DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: Dohm rallies for runner-up at Hillbilly
Zack Dohm on Saturday at West Virginia Motor Speedway. (Zach Yost)
Among notes and quotes around the Dirt Late Model world during a busy Labor Day weekend, including MARS and Iron-Man competition (look elsewhere for Northern Allstars coverage at Brownstown Speedway):
Home-state rally
While Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, was cruising out front to a career-first victory in the 58th running of Carl Short’s Hillbilly Hundred on Sunday night at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, a home-state standout ran a much rockier road to a runner-up finish.
Zack Dohm, 37, of Cross Lanes, W.Va., had to recover from a mid-race pit stop following a restart scrape to cross under the checkered flag 1.691 seconds behind the 31-year-old Moran, who experienced no real speed bumps en route to the $25,000 top prize once he assumed command on lap 40.
“Passing cars is always fun,” Dohm said. “We passed a lot ‘em tonight. Just needed to pass one more.”
Dohm wasn’t able to seriously threaten Moran after his charge from the rear reached second place with a lap-90 pass of Parkersburg, W.Va.’s Chris Carpenter, but he couldn’t be disappointed with his result. Not after the “terrible day” he experienced before taking the green flag from the 14th starting spot.
“Last night went good … and I lost fuel pressure on the scales,” Dohm said, referring to the problem he experienced after scoring a $6,000 win in the second 30-lap semifeature during Saturday’s Hillbilly preliminary program. “We went home and dad (veteran racer Tim Dohm) put a fuel pump on it and it ran good, and then qualifying (Sunday) it wasn’t running good, so we had the fuel cell apart twice tonight and one time didn’t get it, but the second time before the feature got it.
“So I need to thank everybody that was down there helping us. If it had just been me and (brother) Nick, a normal night, we would have probably just got my start money and went home.”
Sticking out the night, though, was well worth the extra work. He termed his car “great” — so strong, in fact, that he mourned his lap-39 restart get-together with Eddie Carrier of Salt Rock, W.Va., that forced him to the pits to patch up his damaged nosepiece.
“I wish I didn’t try to pay Eddie Carrier back from Tyler County (Speedway) last week, because maybe I could have won the race,” Dohm said. “My nose, my right-front flopper was ripped off, and it wasn-t aero as good as it should be, so I just figured, ‘Hell with it,’ and it was working. It was going up through there and splitting them, so, yeah, the car was pretty good tonight.
“But I still run second to Devin Moran … he’s badass. He wins a lot of races. He’s one of the best.”
Dohm, who thanked Moran for selling him “10 gallons of fuel so we can make the 100 laps,” tallied a career-best Hillbilly Hundred finish in his eighth start in the long-running event. All of his previous feature appearances came from 2009-18 with his top placing a sixth in 2010 on the 5/8-mile West Virginia Motor Speedway layout.
“My goal is to win this race one year, because I feel like my dad has been up front in it so many times,” said Dohm, who father has 11 career feature starts in the Hillbilly Hundred with a best finish of third in 2008 at Tyler County Speedway. “I thought maybe today was gonna be it, but we’ll try ‘er again next year.” — Track and staff reports
Hoffman lights fire
Nick Hoffman couldn’t have picked a better place — or a better time — to return to victory lane.
Four days before preliminary action begins for the 56th annual World 100, the 34-year-old of Mooresville, N.C., capitalized on a late mistake by Ricky Thornton Jr. to triumph in Sunday’s second Baltes Classic 25-lapper at Eldora Speedway, earning $5,000 in Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series competition.
Thornton led the opening 23 laps and held a one-second advantage with three circuits remaining, but he bobbled exiting turn two on lap 24. Hoffman immediately slipped underneath Thornton, completed the pass and beat him to the checkered flag by 0.891 of a second.
The victory snapped Hoffman’s 29-race winless streak dating to June 4, when he won the FloRacing Night in America event at Eldora. Hoffman had gone three months without a victory despite recording 14 podium finishes during the drought, including eight runner-up finishes.
It was his longest drought since he went 36 races between victories from July 20, 2024, through Feb. 10, 2025.
“I haven't won since the Flo race here at Eldora. It's been a struggle,” Hoffman said. “We've run second and third. I see everybody on Facebook saying all I can do is run second. It's pretty damn nice to get one here. That lit the fire a little bit for me.”
Hoffman remained within reach of Thornton throughout Sunday’s semifeature and sensed early that the reigning World 100 champion’s car was too tight entering the corners. Rather than force the issue, Hoffman waited for Thornton to slip up.
“I could pace him pretty well there, and lapped traffic was playing a big factor,” Hoffman said. “Just waiting for him to mess up maybe one time, and he finally did. I just could tell from the get-go he was way too tight on entry and couldn't get quite turned in as good as he needed. That's where I was making all my ground.
“I could charge harder than he did on entry, and I could float up and catch that curb and take advantage. That was a very fun race.”
Hoffman’s car, meanwhile, was on the freer side, but that ultimately allowed him to maneuver through the choppiness developing around Eldora’s half-mile surface.
“I was probably a little too loose, really, but that probably helped with the character in the racetrack,” Hoffman said. “I could get through that stuff and move around. … Man, it feels good to finally get back into victory lane.”
A 25-lap victory should also bode well for Thursday’s and Friday’s preliminary features, which span the same distance.
Over Hoffman’s last 10 starts at Eldora, including crown jewel prelims and split-field action, he has posted a 3.2 average finish and hasn’t placed outside the top five since the 2024 World 100 when power steering issues forced him to retire from the feature on lap five.
“The biggest thing is getting our monkey off our back and finally getting back to victory lane,” Hoffman said. “I said it earlier on Twitter, you have to come to these deals, I feel like. Your guys like Ricky probably have their program figured out for a 100-lap race, same for Bobby (Pierce) and J.D. (Jonathan Davenport) and stuff. But for me, I still need laps and figure out what my car needs.
“Tonight definitely helps that in every condition. It’s going to be a whole lot different next week, I know that. Our car has been good enough. I just have to get my job done.” — FloRacing and staff reports
Drought buster
Chase Junghans’s opinion of Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., changed completely on Saturday. Winning has a way of doing that.
“I’ve always dreaded coming here. I hate coming here,” Junghans said, before adding with a smile: “I used to hate coming here.”
The 33-year-old driver from Manhattan, Kan., made the 3/8-mile oval the site of his first victory in nearly four years as he captured the 50-lap Ron Jenkins Memorial to close out the track’s Labor Day weekend doubleheader for the Midwest LateModel Association. He was winless since Oct. 2, 2022, when he topped a World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Humboldt (Kan.) Speedway.
While Junghans can’t say he expected Wheatland to be where he’d snap his long checkered flag drought, he did put a renewed emphasis on the place this season. He showed signs of turning a corner in May when he entered the Show-Me 100 for the first time since 2022 and ran well (seventh in a prelim before retiring early from the finale) and was even better during July’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series twinbill with finishes of fourth and seventh.
“I told myself this year I was gonna figure it out,” he said. “So hopefully we’ll be back here (in victory lane) shortly.”
Piloting his family-owned Rocket Chassis, Junghans was flawless in Saturday’s 50-lapper. He was patiently running second when early pacesetter Cole Wells retired with mechanical trouble on lap 15 and controlled the remainder of the distance, keeping Dillon McCowan and later Tony Jackson Jr. at bay for his third career MLRA triumph and an $11,000 bounty.
“I was just kind of riding around at the beginning, trying to see where those guys would mess up,” said Junghans, whose last MLRA win came on Sept. 2, 2022, at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. “I kind of got to them and getting ready to make a move when (Wells) unfortunately broke.”
Jackson, the MLRA points leader, was hampered in the final laps by a late scrape with a lapped car that knocked out his car’s toe, but he knew beating Junghans was going to be difficult.
“Chase did a good job. He executed a perfect restart with five to go,” Jackson said. “Chase is a good race-car driver and it’s not likely he’s gonna make a mistake with five to go.”
Junghans spent much of the 2010s as a WoO regular, running the full tour in 2014-15 and again in from 2018-20. He’s settled into a lower-key, pick-and-choose schedule since then and this year has made 36 starts with a modest five top-five — three coming at Wheatland, including Friday’s third-place run — and nine top-10 finishes.
“I’m glad to win it, take it back to Kansas and we’ll try it again next year,” Junghans said. — Track and staff reports
‘Bonehead’ victory
Despite admitting to several mistakes, Mason Zeigler still rolled to a dominant victory in Saturday’s 23rd annual Butch Renninger Memorial presented by Bleeders Have Dreams Too at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway.
The 34-year-old Zeigler jumped the cushion one too many times, nearly opening the door for Hayes Mattern to slip by, and later made contact with the slower car of Gary Stuhler while navigating traffic.
None of it, however, prevented the Chalk Hill, Pa., native from leading all 33 laps and collecting the race’s $7,333 payday.
“I was just being a bonehead,” Zeigler said in victory lane. “I needed to slow down a little bit there and quit stabbing the brakes getting in. I had a little brake issue there. As soon as I figured out to quit stabbing the brakes, I’d get rid of that push. As soon as I started slowing down a little bit, I got faster.”
Starting second, Zeigler powered around polesitter Mattern on the opening lap, but Mattern kept him honest through the race’s first half. Mattern briefly inched ahead along the bottom of turn two on lap 14 when Zeigler hopped over the treacherous cushion, but Zeigler stayed in the fuel around the top and surged back in front.
Mattern challenged low again two laps later in turn three when Zeigler drifted high, but couldn’t complete the pass.
Zeigler owned up to his mistakes while also acknowledging the kinks associated with dialing in his brand-new XR2 Rocket Chassis. Saturday’s performance nevertheless affirmed the potential he saw in the car during the previous weekend’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series doubleheader at Port Royal where he clicked off a pair of top-10s finishes.
“New car, new everything, we were trying to dial this thing in,” Zeigler said. “I kept making bonehead moves. Late in the night last Saturday, we were able to drive by (Brandon) Sheppard and some really good cars. I knew we had a really good car. I just needed to do a better job in the seat.”
Zeigler had built a 1.4-second advantage when the first caution appeared on lap 22 after he made contact with 19th-running Stuhler while trying to squeeze beneath the 71-year-old Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer in turn one. Stuhler spun and backed into the outside wall but avoided a hard impact.
“I feel so bad about that,” Zeigler said. “He was entering in the middle, sliding to the top. It was hard for me to get to his inside. It was hard for me to get to his outside. I thought he would’ve definitely seen me. … I hope he didn’t get torn up there. Gary is a great guy.
“It was just a treacherous racetrack. You had to race it almost like a slick racetrack getting in because if you hit it too hard, you’d jump it. It sort of reminded me of a cushion at Fairbury, Ill. — it’s black right up to it. You think you can lean on it, but you have to be careful because if that right-front gets over top of it, it’s really treacherous.
“Again, I apologize to those guys. I thought for sure he would’ve seen me. … Again, I hope it didn’t tear him up.” — FloRacing and staff reports
Even dozen
Mike Spatola added a nice flourish to his already very satisfying 2026 season on Friday at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway.
But the 35-year-old veteran from Manhattan, Ill., felt very fortunate the MARS Late Model Championship Series-sanctioned Chuckwagon 40.
“I’m just glad it wasn't 50 laps,” Spatola said in his distinctively deep voice after winning the feature. “We held on.”
While Spatola led the entire distance off the pole position and wasn’t threatened most of the way, the final circuits became a little too close for comfort. A late miscue caused a tire rub that had smoke wafting from his car and slowed him enough to let his buddy Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill., finish just 0.455 of a second behind.
“There about 10 to go I pushed my right-front (tire) off and I couldn’t steer and had to start backing it in,” Spatola said. “And then I think from doing that I blasted the cushion down there so hard and knocked the bracing off the right-rear (bodywork) and it got in the tire and had the right-rear going down.
“I knew my (crew member’s signal) sticks closed quick and I could hear (Feger), and I was pretty sure a slider was coming. I seen Jason down there, but thankfully he left me room. We race these guys every weekend, so we know if we run over each other tonight, tomorrow night it’s not fun, so we raced each other with respect.”
Spatola making it to the finish before his tire let go was a sign of his racing trajectory this year. He’s enjoying the most prolific, if not the best, campaign of his career, with Friday’s $5,000 triumph — the fourth of his career in MARS competition but first since May 28, 2022, at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway — pushing his overall ’26 win total to 12, matching his personal single-season high in the Dirt Late Model division achieved in 2018.
Weekly racing has been Spatola’s primary focus this season and he’s shined in local action — to the tune of nine wins at Kankakee (Ill.) County Speedway and two at Fairbury plus track titles at both tracks. He’s not rolling up big earnings (his $2,500 payoffs at Fairbury were his most lucrative wins prior to Friday), but he’s having fun racing largely in his home state. He’s made 52 starts with his family-owned team and tallied 25 top-five and 34 top-10 finishes.
Spatola credited his main technical support system — Rocket Chassis co-owner Mark Richards, Integra Shocks rep D.J. VanNoordwyk and Pro Power engine builder Bill Schlieper — for their help in getting a regional touring series checkered flag on his ’26 ledger.
Feger, meanwhile, hailed Spatola, who plans to enter next weekend’s World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, in search of his second career start in the crown jewel’s finale. He finished 12th in his first attempt at the race in 2011 but has absorbed DNQs in his seven starts since then, including last year.
“I just wanna say congrats to Opie,” Feger said, using Spatola’s nickname. “That’s awesome, a local guy basically wins. He’s like a little brother to me. We’ve been buddies for a long time. It’s a great family, and they’ve always helped me out when I’ve ever needed anything, so I’m real, real grateful for our friendship and really happy for them guys to be able to get the win like that tonight.” — Series and staff reports
Streaming schedule
Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:
Thursday, Sept. 3
• MARS Championship Series at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series at Proctor (Minn.) Speedway (Dirt Race Central)
Friday, Sept. 4
• Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series at Lavonia (Ga.) Speedway (Hunt the Front TV)
• MARS Late Model Championship Series at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway (FloRacing)
• Midwest LateModel Racing Association at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. (RaceON)
• Burlile Performance Ohio Valley Late Model Series at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, W.Va. (FloRacing)
• Save A Lot American Crate All-Star Series at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, W.Va. (FloRacing)
• Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series at Grand Rapids (Minn.) Speedway (Dirt Race Central)
Saturday, Sept. 5
• MARS Championship Series at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• Midwest LateModel Racing Association at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. (RaceON)
• Northern Allstars Late Model Series at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway (Hunt the Front TV)
• Butch Renninger Memorial Super and Limited Late Models at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• 58th annual Hillbilly 100 prelims at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, W.Va. (FloRacing)
• Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series at Winder-Barrow Speedway in Winder, Ga. (Hunt the Front TV)
• Fall Fury Super Late Models at Winston Speedway in Rothbury, Mich. (Great Lakes Sprints TV)
• Repairable Vehicles.com Tri-State Late Model Series at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. (Deer Creek TV)
• Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series at Hibbing (Minn.) Speedway (Dirt Race Central)
• WISSOTA Big Buck Nationals at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen, S.D. (Dirt Race Central)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Rocket Raceway Park in Petty, Texas (RaceON)
• Ozark Limited Late Model Series at Arrowhead Speedway in Colcord, Okla. (ArrowVision Live)
• Rogers-Dabbs Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series prelims at Southern Raceway in Milton, Fla. (Hunt the Front TV)
Sunday, Sept. 6
• 58th annual Hillbilly 100 at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, W.Va. (FloRacing)
• Dylan Kennedy Memorial Limited Late Models at Wartburg (Tenn.) Speedway (Dirt Rich TV)
• Rogers-Dabbs Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series at Southern Raceway in Milton, Fla. (Hunt the Front TV)
• Midwest LateModel Racing Association at Springfield (Mo.) Raceway (RaceON)
• Save A Lot All-Star Crate Series at Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, Va. (Dirt Rich TV)
• Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway (Tazewell Speedway TV)
• Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series Baltes Classic at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio (FloRacing)
• Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series at Hibbing (Minn.) Speedway (Dirt Race Central)
• Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss. (Crate Racin’ USA TV)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Grayson County Speedway in Sherman, Texas (RaceON)
Monday, Sept. 7
• Speedway Motors Super Nationals IMCA Late Models at Boone (Iowa) Speedway (IMCA TV)
