Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Growing PPMS roster more compelling
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: A rainy forecast caused an early cancellation of Friday’s Pittsburgher opener at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, but the weather is looking wonderful — sunny with an afternoon high in the upper 60s — for Saturday’s $50,000-to-win Lucas Oil Late Model Series event at the sprawling half-mile oval. And with this weekend’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series doubleheader at Boothill Speedway in Greenwood, La., nixed several days ago due to a wet outlook, the Pittsburgher will enjoy a little extra flavor thanks to several WoO invaders. The group includes the red-hot Nick Hoffman, who will make his first-ever start at a typically slick track that should very much be in his wheelhouse; WoO points leader Bobby Pierce, who in his only previous PPMS visit, in 2018, won the Pittsburgher driving for Dunn Benson Racing; Tim McCreadie, who has made 10 career starts in the Pittsburgher finale and has three thirds and a fourth in his last five appearances; and western Pennsylvania’s Logan Zarin.
No. 2: Here’s an interesting leftover from my Inside Dirt Late Model column this week on Cody Overton: he told me that, if Sept. 17-19’s Knoxville Late Model Nationals hadn’t been washed out, he would have been at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway driving Tyler Bruening’s Skyline Motorsports ride. You’ll recall that the 28-year-old Overton ran three of March’s four Lucas Oil Series shows at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., as a sub for Bruening, who was ailing with a sore neck from a crash earlier during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. Overton said he stays in touch with Bruening and the Skyline team and Bruening asked him to fill in for him again at Knoxville because he wasn’t going to enter. “We were just gonna kind of surprise everybody and show up,” said Overton, who had the blessings of his car owner, James Trantina III, to moonlight with Skyline and would have bypassed the WISSOTA 100 at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn. (a race he won on Sept. 19).
No. 3: One more Cody Overton tidbit: when I asked him about his older brother Brandon’s reaction to his three-race sweep of last weekend’s Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series doubleheader at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway and the Jack Starrette Memorial at Modoc (S.C.) Speedway, he remarked that Brandon “just told me, ‘Good job,’ and that was about it.” The siblings “don’t get too in-depth talking about racing around each other,” Cody said. “We just kind of let it be whatever it is, but I know he’s pumped. I mean, we talk about (racing), but sometimes racing can both make us mad so we don’t even really bring it up. We just kind of live our life as brothers, not talking about racing all the time. We get enough of the racing.”
No. 4: Tyler Erb always comes up with unique apparel items. I noticed he’s bringing out an especially notable themed offering for the month of October, which he’s termed “Terbo-Ween” season. He announced his Halloween-connected shirts with a social-media video that has him wearing a hot dog costume while holding his dog Russer, who is dressed in a cowboy getup. Both Erb and Russer appear on the back of the Terbo-Ween shirts in their costumes as well.
No. 5: The Dirt Late Model world has obviously jumped on this social-media AI trend that recreates the rap duo Quavo and the late Takeoff’s 2022 “Hotel Lobby” song. It seems like every day I’ve been seeing several short videos on Facebook with the rappers’ faces and bodies swapped out for those of racers. I’m not going to lie, a few of the short videos have definitely made me laugh. Seeing GOATS Scott Bloomquist and Billy Moyer “rapping” and “dancing” together in front of a hanging microphone was pretty funny, as was another that included Tyler Erb and Dennis Erb Jr.
