I was stuck on the top,” Chris Simpson said. “Then later the top got where … I thought I had a shot to win there when Jake was leaving me a lane on the restart and got into second there. I thought I was going to slide up by him. Track position is just important. Chad did a good job. Jake did a helluva good job. Congrats to Garrett (Alberson) on getting third.”
Las Cruces, N.M.’s Garrett Alberson, meanwhile, made the most of his Saturday night — finishing third after starting eighth — after Northeast plans with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series were once again washed out.
“That’s what I was hoping for. Congrats to Chad and Chris, those guys were really good right there,” Alberson said. “I just needed a little bit (more). I was lazy getting across the center right there. My front-end was a little bit slow getting across the center. Otherwise I was pretty happy with this Black Diamond. It was a pretty interesting track. Way different than last night, a lot more moving around and stuff like that. Hats off to those guys. … Hopefully we can move forward with this into a Lucas race and hopefully we don’t get anymore rain.” –– Staff reports
Babb denies B-Shepp
Shannon Babb occupied the best seat for Saturday’s thrilling MARS Championship Series event finish at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway — crossing under the checkers in narrowly beating Brandon Sheppard, who did all he could to change his winless fortunes to start the season.
“FALS put on a helluva race tonight,” Babb said in a succinct victory lane interview. “This track was just spot on.”'
Indeed, Fairbury Speedway delivered a Finish of the Year candidate Saturday, which saw Moweaqua, Ill.’s Babb top New Berlin, Ill.’s Sheppard — now without a victory in 35 races to begin 2023 — by 0.227 of a second.
“They did that extra effort to put on a good show for the fans right there by reworking it,” Babb said of Fairbury’s prerace track work. “Pressured by the rain and everything else, but just tickled to death to be able to race with a bunch of good guys. We’re all buddies and race hard. Son of a gun, they didn’t give it to me there. They were there the whole time. Just proud of our team.”
Babb, who got by fellow Illinois racer Brian Shirley amid traffic on lap 19 of 40, won from the fifth-starting spot. His second feature victory over his last five races matches his win total from 2022 and ’21. On April 14, Babb took a $10,555 victory on the Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa.
It’s also the first time since his 13-victory season in 2018 that Babb has two wins before May 1. — Staff reports
Terbo finds his groove
Another washout of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action didn’t please Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, who has been waiting — just like all his fellow tour regulars — for the circuit to beat the weather for the first time since the end of Georgia-Florida Speedweeks in February.
But the 26-year-old driver from New Waverly, Texas, took advantage of the latest Lucas Oil Series cancellations, pointing his Best Performance Motorsports hauler to the Midwest rather than the Northeast and enjoying a Friday result that he hopes will put him back on a winning trajectory.
Erb captured Friday’s MARS Late Model Championship Series Diggin’ Dirt 40 at Brownstown (Ill.) Bullring, putting him in victory lane for the first time since he topped Feb. 6’s Lucas Oil Series-sanctioned Winternationals feature at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla. It was also his first triumph since Randall Edwards departed as his crew chief to take an identical position with Georgia’s Garrett Smith shortly after the conclusion of Speedweeks.
The outing in the MARS opener provided a needed boost to Erb, whose six post-Speedweeks — and post-Edwards — appearances entering the weekend had netted him a best finish of fifth in April 15’s XR Super Series event at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn.
“I had a blast,” Erb said. “I haven't been on a good race track, I feel like, in a while — you know, for what I like.
“It was a lot of fun and it makes us feel really, really, really good about what we're doing. You know, (the crew is) working their butts off and we're excited, man. We'll be back in the swing of things.”
Erb led 30 of the feature’s 40 laps but had to survive an especially frightful moment with just three circuits remaining. While rolling through lapped traffic he watched Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., slip ahead of him in turns one and two; Sheppard couldn’t maintain enough grip off the second corner, however, and Erb surged back in front down the backstretch.
“Sheppard slid me there and there just wasn’t enough leaving turn two at the top,” Erb said.
The 30-year-old Sheppard — racing close to home with no World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series events scheduled for the weekend — was hopeful as well that his runner-up finish was a sign of a breakthrough in his first season driving Longhorn cars for his newly-formed Sheppard Riggs Motorsports operation.
“We’ve been, had a lot of ups and downs so far at the beginning of the year here,” said Sheppard, who matched his best finish of 2023, duplicating second-place finishes on Jan. 7 at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park and 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. “We’re just trying to figure this thing out for me and we’re getting there, we’re getting a lot better every night.
“And I think tonight was, you know, this is the place that I’m usually really good at and we were really good again tonight, and I really got to feel the car out really well.” — Staff reports
Solid run for Stevens
Tyler Stevens of Searcy, Ark., notched his first career top-five finish on the Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association with his 12th-to-third charge in Friday’s action at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo.
“We’ve had good speed, we’ve just had bad luck. We’re finally getting dialed in here, having fun running with (MLRA), and looking forward to tomorrow night for sure,” Stevens said after the first round of Lake Ozark’s Battle of the Beach.
Stevens started outside the sixth row, broke into the top five after 13 laps and was the top finishing driver not named Simpson — brothers Chris and Chad Simpson finished 1-2 — in the 26-car field on a night when 34 drivers entered the action.
“We were pretty good there, but I went a little conservative on tire and how we cut it, and we was good there in the long run, but when we had that late-race caution, I knew we’d be in trouble there taking off,” the 36-year-old graphic designer said. “But all in all, you know, our car was good, and nothing really tore up. So we’ll regroup and go again tomorrow.”
Stevens, last season’s Comp Cams Super Dirt Series Rookie of the Year with three victories and eight top-five finishes in 18 starts, finds himself atop MLRA’s rookie points after five races. He wasn't announced among a five-driver rookie class on the Missouri-based circuit, but Stevens and Dillon McCowan of Urbana, Mo., are the only two rookies to make all five feature lineups in MLRA action.
Stevens, whose previous best MLRA run came at Davenport (Iowa) Speedway where he was running fourth before a flat tire spoiled his finish, is starting his second Super Late Model season. His racing career started in modifieds at age 14 and he was a standout in that division before moving up to Crate Late Models late in the 2020 campaign. He logged eight Crate victories among five tracks in 2021. As a Super Late Model rookie in 2022, he finished sixth in Comp Cams points.
The TLP Motorsports driver hasn’t officially committed to an MLRA rookie run, but he’s fourth in series points so far. If Stevens held that position, he’d be the first Arkansas driver to finish in the top five in MLRA points since Jeff Floyd of Walnut Ridge, Ark., in 1996. — Staff reports
Late Model breakthrough
Longhorn Chassis managing partner Steve Arpin was so impressed last year with up-and-coming California racer Ethan Dotson that the Canadian stopped out of his company’s modified house car and let the 24-year-old take control of its steering wheel.
Now Dotson is also exciting Arpin with his potential on the featured full-fender side of Longhorn’s business.
Making just his seventh Super Late Model start with Texas-based Chris Bragg Racing, Dotson reached victory lane for the first time in the division with a $5,000 triumph in Friday night’s Comp Cams Super Dirt Series-sanctioned Cow Patty 40-lapper at Old No. 1 Speedway in Harrisburg, Ark. He led all but two laps in securing a milestone checkered flag.
“Oh, man, I’m lost for words,” a thrilled Dotson said in his post-race interview. “I’m just super, super thankful for Chris Bragg and (crew chief) Tyler Bragg for taking a shot on me, a modified guy, and let me travel with a Late Model. I mean, just super awesome and unheard of.”
The Bakersfield, Calif., native’s shot at Dirt Late Model competition came unexpectedly through Chris Bragg, a Texan who Dotson met a few years ago while racing modifieds in North Dakota. Bragg and his son Tyler approached Dotson last year about running a Late Model for them and, after connecting the Braggs with Longhorn, made his debut with the team earlier this year.
Dotson quickly turned heads in the Late Model world, scoring a fourth-place finish in March 3’s Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals feature at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway and a pair of 10th-place runs in the highly-competitive XR Working Man Series and XR Super Series events on April 11 and 15 at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. He broke through in his first-ever visit to Old No. 1, demonstrating his rapid growth with a run that saw him briefly lose the lead the lead to Kyle Beard before regaining command with Beard’s flat tire on lap 13 and then turning back challenges from Timothy Culp over the remaining distance.
“I couldn't hold it on the bottom down here and I think the double zero lapped car had a mirror — he was following everywhere I was going,” Dotson said, rehashing the moment Beard passed him for the top spot. “As soon as I seen him get by, I just, I was trying too hard to get around (the slower traffic), and then I just followed them (after Beard’s misfortune) and figured if I can’t get by them, nobody else could get by me.
“But yeah, definitely a lot of luck came into it. But shoot, that's 90% of racing. So it worked out and I’m just super thankful … just try to keep on rolling.”
Dotson, who relocated to North Carolina last year to drive Arpin’s modified, plans to make about 20 Late Model starts this season while also hitting various modified events. — Staff reports
Directing debut
It’d be natural to have butterflies in the hours ahead of your first-ever race as a series director. But Jonathan Clayton, who is helping launch a new era on the MARS Late Model Championship Series starting at the Brownstown (Ill.) Bullring, was feeling relatively relaxed Friday afternoon heading down the highway toward the $5,000-to-win tour opener.
“I really thought I would (have butterflies), but honestly I don’t. I feel pretty prepared,” said the 29-year-old Tolono, Ill., resident, who was tapped by new series owner Matt Curl to direct the tour that kicks off a 21-race Illinois-focused season for Late Models and modifieds.
“Monday, I was kind of, I don’t know — on edge? — just because the forecast looked terrible,” Clayton said. But with the central Illinois weather shaping up in a more positive direction, “I’m feeling a lot better now, and there’s a good field of Late Models and modifieds coming.”
It makes sense that Clayton wouldn’t be too nervous considering his vast experience as a series official with the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series, DIRTcar Summer Nationals and other events in recent seasons. In filling a variety of series roles, the race-lover who’s been known to make far-flung racing trips to racetracks throughout the country has gotten a crash course in the do’s and don’t’s of how to direct a successful series event.
And with help from Curl, the veteran Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway promoter, the MARS circuit has its ducks in a row, minus the tour’s trailer that still needs a vinyl graphics wrap (“but we can race without that,” Clayton said).
“I think we’re in good shape. Literally we’ve been planning for all this stuff since December … and now it’s here,” said Clayton, who got a buffer when the scheduled MARS modified opener was rained out. “I feel like we’re 100 percent ready to go now.”
Among Clayton’s goals for the tour is to have a solid group of regulars that makes the circuit attractive for series tracks and fans. He hopes to have at least 10 drivers apiece on the Late Model and modified tours with perfect attendance through Memorial Day.
The fertile Illinois Late Model world will provide many of those veteran drivers, and the series also has tentative Rookie of the Year commitments from Hunt Gossum of Mayfield, Ky., Doug Tye of Troy, Ill., Justin White of Stevensville, Mich., Jake Little of Springfield, Ill., Rich Dawson of Lowell, Ind., Tommy Sheppard Jr. of New Berlin, Ill., and Mike Harrison of Highland, Ill., the modified standout who plans to pilot a Steve Lampley-owned Late Model. Australian driver Kye Blight isn’t in North America for the first series weekend but he plans a rookie run, too.
While there are plenty of rookies on tour, the series management is full of seasoned folks joining Clayton and Curl, who will assist at most tour events amid his duties at Fairbury. Ashley Snearly will handle timing and scoring, Chad Bazzell will manage the pits, Kari Perkins will assist with registration and payout, Mike Norris will announce and Josh James will serve as series photographer. For the opening weekend, Clayton and Curl brought along Erik Grigsby, a veteran race director who can smooth out any speedbumps (“and he’s going to score a few races, he just doesn’t know it yet,” Clayton said with a laugh while Grigsby was within earshot).
While he feels prepared for his series directing debut, does Clayton envision what might pop up at the last minute issue to cause a panic attack?
“Hopefully nothing,” Clayton said, although he was a bit concerned if the Brownstown Bullring pits might be a little muddy. “I’m excited.” — Todd Turner
