Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: North Dakota driver's inspiring return
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: The moment Laine Schwehr wasn’t sure he’d ever experience again came Saturday when he climbed back into a Dirt Late Model to compete in the Governors Cup at Dacotah Speedway in Mandan, N.D. It was 10 months and 11 days after doctors told him he was considered a quadriplegic — paralyzed from the neck down — with a broken neck and compressed spinal cord he suffered in a Sept. 20 crash during the Stock Car Stampede at Jamestown (N.D.) Speedway. Schwehr, 29, of Valley City, N.D., defied the odds by walking out of a rehabilitation hospital a month-and-a-half later and soon started working in his shop to prepare a Rocket XR1 Chassis for his return to WISSOTA action. That time finally came on Saturday, which brought his journey full circle. An in-car camera video posted on social media by Backstretch Productions captured Schwehr’s emotions as he strapped in for his first laps, and an interview Schwehr did with local television station KFYR summed up his outlook. “I’ve said the whole time if I raced one more night and that’s all I got, I would be totally OK with that,” Schwehr said. “If I race for the next 10 years, then that’s fine, too.”
No. 2: Unfortunately, Schwehr’s comeback start didn't go well. He didn’t even complete two laps in a heat race after a tangle with another competitor sent him spinning in turn two. His car absorbed hits from two other cars and had to be towed off the track, his evening done. Schwehr made it through the incident fine physically, but his dejection was evident as he sat in his car’s window and had his face in his hands while passing the grandstand behind a wrecker. He reported that the damage wasn’t “too bad” with body and bolt-on parts being the main problem — the frame wasn’t bent — but he admitted it was “just a little disheartening more than anything after all the work.” Schwehr’s positive attitude showed through, though, as he looked ahead to hopefully racing again this weekend at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., and Greenbush (Minn.) Race Park. “I’ll get it put back together this week here and get out again,” he commented. “The car’s pretty sporty it seems for the minimal time in it so far.”
No. 3: Dylan Yoder of Middleburg, Pa., was already in a bad enough situation on lap 16 of last Saturday night’s Super Late Model feature at Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway when he ramped over Justin Weaver’s spinning car in turn three and began to flip. But then his father, Jim Yoder, piled into the undercarriage of Dylan’s rolling machine, which came to rest on its roof. The elder Yoder quickly jumped out of his car to assist his son, who emerged uninjured but frustrated that his Rocket XR2 Chassis was thoroughly beaten up. “It’s pretty much everything attached to the rear end was bent up or broke,” Dylan reported in a text message. “There’s a couple places on the rear clip that are bent that will need fixed, but the front doesn’t look terrible besides some suspension parts (though) we won’t know for sure until we get it on a jig.” How did Dylan feel about taking a shot from his father in the wreck? “Getting hit by dad is just like anyone else except we have to fix both cars,” he quipped.
No. 4: Blair Nothdurft of Renner, S.D., is a pretty mild-mannered 25-year-old, but he displayed a little agitation after winning Saturday’s Malvern Bank Series-sanctioned Gail and Karen Hampel Memorial at Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa. As he reviewed his $5,000 victory, he grew stern about a foul-mouthed spectator who shouted out to him. “A really good night … besides being called an F-in idiot by a fan in the stands, it was a really good night,” he said. “Other than that, we’re happy to be here.”
No. 5: Josh Rice of Crittenden, Ky., and his JRR Motorsports crew didn’t race last weekend so they could focus on prepping for this weekend’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Sunoco North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., Rice’s home track. The crux of that work was building a new car, one that the 28-year-old Rice plans to debut on Thursday for the first of two split-field preliminary programs. Rice if hopeful that the new vehicle — one that is sure to draw plenty of attention when it’s unloaded — will carry him to success in a race he covets. Despite all the winning he’s done at Florence, including two Lucas Oil Series triumphs in the Ralph Latham Memorial, he’s encountered a litany of frustrating performances in the North-South 100. He’s entered the event every year since 2015 except in ’17 and he’s started the finale eight times, but, aside from a fifth-place finish in ’21, he’s never finished better than 14th and has five finishes of 20th or worse.
