Portsmouth Raceway Park
Fast Facts: 34th annual Dirt Track World Championship
34th annual Dirt Track World Championship
Dates: Oct. 16-18 (modifieds only on Thursday, Late Model prelims on Friday, modified and Late Model features Saturday)
Track: Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park (high-banked 3/8-mile clay oval).
Purse: $50,000-to-win Late Model feature and $3,000-to-win feature for non-qualifiers.
Sanction: Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
Last year’s winner: Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, Ill.
Tickets: $50 for three-day general admission ($15 for children 7-11); $60 for three-day pit pass. 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.
Television: Tape delayed on MavTV and NBC Sports Network.
On the web: lucasdirt.com or portsraceway.com.
Track phone: (740) 354-3278.
Race sponsors: Optima Batteries, NAPA Auto Parts, Arizona Sport Shirts, GottaRace.com, Hoosier Racing Tire, Integra Racing Shocks, DirtonDirt.com, 4m.net, Holman Motors and Sunoco Race Fuels.
Notes: The race has had 24 winners. ... At age 20, Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., is the youngest driver to ever win the DTWC. He’ll once again pilot a Rocket Chassis house car for this year’s event as a teammate to Josh Richards. … Portsmouth is the seventh track to host the DTWC; this marks the race’s third straight year at PRP. ... The track seats 4,000 spectators and 300 more in the pits. ... Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., enters the event 75 points ahead of Jimmy Owens in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points standings. … Owens was the winner of the 2012 DTWC in PRP’s first year hosting the event. … Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., captured the last series event at Rome (Ga.) Speedway, along with collecting a $20,000 victory over the past weekend in Magnolia Motor Speedway’s Cotton Pickin’ 100. … 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. ... Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., is expected to make his second start of the 2014 season after being sidelined with nerve damage to his hands. … The non-qualifiers’ race is known as the 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 modified feature pays $3,000-to-win.
DTWC winners
1981: Jim Dunn, Roseville, Ohio
DTWC purse
26. $200