Highland Speedway
WoO victory erases all doubts in English's mind
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
The winning Coltman Farms Racing team. (Mike Ruefer)
HIGHLAND, Ill. (Aug. 13) — The record books will show that Tanner English officially led 40 caution-free laps Wednesday at Highland Speedway for his first full-field World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series victory in nearly three years.
It wasn’t so clear-cut behind the wheel of English's Coltman Farms Racing No. 96. There were plenty of troublesome questions lingering in the mind of the 32-year-old Benton, Ky., racer, who hadn’t won a feature race of any kind with a healthy car count in more than a year. | RaceWire
Would he regret not choosing a harder right-rear tire? When should he abandon a higher line for the low groove? Could he maintain the lead with a crossover move if fellow front-row starter Dustin Sorensen threw a slide job?
The answers?
Maybe.
Lap 15 (definitely lap 22).
And, fortunately, yes.
Whew.
The satisfying victory at a track where he first competed as an 18-year-old marked his first on the World of Outlaws circuit since Nov. 3, 2022, and the first-ever national touring event triumph for the man who tapped English to drive one of his cars last spring. It marked English’s second victory this season, the first coming with a $5,000 payday July 19 at his home track of Paducah (Ky.) International Raceway over a modest six-car field.
“It’s Brett's first national tour win, so that's big to get that done for him,” English said of Brett Coltman. “It’s just good to be back for me also. I think the last one was Charlotte in ’22. It's been a minute.”
English, whose Hall of Fame father Terry English serves as his crew chief, was glad to land the Coltman Farms ride last season and tallied three midseason victories in 2024, two on the DIRTcar Summer Nationals and a $20,000 triumph last August on the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn.
But when English, a three-time WoO winner while finishing as runner-up to points champ Dennis Erb Jr. in 2022, made his return to the national circuit for the 2025 season, he struggled mightily in aging equipment. Through the first 16 races, his best series finish was a meager 10th and he was foundering in the series points chase.
The season was saved in late May with the arrival of a new Longhorn Chassis, new powerplant, new everything — the first top-to-bottom new car English had driven in his nearly 20-year career.
“I got this new car and it really turned our program around for sure,” he said. “Just having a fresh start.”
The car debuted with a runner-up finish on the Northern Allstars circuit at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway during a break from WoO racing, and the team found new success when English returned to the WoO circuit three weeks later. He posted top-10 finishes in seven of his next 10 starts, had four top-five runs heading to Highland and has crawled back to a respectable eighth in the series points chase.
"It's been a weird year for sure,” said English, who notched his first WoO podium finish of the season at Highland and is glad the switch to a new car proved fruitful. “I knew it was gonna be better. I just didn't know how much better. Sometimes you make those moves and it don't pan out, but that panned out pretty good.”
It’s no surprise that English’s breakthrough came at one of his favorite tracks on the circuit, the paper-clip quarter-mile oval where he’s entered nearly a dozen races since he was a high-schooler.
“It’s a slow, slick, little, tight-cornered place (and) I like these places. It just fits me,” said English, who won a 2022 Summer Nationals event at Highland. He’s had two other podium finishes on the Summer Nationals at Highland and was leading a 2023 MARS Championship Series feature before suffering a flat tire at the track that often packs its grandstands for big shows, like it did for the midweek WoO event.
Highland was also the site of the last of five career Summer Nationals victories for Tanner’s 62-year-old father Terry, a victory that came in 2008. As he’s done for virtually all of Tanner’s racing career, Terry was there at Highland watching his son's every move, confident he could snap the WoO drought.
“I thought the tires would be all right,” the elder English said. “I was just hoping a lapped car didn’t spin in front of him or something like that. You couldn’t get too close to ‘em because you couldn’t pass ‘em. When it gets like that, you just can’t pass. You gotta sit there and ride.”
In a race where the fastest line eventually ended up being a rubbered up lower groove, the trick is knowing when forays to the high side become untenable.
“I knew this place rubbers up so easily. I knew it was coming,” English said. “I just didn't wanna get passed on the top and be a sitting duck on the bottom. I protected that top for a while … When I couldn't keep up with (the slower car of) Brent (Larson) anymore on the top, that's when I moved down.”
Not that there weren’t a few tense moments. The pole-starting Sorensen dove underneath English between turns one and two on the 11th lap, but the slide job didn’t stick and English was able to make a crossover move to maintain the read. That was a sign.
“When he slid me,” English said, “I knew I had to move.”
English mostly stuck with the low groove the rest of the way, but he briefly experimented with a high-side try in turns three and four on the 22nd lap in another bid to put a lap on Larson, but quickly realized it was a fool’s errand and stayed on the hub the rest of the way.
English leaned toward choosing the hardest right-rear tire option for the feature, but talked himself out of it when he couldn’t find a fellow competitor who agreed with that choice.
“I didn’t want to be the only one, so I just stuck with what everybody else was doing,” said English, who discovered postrace that runner-up Shannon Babb chose the harder right-rear. English’s softer tire “wasn't the right tire, but it got the job done.”
English, as always was grateful for his car owner, the tireless efforts of his father and crew member Kevin Menos, a former St. Louis Community College mathematics instructor who spent the summer commuting to English’s Benton, Ill., shop ahead of plans to train for a position in the U.S. Air Force. It also marked the first race for new crew member Dylan Morando of Butler, Pa., who dabbled as a pro stock racer at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., a few years back.
“That means the most to me to get it done for them because they've been working hard and putting in a lot of hours,” English said.
The recently arriving Morando missed the team’s early season struggles, so English made sure the fresh crewman knew the going would be tough in WoO events ahead, starting Thursday at Spoon River Speedway in Banner, Ill.
“I told him, ‘Don't get used to it,’ ” English said with a smile.
