Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Pennsy driver banged up at BAPS
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: Practice sessions aren’t without danger. Chad Julius, an occasional Dirt Late Model competitor from York, Pa., learned that Oct. 14 when he rode out a wild crash during practice at BAPS Motor Speedway in Newberrytown, Pa., that sent him to a hospital. According to Julius’s brother and crew member Nick Julius, the 47-year-old driver was shaking down a fresh engine in his Longhorn Chassis in preparation for a trip to Georgetown (Del.) Speedway at the end of the month when, about two laps into his third time on the track, his car bicycled onto its right side entering turn one. “It hit a rut and it launched the car in the air side-over-side about four to five times and landed on the left front,” related Nick, who added that the car’s halo contacted the track surface at least once during the sequence of flips. When the track safety crew reached Julius’s car, he was unconscious and “when he woke up he really couldn’t comprehend where he was.” As a result, he was transported to the nearby Penn State Holy Spirit Medical Center in Camp Hill, Pa., where he was admitted for the night and underwent testing that diagnosed a severe concussion. He was discharged the following late afternoon.
No. 2: Nick Julius said his brother, an attorney specializing in bankruptcy and family law, is “still sore but getting better every day” as he recovers at home. His car was badly damaged in the wreck but Nick said “the safety gear did its job and Longhorn builds a safe race car” Nick also thanked a variety of people, including area racers Pancho and Cory Lawler, for helping him transport the mangled machine back to Chad’s shop.
No. 3: Frustrated with his recent performance, Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., has enlisted the services of veteran Dirt Late Model technical consultant Randle Chupp for a stretch of races in the Southeast including this weekend’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series doubleheader at Modoc (S.C.) Speedway. Overton said Chupp, a former standout crew chief and driver who was recently announced as a 2027 Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee, is a “buddy” with whom he talks often on the phone. Chupp will join Overton at the track to provide more hands-on assistance. “He’s helping me for a couple weeks here just trying to get my head straight,” Overton said in a text message.
No. 4: When Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., clinched his first-ever Lucas Oil Series championship on Sunday with a runner-up finish in the ARP Dirt Track World Championship at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, one noticeable family member missing from the postrace celebration was his father, Steve Sheppard Jr. The elder Sheppard opted to stay home and drive one of the family’s Dirt Late Models in the DIRTcar Fall Nationals at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway. “I think he raced so he didn’t have to (nervously) watch tonight,” Brandon said of his father, who recorded finishes of sixth and ninth at Lincoln.
No. 5: This Sunday brings the Blue-Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C., a long-running event that will be contested for the 36th straight year since its launch in 1991. Sanctioned this year by the Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series for the first time since 2013, the event pays $30,000-to-win (down $5,000 from last year’s record-high prize) and notably will be run over the 70-lap distance. It marks just the second time in the Blue-Gray 100’s history that it was not go 100 laps; the only other instance of a shorter race was in 2024 when Trent Ivey of Union, S.C., won a 60-lapper.
