Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Visiting crew whips WVMS into shape
The new backstretch grandstands at WVMS. (Zach Yost)
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: Mike Hurley, who with his wife Becky purchased, reconfigured and reopened Mineral Wells’s West Virginia Motor Speedway last year, has pledged repeatedly that he would make the facility’s new layout the best it could be. He’s proving that with one notable move he made prior to this weekend’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series-sanctioned Racefest Summer Championship: enlisting three experienced track-prep guys — Southeastern veteran Mackie Flood, Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway’s Chad Bauman and Blade Kearns, the son of Wild West Shootout promoter Chris Kearns — to oversee work on the surface. The trio’s impact was evident during Friday’s preliminary program as they whipped up a surface that drew positive reviews virtually across the board, including feature Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., who called it a “good, good racetrack.” The 3/8-mile oval looked much smoother than it was for last month’s Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series and it displayed multiple grooves, including a top side that Pierce largely ran to his $12,000 victory.
No. 2: How about those backstretch bleachers at WVMS? The new aluminum stands were erected in recent weeks, making a healthy addition — seating for perhaps 5,000 — to the capacity of a facility that later this year hosts the season-ending Dirt Track World Championship on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. It’s an impressive upgrade to a track that already can host a large number of fans on its sprawling terraced hillside.
No. 3: Along with the backstretch grandstand at WVMS, Hurley’s staff has also created a vendor row behind it, putting all of the merchandise trailers on hand for this weekend’s WoO doubleheader in a compact area. Previously the T-shirt sellers at big events were squeezed into the tight piece of property outside turn one. To give the homestretch hillside spectators access to the backstretch, a walkway has been laid out outside turns three and four that connects to two sections.
No. 4: Dennis Erb Jr.’s runner-up finish in Friday’s 40-lap feature at WVMS was a welcome relief for the 53-year-old veteran from Carpentersville, Ill. It was not only his best finish of 2026 on the WoO tour; it was his first top-five run on the circuit since he recorded a pair of top-fives (third and fourth) during January’s season-opening tripleheader at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. What’s more, his only top-five performances in his 47 overall starts between Volusia’s Sunshine Nationals and Friday came in MARS action on April 25 at Peoria (Ill.) Speedway (third) and May 23 at Fairbury (fourth). It’s been a decidedly difficult campaign for Erb, whose struggles include notable accidents in back-to-back WoO events in March at Tennessee’s Volunteer and Smoky Mountain speedways and just last week at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
No. 5: Today’s a busy day for Tyler Carpenter of Parkersburg, W.Va., who’s coming off a DNQ for Friday’s WoO event at his hometown track. He’ll be back at WVMS for this evening’s 60-lap, $30,000-to-win finale, but he’s spending the day driving his Dirt Late Model through the parade that’s part of the annual Cairo Days celebration in Cairo, W.Va., about 30 miles east of WVMS and just a dozen or so miles southwest of the old Pennsboro Speedway.
