Weekly Notebook presented by FK Rod Ends
Notes: W.Va., racer claws back after shop fire
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Corey Conley (Zach Yost photos)
For Corey Conley, it’s been a long slog back from a devastating race shop fire Feb. 11, 2023, that did everything but end the Wellsburg, W.Va., Dirt Late Model racer’s career.
“That basically shut us down for a year and a half,” the 51-year-old Conley said, describing the scene during a recent phone call. “A total meltdown. I've never seen a fire burn so hot. It melted everything. I’m standing on the old concrete right now. It blew giant holes in the concrete floor. My big wide-bore motor was in here. The heads were melted off of it. The valve springs were all laying on the floor. It was crazy.”
The 2023-24 racing seasons were mostly lost as Conley tried to rebuild a dirt racing career that’s one of the most accomplished among West Virginia racers since 2000.
“We didn't have enough equipment to race. We didn't have a shop to work out of. Just highly depressed, honestly. It was crushing,” Conley said of a three-year winless stretch that ended with a victory 11 months ago at Hilltop Speedway in Millersburg, Ohio. “I was nowhere near ready to shut anything down. I just had (in 2022) one of the best years I've had in a long, long time. And we were pretty dominant actually in this area.”
Slowly but surely, Conley has inched his way back to success. He recently enjoyed the milestone of his 400th career victory between Late Model and modified competition going back nearly 30 seasons. He’s won a solid four races among 10 starts during a 2026 season that’s been curtailed in part because he’s busy tending to his Conley Hauling & Excavating and Twisted Tool Performance operations.
“I'm working a lot more hours, so I don't have as much time to race, but also all we have left is dad's motor,” said Conley, who hopes to have a wide-bore powerplant back soon. “I'm trying not to just beat it to death. So we're trying to be picky and choosy about where we're going there. I'm not getting to race as much as I want to, but we're going to get it back out there on a full schedule and I like to race 30-40 nights a year again here real soon.”
His career resume stacks up to the region’s best for a mostly non-touring racer with victories at nearly 20 racetracks among the 60 or so where he’s competed. The $5,000 mark is his richest victory, but he’s got four Hillbilly 50 victories and a variety of memorial race wins. Conley also has the second-most starts of any driver in the prestigious Hillbilly 100 since 2000, leading the first 39 laps of the 2003 race and finishing a career-best third in 2005 for his richest career payday.
His best season came nearly 25 years ago when he grabbed 22 Late Model victories and 31 modified wins while capturing an AMRA modified championship, but double-figure victory totals aren’t uncommon.
It all started for Conley when uncle Jay Cline put him in a Late Model in 1996 and, with support from his uncle and cousin D.J. Cline, also a racer, Conley began competing in his own car two years later. He credits his career-long success to challenging himself against top competition instead of sticking with a single track.
“I literally packed up and went to every racetrack that was running around me that I could afford to go to, and I went to tracks I didn't even belong at,” Conley says, remembering battling STAR standouts at Challenger Raceway near Indiana, Pa., among other events. “And I didn't deserve to be there, but by God I learned a lot fast and I sucked it in like a sponge.
“And I think that's one of the biggest attributes to my career that's helped me the most is just traveling around early, even when I didn't know what I was doing, but I learned a lot on a lot of different racetracks. And now I feel like no matter where I go, I've been somewhere that looks like this. And I just think that's a big asset.”
Becoming proficient at a variety of tracks has helped Conley stack up against multigenerational talent.
“Racing in this region, any win you get around here when you're outrunning guys like, back in my day: Larry Bond, Skip Watterman, Chuck Maloney, Mark Banal, Butch McGill, Paul Wilmoth, all these guys, those are guys that won hundreds of races,” Conley said. “You outrun them, and then nowadays you're outrunning Kyle Moore, Doug Brown, Ryan Markham, (J.R.) Gentry. It's tough around here. I don't (care) what anybody says. If you win around here, period, you better be damn proud of it and be happy because you don't know if you're ever gonna get another one.”
His four 2026 victories have all come at Hilltop as he adjusts to a new Longhorn Chassis. He’d been driving Kryptonite Race Cars — one of his cars survived the fire because it was tucked into his basement garage — but new sponsorship encouraged him to switch brands.
“Over the winter, a buddy of mine, one of my best friends from a long time ago, come on board and said he wanted to help out. But if he's gonna help out, it's gonna be in a Longhorn car. Well, I've never had a bunch of help, so we'll take it, we'll give it a try,” Conley said, calling Freddie and Tyler Carpenter of Kryptonite “fantastic people, but when you get someone wanting to help, you got to take it, right?”
The Longhorn has performed well on Conley’s preferred smooth surfaces, which he’s struggled to find this season. But after finishing fifth in July 25's Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series feature at Skyline Speedway in Stewart, which Conley praised as “the absolute best I’ve seen that racetrack,” he said his Longhorn wasn’t firing immediately.
“On a long run, I'm really, really good. On the restarts and starts, we were terrible,” he said. "I'm doing something wrong there.”
But after finishing behind standouts Zack Dohm, Colten Burdette, Freddie Carpenter and Eddie Carrier Jr. at Skyline, “to be on track with those guys with a car that I'm this new in, I'm very happy,” Conley said.
Conley’s shop fire would’ve ended the career of most late-career racers, but his tenacity along with fitness and good health keeps him going. The active driver recently spent a vacation enjoying water sports on Deep Creek Lake in Maryland and regularly plays basketball in a YMCA league.
"I don't think I'm 51 until it's time to get out of bed in the morning, then my body lets me know I'm 51,” the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Conley said. “I don't live like an old man.”
Besides racing, his athletic career highlights came at Brooke High School, which in 1992 found itself facing DuPont High School and future NFL Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss in the AAA state championship football game.
“We contained him pretty well all day long,” Conley recalled, “but he lit us up for two long touchdowns. I tried to hand-fight him all day and keep him in check, but once he got loose, you ain't catching that monster.
“That’s what I tell people, people say, what do you do? I say, ‘Well, I've lived.’ I've beaten Tony Stewart in a race car and I've tackled Randy Moss in the open field. That’s a couple of things that people can't check off their box.”
The Moss episode also signals Conley’s competitiveness.
“When you face someone who is truly that much better than you,” Conley said, “it put a fire in me to work my ass off to make sure that no one else was ever that much better than me again.”
Conley aims to keep racing as long as he’s competitive with plans for more 2026 action including major events at the shortened West Virginia Motor Speedway, where one of his career highlights came with a Super Late Model victory on the former 5/8-mile Mineral Wells layout.
“If I don't feel like I can leave the house thinking I'm gonna go win, then that's when I'll quit,” Conley said. “I’m never gonna be the guy that's gonna go out there racing, ‘Oh, we ran fifth tonight. That's a pretty good night guys, so let's be happy with that.’ That's not me. If I'm not going to win, I'm not gonna go and I'm not gonna watch either. When I sell all my (equipment), you won't see me back at the racetrack.”
Weekly highlights
• Earning a career-high $5,500, Trevor Collins of Seaford, Del., captured July 31’s Camp Barnes Benefit for Super Late Models at Georgetown (Del.) Speedway.
• Hometown driver Pat Doar was a two-time winner during the July 30-Aug. 1 USA Nationals weekend at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., earning $2,500 apiece for Thursday and Saturday victories.
• Including $500 for setting fast time, Blake Craft of Lavonia, Ga., earned $3,400 in winning Aug. 1’s Stephen Wragg Memorial at Toccoa (Ga.) Raceway.
• Leading all 40 laps, hometown driver Henry Hornsby III pocketed a $3,000 Super Late Model payday Aug. 1 at Beckley (W.Va.) Motor Speedway.
• With Aug. 1’s Crate Late Model victory at The Dirt Track at Genesee, J.J. Mazur of East Bethany, N.Y., became the 10th winner in 10 division races this season at the Batavia, N.Y., oval.
• Ryan Mikkelson of Alexandria, Minn., and Zach Johnson of Lowry, Minn., split $2,000 paydays during the North Dakota Governors Cup action July 31-Aug. 1 at Mandan’s Dacotah Speedway.
• Winning July 30-31 features, division rookie Jacob Anson of Albion, Neb., captured IMCA Late Model events at U.S. 30 Speedway in Columbus, Neb., and his hometown Boone County Raceway.
First things first
Recent first-time occurrences at the dirt track:
• Winning Aug. 1 at Hollis Speedway in Heflin, Ala., Logan Walston of Dalton, Ga., notched his first Limited Late Model feature victory.
• Former sprint car racer and hometown driver Garrett Mitchell captured his first Super Late Model victory July 31 at Ohio Valley Speedway in Washington, W.Va.
Weekly news briefs
• The Ohio Valley racing community is mourning the passing of former Late Model racer Cotton Sayre, a winner and champion at tracks including Skyline Speedway in Stewart, Ohio, and Ohio Valley Speedway in Washington, W.Va. He died unexpectedly at 83 at a Parkersburg, W.Va., hospital.
• Aug. 14’s season championships Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie, Wis., will be dedicated to longtime driver, track supporter and spectator Bob Hays, who died in 2022 at the age of 76. "Red Cedar Speedway is incredibly honored that the Hays family has chosen to celebrate Bob's memory by giving back to the Speedway and the racing community,” the track said in a statement. "Bob's passion for racing and his dedication to supporting local drivers made him a familiar and respected figure at the track for decades.” The five divisions in action include WISSOTA Late Models and USRA Late Models.
• Richmond (Ky.) Raceway announcer Anthony “Caution” Wiseman of Irvine, Ky., died July 30. He was 55. In a tribute, track owner Bill Lupinos praised his work while mentioning his eccentricities. “I'd get messages from people watching the stream of the race barking that he said someone's name wrong,” Lupinos said. “I’d tell him, he'd repeat it back, do his Caution laugh, and then continue to say it wrong all night!” The super stock division will run a Caution Wiseman Tribute event later this season, Lupinos announced.
• Hendry County Motorsports Park in Clewiston, Fla., has added Sept. 19's Trailene Boyd-Webster Memorial, a $3,000-to-win Crate Late Model event that includes bonuses for fast time, hard charger and more. Webster was a Riverview, Fla., resident passionate about racing who died last year at the age of 34.
• Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex in Markleysburg, Pa., is seeking staff members including pit announcer, lineup assistant, security and tow-truck driver. See the track’s Facebook page for contact information.
• Ponderosa Speedway in Junction City, Ky., has scheduled the Big Daddy Classic for Aug. 14. Details of the event honoring late racer Paul Feistritzer weren’t announced.
• Merritt Speedway in Lake City, Mich., recently disced the track in an effort to remove rocks from the surface.
• One of the three members of the Snyder County Dirt Management Group will individually continue promotions of Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway next season, the track announced this afternoon.Colin Rice, who for two seasons has operated the half-mile oval with partners Paula Schick and Jenna Mowery, said he agreed to a three-year lease to operate the track beginning in 2027. All current divisions, which includes Super Late Models and Limited Late Models, will continue, Rice said, with Steve Paige and Blane Heimbach staying on board to prepare the racing surface. The Selinsgrove Fair Board announced earlier this week it was seeking a new promoter after the current promoting trio couldn’t agree on a lease extension. The board required a three-year lease but Schick and Mowery didn’t want to commit beyond one year, Rice said in his statement.
• Bedford (Pa.) Speedway has added the Tyler Ritchey Memorial to the Aug. 21 program with a 33-lap feature paying $4,333-to-win for Super Late Models. Along with a purse that pays $3,333 for second and $2,333 for third, each heat race winner will earn $103 (courtesy Austin Berry Racing) and the Hard Luck Award will pay $250 (courtesy Speed Media Solutions).
• After an Aug. 1 rainout, Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway decided to add a Thursday night program as a FALS Cup makeup. The $2,500-to-win Super Late Model event is set for Aug. 13.
• Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway Hall of Famer Steve Trabue, whose racing career included two Late Model track titles at Kentucky tracks then continued with 25 seasons as a DIRTcar official, died Saturday at a Louisville, Ky., hospital after suffering a stroke at his Scottsburg, Ind., home. He was 78. A competitor for more than 30 years in the Late Model, modified street stock, open-wheel modified and enduro divisions, Trabue's Late Model success included a 1994 track title at Barren County Speedway in Glasgow, Ky., and a 1996 championship at Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky. He won the 1986 modified street stock championship at Brownstown, where his racing career began in 1967. He served as a DIRTcar official from 2000-24, many of those years along with his father Roy.
• Crystal (Mich.) Motor Speedway was named in the 2026 Guide to Michigan as among the best recreation places.
• Former Late Model racer Dave Hoover died July 31 at his Woodbury, Pa., home. He drove the No. 45 Hoover Racing Entry in multiple divisions at tracks in Bedford, Pa., and Cumberland, Md., from 1990-2005 and later crew-chiefed for his son Brandon. He was the 1992 Race of Champions winner at Bedford.
• Shawano (Wis.) Speedway is mourning the passing of Barb Bohardt, the wife of longtime track worker Bob Bohardt.
• Cooper Twiggs of Murphy, N.C., was stripped of July 23’s 602 Crate Late Model feature victory at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Ga., because his engine’s camshaft was outside the allowable tolerance. Chris Woods of Statham, Ga., was awarded the victory.
• Plymouth (Wis.) Dirt Track is mourning the passing of Jerry McMullen, a member of the track’s Wall of Fame as part of the McMullen family. The Plymouth resident died July 22 at the age of 89. He was a longtime driver, car owner, sponsor and supporter of the track.
Weekly points
DIRTcar (Supers): Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill., has 2,154 points to lead Tanner English (2,057) and Mike Spatola (1,772).
IMCA (Limiteds): Zach Zeitner of Bellevue, Neb., has 779 points to lead Tommy Elston (771) and Drew Baker (753).
WISSOTA (Limiteds): Tyler Peterson of Hickson, N.D., has 1,453 points to lead Shane Sabraski (1,418) and Kevin Burdick (1,299).
American All-Stars (Crates): Brandon Fouts of Kite, Ky., has 586 points to lead Logan Walls (546) and Dalton Brown (452).
Crate Racin’ USA (602 Crates): Chace Pennington of Steens, Miss., has 597 points to lead Spencer Moore (577) and Brodie Thompson (574).
Crate Racin’ USA (604 Crates): Shannon Lee of Lumbertown, Miss., has 582 points to lead Brady Walton (571) and Taylor Jarvis (569).
DIRTcar (Crates): Braden Johnson of Taylorville, Ill., has 874 points to lead Chase Wilson (792) and Hudson Dick (708).
Gen X (Crates): Parker Gilbertson of Montevideo, Minn., has 1,101 points to lead Blake Swenson (1,044) and Trevor Walsh (1,040).
RUSH (Crates): Jeremy Wonderling of Wellsville, N.Y., has 1,329 points to lead Devin Brannon (1,320) and Davin Kaiser (1,300).
Ultimate (Crates): T.J. Salango of Glen Daniel, W.Va., has 254 points to lead Brandon Adkins (220) and T.J. Hicks (220).
USRA (Crates): Jason McFadden of Jim Falls, Wis., has 5,058 points to lead Lucas Peterson (4,890) and Josh Wahlstrom (3,854).
Upcoming weekly specials
Among non-touring and independent special events coming up for Late Models at dirt tracks around the country:
Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway (Aug. 7): Another $5,000-to-win Super Late Model program with Gregg Satterlee aiming for his seventh victory of the season. Northeast RV posted a $1,000 bounty on Satterlee.
Lernerville Speedway, Sarver, Pa. (Aug. 7): The Ken Schaltenbrand Memorial for topless Super Late Models marks the second-to-last points race of the season.
Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway (Aug. 8): The final Nathan Durboraw Tribute pays $5,200-to-win of the 41-lap feature honoring the track’s legendary driver.
Madras (Ore.) Speedway (Aug. 8): The fifth annual Hunter Johnson Memorial pays $2,800-to-win for the 40-lap Super Late Model feature.
Merritt Speedway, Lake City, Mich. (Aug. 8): The DIRTcar Super Late Model division will chase a $2,500 winner's purse in topping a five-division card.
Thunderhill Raceway, Summertown, Tenn. (Aug. 8): The fourth annual Red, White & Blue Special pays $3,000-to-win for 602 Crate Late Models.
Needmore Speedway, Norman Park, Ga. (Aug. 8): The eighth annual Morgan Sheffield Memorial pays $2,016-to-win for 602 Crate Late Models. Practice is scheduled for Aug. 7.
Shawano (Wis.) Speedway (Aug. 8): USRA Late Models chase a $1,500-to-win purse with $500 to the hard charger courtesy Full Bloom Events.
