Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Expressive crowd for North-South 100
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: I’m still a newcomer to the Sunoco North-South 100 and Florence Speedway; I didn’t attend a race at the Union, Ky., track until 2024’s North-South, so this weekend is just my third trip to the half-mile oval. But I’ve quickly noticed that Florence produces an atmosphere for the North-South that rivals any crown jewel event. Thursday’s twin 25-lap preliminary program to open the weekend provided me more proof. While the crowd wasn’t a capacity turnout like Saturday’s finale will likely be, it still was large and, notably to me, quite animated. When Brandon Overton overtook Jonathan Davenport on the last lap to win a very entertaining heat race, the fans responded by greeting Overton with as loud of a roar as you’ll hear at a dirt track this side of Eldora and Fairbury. I mean, they cheered the heck out of Overton — not once, but twice, with the backstretch spectators turning up the decibels again when Overton drove by them after his postrace interview in the infield. And later, after Dillon McCowan emerged uninjured from his wild tumble out of the ballpark in a heat and then pulled off a last-lap move to grab a transfer spot in a B-main driving his backup car, the fans let loose again with a cascade of clapping. Show me a track like Florence where fans care enough to engage so loudly and I know it’s a major race worth attending in person.
No. 2: Here’s more evidence of how the Florence fans are heavily invested. On Friday morning Gunner Sullivan, the former Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway promoter who now takes a T-shirt trailer to work many special events, made a Facebook post acknowledging how Thursday’s North-South attendees stepped up to support McCowan after his frightening accident. Sullivan had his trailer parked near the popup tent McCowan set up outside turn one to sell his apparel, so he witnessed first-hand how fans almost immediately formed a long line at McCowan’s tent, heeding McCowan’s call during his post-crash interview to buy his shirts.
No. 3: Jonathan Davenport was back in action Thursday at Florence after taking two weeks off from competition to attend his 13-year-old Blaine’s Junior Bassmaster National fishing tournaments. J.D. reported that Blaine and his fishing partner fared well in the pair of high-level competitions. He also offered a “funny story” about a FaceTime call he received during Fairbury’s July 30-31 Prairie Dirt Classic weekend from his buddy Gordy Gundaker. Davenport said as he was preparing his boat for Blaine’s “blast off” early that Saturday morning, his phone came alive with a call from Gundaker, who had qualified for the PDC in a Friday semifeature. “It was like 5 in the morning and we had just gotten up, but Gordy was still up,” Davenport said with a laugh.
No. 4: While I was talking to Brandon Overton in his Riggs Motorsports team’s trailer about his heated battle with Davenport, he pulled out his phone to show a few people a video he had received by text message from his friend and fellow Dirt Late Model racer Steven Roberts. It was certainly interesting — Roberts at his home in Georgia, recording himself watching the Overton-Davenport showdown on his television and offering colorful commentary on Overton’s dramatic victory. The video certainly put a smile on Overton’s face.
No. 5: With Rocket Chassis sweeping Thursday’s pair of 25-lap North-South 100 semifeatures — Brandon Overton and Mike Marlar piloted Rocket XR2 machines to $6,000 victories — as well as Sheppard’s success in crown jewel events this season (one win, three seconds and a fifth in six events), it obviously raises the odds that a Rocket vehicle could end up winning Florence’s 100-lapper for the first time since Eddie Carrier Jr. in 2014. The North-South 100 has been owned in recent years, of course, by Longhorn Chassis, the China Grove, N.C.-based brand that has claimed victory in the last six events with Bobby Pierce capturing the last three in a row and Tim McCreadie, Overton and Davenport winning the 2020-22 events. The last time a Longhorn wasn't triumphant in the North-South was in 2018-19 when Ricky Weiss and Chris Madden piloted Team Zero Bloomquist cars to victory.
