Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Match race for grandpa, grandson
In a new feature appearing regularly on DirtonDirt, senior writer Kevin Kovac will offer readers five things worth mentioning from around the Dirt Late Model landscape (index to previous Take Fives):
No. 1: Weather permitting, there will be a little competitive twist to Saturday’s open practice session at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway. At noon, Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Vern LeFevers will hit the 3/8-mile oval to run a 10-lap exhibition match race against his grandson Michael LeFevers, a third-year Dirt Late Model driver who operates Slicker Graphics. The track has given its OK for the one-on-one battle, which will mark the first time the LeFevers duo have faced off. “This is first time we have ever had two cars, so I thought was best time to do it,” the 32-year-old Michael LeFevers told DirtonDirt. “Who wouldn’t want to have a race with their 87-year-old Hall Of Fame Grandpa?” What spoils — besides bragging rights — will go to the winning LeFevers? “Loser buys dinner,” Michael said while also noting that they have “about 100 people” coming to see the match race, including local racing legends John Mugavin, Chuck McWilliams, Pierce Foster and Ed Hounshell.
No. 2: This season is the 60th anniversary of the first year Vern LeFevers and his brother started racing in 1966. A 2006 inductee to the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame, LeFevers retired in 2002 because of back problems, but returned to the cockpit on a limited basis in 2019. Vern will be behind the wheel of the last car he drove before he retired for a second time after the ’23 season but with a bigger motor under the hood. Michael will drive the family team’s newer Capital Race Car that they just put back together — the car that Vern drove to his 660th and final career feature win on June 4, 2022, at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio.
No. 3: The start of Thursday’s 40-lap Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals feature at I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, Tenn., marked the second time this season that everyone watching gasped in disbelief over what they were witnessing. Just like the opening lap of Feb. 26’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway was shocking when front-row starter Jonathan Davenport clipped polesitter Kyle Bronson and went spinning backwards into the outside wall, so it was Thursday when polesitter Brandon Overton lost traction and slid sideways between turns one and two at the initial green flag. Overton didn’t crash into a wall like Davenport, but he did absorb a blow from Hudson O’Neal as he lost momentum and had to pit for a tire change. I guess it’s a reminder that even the best drivers run into trouble at the start of a race sometimes.
4. Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., gave a good quote to MotorsportsReport.net’s Richard Allen after winning Thursday’s Spring Nationals feature at I-75 using an aggressive slider and high-side lane. He acknowledged that he has to drive with a bit more gusto these days than he would prefer as he’s just a month away from turning 60. “I watch these guys race hard weekly and I realize that you just got to do different stuff than what’s worked in the past for us,” McDowell told Allen. “So it’s a little bit out of my forte, or my comfort zone, but you just have to be ready to go anywhere. That definitely wasn’t a 59-soon-to-be-60-year-old lineup there, but it definitely worked me hard.”
5. Ben Watkins of Rock Hill, S.C., made an interesting pit stop Friday morning en route to the evening’s Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals event at Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, Va. He unloaded his Dirt Late Model outside Buford (S.C.) Elementary School as part of his now-annual visit to the school’s Career Day. He gave a shoutout to his employer, Parks Heating & Cooling, for giving him the day off to speak with the kids.
