Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Intimigator takes in Show-Me fun
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: As I walked up to the backstretch viewing platform at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., before the start of Friday’s postponed Cowboy Classic feature, I bumped into a couple blasts from the past: Chris Wall and his wife Missy. It’s been quite a while since I had last seen the Walls, the friendly couple from Springfield, La., who were familiar faces across the Dirt Late Model circuit during the late-2000s and into the early-2010s when Chris was racing extensively, including in 2010 when he was a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular and finished seventh in the points standings. Well known for his catchy Intimigator nickname — he makes his living as an alligator farmer — Wall is now 58 and hasn’t raced regularly since 2018. He made a handful of starts in ’22 and then didn’t compete again until last month when he made an appearance driving a Thrash Racing entry in April 11’s Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series event at Super Bee Raceway in Chatham, La. Wall said he certainly enjoyed climbing back into the cockpit (he finished sixth) but he’s not planning any return to competition on a regular basis. The Walls, though, had a fun time visiting with racing friends when they attended March’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series weekend at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss., so they decided to make the trip to Wheatland as well.
No. 2: Chris Wall showed up for Wheatland’s Friday program dressed very sharply in a throwback Anthony Burroughs T-shirt. The shirt featured Burroughs’s own No. 121 Dirt Late Model that was one of the Alabama native’s rides before he shifted his motorsports career to turning wrenches full-time in the mid-2010s. Wall dug deep into his closest for his longtime friend’s shirt, which Burroughs said was probably from 2009. Burroughs, who now serves as Ricky Thornton Jr.’s crew chief at Koehler Motorsports, was impressed when Wall approached him in the pit area wearing the shirt. As Burroughs noted, he wasn’t sure if it was more amazing that Wall still had the shirt or “that he can still fit in it.”
No. 3: During Friday’s show at Wheatland I was walking past the pit stall of Lucas Oil Series regular Clay Harris when I noticed one of his crew members wearing a T-shirt showing the Keystone Racing No. 126 big-block modified of New Jersey driver Dominick Buffalino. My big-block background made me inquire further, and I discovered that the Harris crewman, Talan Carter, is a 19-year-old from Fleetwood, Pa. — not far from my hometown of Ephrata — and he has deep roots in the Northeast’s big-block modified division. His late great-grandfather, Rags Carter, was a legendary modified racer who made his mark in the 1960s and ‘70s and his family has been involved in the sport ever since. Carter’s father, Tim, was a competitor himself and I spoke with him several times while I was writing for New Jersey’s Area Auto Racing News in the 1990s and 2000s. Talan, who raced in the Northeast’s sportsman class — a small-block modified division — from the age of 14 until the end of the ’24 season, spotted the team’s social-media post seeking a full-time crew member and decided to apply for the position. He started with the team in early April.
No. 4: There was really no question that the decision to postpone Saturday’s Show-Me 100 finale to Sunday evening was correct. The track was pummeled by heavy rain for a stretch around 4:30 p.m. and precipitation remained light to moderate for several hours afterward; it didn’t really cease completely until nearly 10 o’clock. With Sunday’s forecast calling for sunny skies and a high of 80 degrees, it only made sense to focus on running the crown jewel event under optimum conditions.
No. 5: Typically during the Show-Me 100 weekend I spend each night sharing the track’s tower media room with Lucas Oil Speedway public relations director Lyndal Scranton, a former daily newspaper reporter who’s handled Wheatland’s publicity since his retirement. This weekend Scranton has been unfortunately absent from the track as he recovers from some recent health issues that necessitated surgery and other treatment. Scranton checked in with me by email to relay his disappointment over missing the weekend, but he reported that, while he’s feeling good and his prognosis is positive, his doctors vetoed him driving to the track. Scranton handled the event’s press releases from his home while watching the FloRacing broadcast.
