Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Terbo partakes in Halloween fun
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: If there’s one Dirt Late Model driver who can be expected to embrace the Halloween spirit when racing on the spooky holiday, it’s Tyler Erb. So, not surprisingly, the 29-year-old from New Waverly, Texas, was fully engaged Saturday during the unsanctioned Halloween Nationals finale at Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park. Erb awoke in his hauler and immediately prepped himself for the day, donning a black, white and red skeleton outfit and painting his face white and black to make himself, as he wrote on Facebook, “your favorite Juggalo” — that is, the name given to dedicated fans of the horrorcore hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse. He proceeded to enjoy the day in costumer, first giving his buddy and fellow racer Dustin Sorensen a shocking wakeup call and later riding around the campgrounds on a four-wheeler piloted by Josh Rice crew member Keir “Big Snack” Hoover. The makeup was gone, however, when he put on his helmet that night and drove to a runner-up finish behind the sizzling-hot Ricky Thornton Jr. in the 60-lap, $50,000-to-win feature.
No. 2: On last week’s Dirt Reporters podcast we talked about racetracks having trick-or-treating for kids in the pit area around Halloween, and over the past weekend I saw several examples of it that looked like fun for everyone. At The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C., during the World Short Track Nationals. At Georgetown (Del.) Speedway during the Mid-Atlantic Championship Weekend. At East Alabama Motor Speedway during the National 100. All three tracks appeared to have plenty of costumed youngsters visiting race cars to collect candy and other items. I even spotted a photo of Virginia racer Tyler Bare’s trailer in the Charlotte pit area decorated with a Candyland theme, which was an idea I pushed for during our podcast discussion.
No. 3: Thornton’s dominant performance in sweeping Portsmouth’s Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series-sanctioned Halloween Nationals to the tune of $60,000 just reinforced why he’s ascended to the No. 1 spot in DirtonDirt’s Top 25 power rankings. He’s simply on an amazing run this month, a streak of six consecutive wins with his new Koehler Motorsports Longhorn Chassis that has brought him $350,000 in earnings, including $100,000 for capturing the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series’s Big River Steel Bonus Program. It’s a remarkable stretch of success for Thornton, who was only shut out of victory lane in October by a loss of brakes in Oct. 3’s Pittsburgher at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway in Imperial (he finished fifth after starting on the pole) and an Oct. 23-25 weekend he spent away from full-fender action to pilot wingless 410 and 360 sprint cars in the Western World Nationals in his home state of Arizona.
No. 4: I got a kick out of Lucas Oil Series Rookie of the Year Josh Rice’s concluding comment in an interview following his third-place finish in Portsmouth’s Halloween Nationals. After the 28-year-year thanked his supporters, he nonchalantly quipped before walking away, “And I’m headed to the deer stand.” So it’s clear that Rice will spend some time hunting to recalibrate before he heads to Nov. 4-7’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
No. 5: Jonathan Davenport opted to forego racing over the weekend following back-to-back wins on Oct. 24-25, but he had a great time away from the track. As J.D. celebrated his 43rd birthday Saturday, he was on hand with his wife, Rachel, to watch their 13-year-old son Blane win his first fishing tournament of his school team’s season. Pretty fun non-racing weekend for Davenport, who will return to action in the World Finals at Charlotte, where last year he won two of the three WoO features.
.webp?v=2.0.6)
