DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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A legend returns, a dirt track lost, and history made | Daily 10-15-2023
Bloomer is coming back, a historic track is closing, Jade is crowned, and more today from the dirt racing weekend. Let's go!
It's Sunday, October 15th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Before we get started, just a quick thanks. We went over 6 million total video views on the YouTube channel, and we are well north of 7 million total show plays when you account for the podcast version. We should easily do 4 million views just in 2023. We are also just shy 24,000 subscribers at the moment, so if you don't subscribe yet, we'd love to have you. The goal of 25K is very much in sight.
Over in the DIRTRACKR merch shop, I've got a couple of sticker updates today. First, the late model stickers are restocked. They join the under the lights logo stickers and the midget ones. There is also a new sticker option as well with a new design. It's got a sprint car on it, and has the DIRTRACKR established year, plus the tag line "Your Daily Dose of Dirt." Both the added stickers are available for $5 and you can order at shop.dirtrackr.com. They pair nicely with a shirt or koozie order.
Back on Thursday we found out that Scott Bloomquist is planning on returning to the seat of a dirt late model at the Dirt Track World Championship coming up this week at Eldora. Because of his ongoing health issues and a cancer diagnosis this summer, we haven't seen Bloomer in a car since he attempted to run way back in January at Volusia in the Big Frog Motorsports car. He ended up not continuing though because of lingering numbness in his leg and foot. We haven't gotten a ton of updates about his status through the year, but he must be feeling well enough if he's going to try and race. He did stir up a little controversy a few weeks ago with comments about Ricky Thornton Jr. during an XR livestream though, in which he said RTJ still has a lot to learn and that he makes a lot of mistakes. According to Kevin Kovac at dirtondirt.com, Bloomquist is not driving his own car, but instead a Team Zero chassis owned by Devin Jones. Bloomer told Kovac that he thinks he can compete for the win at Eldora, and wouldn't show up if he felt otherwise. He's a three time winner of the event at other race tracks, and obviously has a prolific history at Eldora. Drop me a comment and let me know what your prediction is for how Bloomquist will do in his first event back.
The other big news item from the weekend is the impending sale and closure of Devil's Bowl Speedway in Texas. This weekend's ASCS events, and next weekend's World of Outlaws races will be the final ever shows at the historic track. If you aren't aware, Devil's Bowl hosted the original World of Outlaws sprint car race way back in 1978. Rumors have been floating around for maybe the last year or so that the future for the track was probably in doubt. In 2022, when we were talking about the tracks falling to Copart and the loss of I-30, Devil's Bowl was in that conversation. I tried to do a little digging to see who exactly the track was sold to, but public records have yet to be updated. The rumors were that it was being sold for warehouse space, or possibly something tied to the very nearby airport. Not that it really matters though what ends up happening to it after it's not a race track anymore. It's a shame to lose a facility with so much history tied to it, but if you want to see it one more time, this coming weekend's Outlaw show is your final chance.
Diving into some of the racing from the past few days, we'll start first with the midgets. Jade Avedisian closed out the Xtreme Outlaw season last night with a podium run that was good enough for her to lock up the championship. It was the first national midget title ever for a female driver. Jade ended up with five wins, and 26 top tens in 29 races. I talked way back in May of this season about her excellent chance to contend for one or both of the midget titles this season, and took quite a bit of heat on that show for what I said. But here she is five months later crowned a champion. I'm sure all of those previous commenters will be back today to give her a hat tip. Or not. Last night wasn't without controversy though, as first lap contact between Jade and Chase McDermand set off a massive pileup that ended the night for several cars. It was certainly not a clean weekend for the midget crowd, and a rough way to start the season finale. Weekend Xtreme wins went to Ryan Timms, Gavin Miller, and Hayden Reinbold. Reinbold's win last night was his first ever. Besides the Xtreme title, POWRi also crowned their champion this weekend, and when things kicked off on Wednesday night, it looked like Cannon McIntosh was on his way to that one. But an up and down couple of days saw McIntosh not only fall to fourth in the final Xtreme standings, but also lose out on the POWRi title to Karter Sarff. So Xtreme and POWRi done for the year, and now the midget teams get a month off before the USAC midget season makes it's run to the finish starting November 14th at Bakersfield.
Of the four World of Outlaws shows scheduled for the weekend, we ended up only getting one night of racing. Both late model races were rained out, so just World Finals remains for them. And the Friday sprint car race at 81 Speedway was called off because of high winds. So that left Saturday night at Lakeside, which saw Donny Schatz start on the front row, fall back to sixth, but then charge back through and take the win right at the end. David Gravel got bottled up in lap traffic coming to the white, and Schatz slipped by on the bottom and drove on to his fifth win of the season. Schatz hadn't won any race since his prelim night at Knoxville back in August, and his last Outlaw win was the Kings Royal at Eldora in July. Coming into Lakeside, he was on a stretch of races where he had only finished top ten in three of his past nine main events. Championship rivals Gravel and Brad Sweet rounded out the podium. Headed to Devil's Bowl next week, the gap between the two is down to 66 points I believe. Five races now remain for Gravel to try and close the gap. He's made progress in recent weeks, but still needs more. About 33 feature positions still sit between the two.
Back to Devil's Bowl, the ASCS closed out their championship season over the weekend with two races. Sam Hafertepe swept the victories, and even though he finished outside the top ten last night, Jason Martin was crowned the 2023 champion, which was his first. The final event of the season coming up with the rescheduled Short Track Nationals is not a full points event, so Matt Covington can not catch Martin there. Nice $50,000 pay day for Martin, and he had a strong season with nine wins, 19 top fives, and 25 top tens in 29 appearances. As for Hafertepe, he doesn't run nearly as much with the 360 as he used to, but his record is still pretty damn good. Over the past three seasons, he's got 28 ASCS starts, and in those races he's got ten wins, 21 top fives, and 26 top tens. Pretty wild numbers. The Short Track Nationals take place October 27th and 28th at Texarkana 67 Speedway.
Looking around the rest of the country, Justin Sanders and DJ Netto were NARC sprint car winners Friday night at Hanford. Two races remain out there, with Corey Day leading the standings by 47 points over Sanders. At Arrowhead Speedway, Jason Hughes won two of three nights, including the $20,000 finale, but it was Rodney Sanders who locked up the USMTS championship with the win on Friday. Hughes did break a six year winless streak, which is almost hard to believe. In late model action, Michael Chilton won a pair of Ultimate Heart of America shows, Drake Troutman was a ULMS winner at Lernerville, and Ashton Winger bagged $15 grand at Whynot.
Alright, that's it for today's Daily. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday.