DirtonDirt.com Dispatches
Dispatches: Familiarity boon to Hoffman at FALS
Nick Hoffman (9) underneath Bobby Pierce (32) at Fairbury. (Josh James)
Among latest notes and quotes from Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events over the Oct. 6-7 weekend, including World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series and Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series action:
That familiar feel
Something about Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway’s surface suited Nick Hoffman during Saturday night’s World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series-sanctioned FALS Frenzy feature.
The 31-year-old from Mooresville, N.C., was behind the wheel of his Tye Twarog-owned Longhorn Chassis, but he felt like he was out there circling the quarter-mile oval in the modified division that he dominated before his move to the full-fender class this season. That familiarity helped carry him to a runner-up finish in the 50-lap headliner.
“Typically, for the modified show (at Fairbury), it’s always after the Late Models, so this is kind of the racetrack we end up getting for the modifieds,” Hoffman said. “So taking a lot of that, of knowing how to momentum the middle … and then I knew that it could get pretty fast to slide across and start banging the cushion just off the corner to carry speed down the straightaways. I seen that was what (eventual winner) Bobby (Pierce) was doing there late, so I knew I wasn’t gonna pass him through there so I just started running the middle.”
Hoffman started fifth and ran inside the top five for the entire distance. He reached third on lap 24 and overtook Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill., for second on lap 43; he wasn’t able to challenge Pierce following a lap-46 caution flag, but falling one spot short at place where he’s enjoyed modified success wasn’t a disappointing result.
“I was just really pumped up to get to second there,” Hoffman said. “These type of racetracks, slick and slow, is kind of where I feel like I’m the best, and I kind of missed (the conditions) and tonight we were pretty dang good.”
The outing was extremely uplifting for Hoffman, who has experienced an up-and-down year in his rookie WoO season. He shined beyond expectations during the first half of the campaign — highlighted by his first-ever WoO triumph on May 19 at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y. — and after a fourth-place finish on June 27 at Mason City (Iowa) Motor Speedway sat second in the tour’s standings, just 12 points behind Pierce, who in the process of heating up.
But Hoffman’s fortunes took a turn for the worse with a 24th-place finish on June 29 at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, N.D. Saturday was just his third top-five finish in his 17 WoO starts since Red River — a slump that dropped him all the way to seventh in the points standings before his Fairbury performance pulled him back to a tie for sixth with Shirley.
With five points races remaining on the WoO scheduled — Oct. 14-15 at Georgia’s Senoia Raceway and Rome Speedway and Nov. 1-4’s World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C. — Hoffman is well within reach of fourth in the standings. He trails fifth-place Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa, by two points and fourth-place Kyle Bronson of Brandon, Fla., by 10 points and believes he can get there if he can maintain his momentum.
“I sucked in the middle part of this season so I put myself in this position,” Hoffman said, “but we just gotta stay up front.”
Five straight for Doar
At 59, Pat Doar has raced long enough to realize you can't win on the first lap. And the New Richmond, Wis., driver wasn't even planning to try to win on the second or third lap at the 20th annual Fall Classic at Ogilvie (Minn.) Raceway, a track with, as they say, plenty of character.
"I didn't want no part of them holes, to be honest with you," Doar said. "And, I didn't really want to run wide open on lap three, and I just sweeped high and I was hoping just to come out in second or third and hoping them young guys ... maybe they'll burn their tires off or something? Because I couldn't run that fast right away."
Turns out that staying out of trouble was critical in a race with two two red flags, including one on a lap-three restart when leading James Giossi spun and rolled, triggering a multicar mess in turn two that Doar fortunately missed from his second spot. Doar led the rest of the 40-lapper for a $4,000 payday and his fifth consecutive victory in the WISSOTA Late Model event.
"I just seen (the wreck developing) going and I drove right by it and then it was bad though," he said in victory lane. "Hopefully everybody's fine."
Doar figured his chance of winning a fifth straight event wasn't likely, so he told his wife and crew chief he was aiming simply for a top-five "because if I race like I got to win, I always do something stupid."
But Doar indeed raced to a victory, his 13th of the season and 309th of his career.
“I can’t even believe it, it’s kinda ridiculous,” Doar said. “Obviously I benefited from lots of misfortune out there tonight and I was just in the right place at the right time to miss that (lap-two) mess. It’s too bad all them guys got tore up. I think Giossi was pretty quick and we didn’t even get to really find out. I just love coming here, the track had a little character tonight.”
Doar said he "got a little bounced around in there. I had my seatbelt so tight for them holes — I survived though."
With his 60th birthday coming in December, how does Doar explain having such an excellent season in the twlight of his career?
"I have no idea. I mean, we've been running the same car for four or five years, so I ruled out a bunch of dumb things to do to it," he said. "Last week I did something dumb up at (ABC Raceway in) Ashland (Wis.) and I wasn't any good. And then we came here and practiced and the car was good and I kept my mitts off today and it worked out." — From staff reports
Winger's last-gasp effort
Ashton Winger was just as astonished as those who witnessed his Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series victory in the nick of time on Friday at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway. Jimmy Owens had $5,000 virtually in the bag when he took the white flag at the Georgia clay oval.
That is, until Winger miraculously charged to Owens’s inside through the last set of turns, gaining enough traction to upend the veteran back to the finish line.
“I’m probably as shocked as Jimmy was there,” Winger said. “I didn’t think (I’d get him). I thought I paired up with him and then would drag race back to the line. I tried leaving him a lane. I hope I didn’t get into him there. Hell … s— …”
The speechless Winger indeed executed a drive to victory free of dramatics, a race in which he took advantage of Owens’s vulnerability.
“I just didn’t know where to be on the track,” the Newport, Tenn., veteran said. “I felt like if I tagged the bottom there toward the end, they wouldn’t have enough momentum to get around me on the high side. That last lap, I felt like I had a good run off two there, but I didn’t know (Winger) was closing on me as fast as I was.
“When I got into three there, I was a little indecisive about where I wanted to go. I felt good in the middle, but the bottom was apparently a little faster, it felt like. I didn’t know where to go and I waited too late.”
Winger added that the win was “pure luck” and the winning maneuver that launched him around Owens “was probably the easiest I drove through three the whole race."
“I swear, I really just settled in there and was going to run second,” he said. “And then it was a little dusty down there. It was hard to see with all those lapped cars three-wide. First off, the racing surface was awesome. I can tell you, me knocking the deck out is pretty normal. But at Swainsboro, I’m sure it’s not a good thing.”
Winger’s statistics this year don’t suggest that he’s riding on mere luck. Friday stood as his 14th victory of the year, four of those being in his last seven races. Winger’s noted numerous times in his victory lane interviews the help he receives from Rocket Chassis owner Mark Richards and just how valuable that intel has become.
Sometimes Winger needs reminding of the bigger picture at play, too. For instance, in Thursday’s practice session at Swainsboro, he felt so discombobulated about the balance and speed of his race car that he wasn’t confident about his chances ahead of Friday’s feature.
“That last session I went out — I know the racetrack was a little different — but I got passed by a 602 or a 604 car, and I was like, ‘Man, we have no business being out here,’” Winger said. "It worked out. As I said, sometimes it don’t.”
Now, Winger has his eyes on Saturday’s $23,000 top prize, which would be his richest victory of the season should he duplicate Friday’s result.
“You know, we’re getting pretty good at winning these Friday nights,” Winger said. “We need to start winning some big ones on Saturdays. As I said, we’ll try again tomorrow.” — From staff reports
Pierce closing in
Bobby Pierce’s torrid season continued Friday night at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway — and in turn he drew closer to his first-ever World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series championship.
With a convincing $10,000 victory in the 40-lap Hoosier Dirt Classic, the 26-year-old star from Oakwood, Ill., pushed his series-leading 2023 win total to 13 and stretched his lead in the national tour’s standings to 150 points over race runner-up Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C.
Just six races remain on the WoO schedule — Saturday at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway, Oct. 14-15 at Georgia’s Senoia Raceway and Rome Speedway and Nov. 1-4’s World Finals at The Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C. — so Pierce can assure himself the $150,000 title by finishing at least 12th in each feature. That doesn’t seem like an extremely difficult chore considering his sublime performance record with his Longhorn Chassis, but he’s not taking anything for granted.
“It was in the back of my mind just to not do anything stupid,” Pierce said of his outlook on Friday. “I almost did, with almost falling off the track (while leading the feature). But sometimes you get out in the lead and that’s all you think about — you’re gonna do whatever it takes to win.”
Pierce knows, however, that he has a comfortable cushion for the circuit’s final weekends. He built it with a hot streak for the ages; after winning just once in the season’s first 11 full-field features and entering the month of June second in the standings, 64 points behind Madden, he’s claimed 12 of the last 23 full-field events (including eight of the last 12) to swing the championship battle by 214 points.
“With six races to go we’re sitting real pretty,” said Pierce, whose only previous season as national touring series regular came in 2018 when he drove for Dunn Benson Racing on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. “We’ve put ourselves in a great position. It’s just a huge team effort all year around.
“Man, to be in this position, it means everything, so we’ll see if we can cap this deal off and maybe pick off a few more wins. I’m pretty excited to get to these other tracks.”
Pierce’s 33rd overall victory of the season — and eighth in 12 starts since Sept. 1 — was his second straight that came over Madden, the 48-year-old driver who also chased Pierce under the checkered flag in Sept. 30’s WoO stop at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio.
“We went a little harder on right-front tire than Bobby did there,” Madden said. “It would take us five or six laps before we could get to where we could really steer across the center there, and after that we’d start inching and inching back to him. It was just a gamble on tires there. Last week (at Atomic) he went way harder than we did and outrun us, and today I went a little harder than he did and we were runner-up again.” — From staff reports
Divisional upstart
No one is more surprised than Tanner Mullens after his Complete Well Testing Sooner Late Model Series victory Friday at Longdale (Okla.) Speedway.
An accomplished modified racer, Mullens climbed into a Late Model for the first time in four years on Friday and led all 25 laps from his pole starting position thanks to drawing the number one pill in the redraw.
“I ran one a couple of times four years ago, but nothing until now,” said Mullens, who made the victory run look easy. “I did not expect to win tonight. We are just doing the best we can.
“We have a lot of people helping and telling us what to do. It has been fun so far.”
Jon Herring followed in second for the first two laps before giving way to Californian Lance Mari driving the Ross McCartney No. 42R. On the ninth lap Joe Gorby wheeled into second but lost the spot back to Mari after a lap-13 restart. Mari remained in second with Gorby third, while Herring fell to fourth and Eric Brill was fifth.
Mullens saw a potential challenger only once in the 25-lapper.
“Lance got beside me on a restart, otherwise I did not see anybody.” Mullens said.
Driving a Late Model was a long time coming for Mullens.
“I always loved them and my little boy, Tripp, is almost three and that is all he will watch. That is what kind of led me to do it,” Mullens said. “Our main focus will be our modified stuff, but when we have time we will do this.”
Comparing driving a Late Model to a modified is like night and day.
“This is totally different,” Mullens said. “I looked terrible in hot laps, a little bit better in the heat race, and I did not feel much better (in the feature) but we managed to stay in the lead.” — John Rittenoure
