I intended to write this week about five things I’d like to see changed in the Middle Tennessee Late Model racing community. But when I got to No. 3 on my list, it simply grew into a beast of its own — a spinoff, if you will.

So each of those other things I’d like fixed, or at least altered, will have to wait.

What I’d really like to see is Winchester Speedway take a chance on a big one. With the success that Duck River Raceway Park has enjoyed in recent years, I’d love to see that at MORE

As the surface at Duck River Raceway Park began to blow a little grit, my first thought was that finally, the Bob Harris-owned quarter-mile wasn’t going to be a one-lane, around-the-top speedplant for the Old Man’s Garage Spring Nationals

I was happy for once that the track, which was still pretty fast, might slick off and provided a slippery surface all around, thus, in my opinion, providing fans with a lot of side-by-side action for the duration of the $4,000-to-win, 40-lapper on the Ray MORE

It is a busy afternoon in Oakwood, Ill., and Bobby Pierce is looking at a looming deadline. It’s the kind of deadline a lot of 17-year-olds fret over, involving an intensely challenging subject.

Algebra.

Pierce is one of the country’s hottest Dirt Late Model racers, a growing force that shows no sign of abating. He’s already won 10 races and is on track for a phenomenal season, perhaps the greatest season in history for someone not yet 18 years old.

Pierce has little time to bask in his MORE

Ever stumble upon something that ended up changing the direction of your life? Veteran Dirt Late Model racer Doug Horton did last year — by driving off the wrong highway exit.

Horton and his wife, Laura, were on a long-weekend getaway to Florida’s Gulf Coast in March 2013 — primarily because he had been too busy at his Smithfield, Pa.-based High Gear Speed Shop to make his annual trip to the previous month’s Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla. — when he made a MORE