Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Marion Center driver's can't-miss event
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: There’s an event this weekend that Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa., absolutely, positively can’t miss: the World of Outlaws Late Model Series-sanctioned Connor Bobik Memorial at Marion Center (Pa.) Raceway. As Satterlee’s veteran crew chief Robby Allen told me in a recent conversation, as long as Satterlee’s father and team owner Gary’s primary residence remains barely 1 mile from the 3/8-mile track “then we have to race there.” Of course, the 41-year-old Satterlee has plenty of personal history at Marion Center; it’s where he cut his teeth as a Dirt Late Model racer and owns more than 20 career victories. But while he’ll bring his experience into the two-day WoO affair that includes twin $6,000-to-win semifeatures Friday and a $30,000-to-win finale Saturday, his lone triumph there over the past 13 seasons is an unsanctioned $5,000-to-win show on July 6, 2024. And Satterlee’s results in Marion Center’s WoO programs since 2022 haven’t been notable with a best finish of seventh of ’23.
No. 2: Teams attending this weekend’s WoO stop at Marion Center will be greeted by a new clay surface that track management laid down last month. It will, however, be the first competition on the fresh dirt because the track’s first three programs of 2026 were lost to inclement weather.
No. 3: With Wednesday’s announcement that last week's rained-out FloRacing Night in America event at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway has been rescheduled for Tues., July 21 — resuming with the second heat race — it sort of sets up another Illinois Speedweek to replace last week’s weather-wrecked stretch. Lincoln’s new date comes the day before a FloRacing Night in America show at Fairbury Speedway, which then hosts the WoO-sanctioned Prairie Dirt Classic on Friday and Saturday (following a Thursday off day). You can also throw in July 17-18’s MARS Championship Series doubleheader at Farmer City Raceway and Charleston Speedway as part of a busy week of special events in Illinois.
No. 4: The MARS tour, by the way, is scheduled to contest eight events over the next three weekends before going on hiatus until the July 17-18 races to make way for June’s Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and the month-long DIRTcar Summer Nationals. But if one of this month’s MARS nights is rained out, maybe Sunday, July 19, would serve as a nice raindate to add another Super Late Model show in the Land of Lincoln as a lead-in to the PDC.
No. 5: Here’s a positive update on Dennis “Rambo” Franklin, the 51-year-old Dirt Late Model veteran from Gaffney, S.C., who underwent a liver transplant on May 3. A Tuesday Facebook post by his family reported that he “busted straight out of the hospital today with the biggest smile on his face” as doctors officially discharged him. Franklin will have to remain near the medical center in Charleston, S.C., for a few weeks to continue receiving dialysis treatments and seeing his doctors for follow-up appointments as he takes his regime of anti-rejection medication.
