Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Updating regional tour title chases
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 final resolution was anticlimactic thanks to the washout of last weekend’s Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series finale doubleheader at I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, Tenn., but Ashton Winger of Hampton, Ga., clinched the regional tour’s 2026 points championship. It’s a big deal for the 26-year-old driver, whose first HTF title brings him a $50,000 points-fund check. And Winger isn’t done. He has a great shot to double up on regional crowns this season with the second-year Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series championship in his sight. Winger trails Dalton Cook by just four points with four races remaining on the schedule. He’s skipping this weekend’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Clash on the Wabash at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio — where he won a World 100 semifeature last month — to run Southern Thunder’s twinbill at North Alabama Speedway in Tuscumbia and Thunderhill Speedway Summertown, Tenn., in pursuit of the $15,000 title.
No. 2: If Winger is able to capture the Southern Thunder crown, earning $65,000 in points-fund cash would be a superb take for the relatively modest number of races he will have run between the two series. Rain decimated the Hunt the Front circuit this season, wiping out 11 scheduled events to reduce the total points races completed to 14 (with Winger winning five of them). The Southern Thunder Series has absorbed four cancellations in ’26 and will end with 10 races contested if this weekend’s doubleheader and Nov. 20-21’s season-closer at Southern Raceway in Milton, Fla., are run as scheduled.
No. 3: Speaking of regional tours, the MARS Championship Series concludes this weekend with two events at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., which last hosted a MARS event in 2008 when the circuit had its epicenter in Missouri rather its current Illinois. The $25,000 title hangs in the balance with Ryan Unzicker of El Paso, Ill., holding a 36-point edge over Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill., who is chasing his fourth consecutive MARS crown after trailing Unzicker throughout the season. Wheatland will serve as pretty neutral ground for the two championship contenders: Unzicker, who won the MARS title in 2022, has never raced at the track, while Feger hasn’t visited the 3/8-mile oval since 2015 when he failed to qualify for the Show-Me 100 in his fifth and last attempt at the crown jewel show (he was a DNQ in 2010-11 and finished 10th in ’13 and 27th in ’14).
No. 4: Wheatland’s MARS action will take Feger, among others, out of this weekend’s Eldora action. He’s one of several drivers from the 28-car starting field for last month’s World 100 who won’t enter the Clash on the Wabash, but the Lucas Oil Series doubleheader will certainly still draw a sterling field. I count nine World of Outlaws Late Model Series regulars who are expected to pursue the $10,000 and $50,000 prizes at Eldora, which would represent the largest number of WoO drivers to run a Lucas Oil Series event this season.
No. 5: And how about the weather forecast for Eldora’s weekend? As of Tuesday afternoon, it’s looking positive: sunny both days with a high in the low 70s on Friday and approaching 80 degrees Saturday and the evenings likely offering some autumn chill. As long as some rain that’s expected on Sunday doesn’t arrive earlier, the weekend has plenty of promise.
