Weekly Notebook presented by FK Rod Ends
Notes: Arkansas driver sketches successful career
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt managing editor
Mark Nichols (Casi Graves photo)
As a boy, Mark Nichols had a fascination with drawing pictures of Dirt Late Model race cars, crafting version of the cars of his favorite Arkansas drivers like Billy Moyer and Jeff Floyd.
Using markers and pencils to sketch out colorful cars, for a time that was his prime connection to racing.
"I was good at art and I just loved (it),” Nichols said. “I thought I was designing cars for people in a way as a kid, you know what I mean? Drawing Late Models with just random numbers and random graphics.”
But while Nichols loved racing, it wasn’t until his 30s that he got a chance to get behind the wheel himself.
Now the 49-year-old Bono, Ark., artist-turned-driver has sketched out a successful dirt racing career. After a five-victory season this summer at Crowley’s Ridge Raceway, along with a seventh championship at the Paragould, Ark., track, he’s enjoyed 10 seasons of successful Dirt Late Model racing with more than 70 victories.
While the driver of the No. 21 — he adopted Moyer’s famed car number — runs mostly a weekly schedule while operating his trucking company and keeping up with a 2-year-old and another daughter’s traveling softball team, Nichols says he’s “living the dream” with his low-budget but oft-winning race team.
Not bad for a driver who turned his back on the sport for many years after he had his heart broken.
Nichols didn’t grow up in a racing family, but the boy who fashioned hundreds of race car drawings — his late mother saved many of them — got to tag along to the races when his stepfather, Terry Milner, began fielding a Dirt Late Model for Bono’s best dirt racer, Blake Lane.
“They started a Late Model deal from scratch,” said Nichols, who watched Lane compete at major events that included drivers like Moyer, Floyd, Bill Frye, Freddy Smith and more. Nichols loved every minute of it and hoped that someday he might be a racer himself. Suddenly, any opportunity to race evaporated when Milner and his mother separated.
“I kinda got upset because I was like maybe 16 when they divorced,” Nichols recalled. “Because I felt like that Late Model ride was gonna be mine when I got older and I felt like that rug got drug out from underneath me. So I was kind of mad and upset about it and I didn't want anything to do with racing after that. It really broke my heart.”
Nichols turned his focus to farming and lost interest in racing altogether for many years.
When he was 33, Nichols was dating a woman whose father competed in the four-cylinder division at Crowley’s Ridge, and she repeatedly begged him to come watch her dad race.
“I didn’t want to go. I had a (racing) hangover and I just didn’t want to go,” said Nichols. He finally relented and sat in the grandstands one night to watch Gerald Goza steer around the Ridge.
"We watched her dad race the heat race, and after the heat race, he come up into the stands where we were sitting,” Nichols said. “And he looked at me and said, ‘Hey, do you wanna drive my car in the feature?’ And I'm like, ‘Hell yeah, I'll drive that thing.’ ”
“My girlfriend said, ‘No, you've never drove a race car in your life,’ which I haven’t. And she's like ‘You're not driving that car. You never drove before in your life, no, no, no!' But I said yeah I'll drive it.
"And I did. I drove it in the feature, 15 cars and I finished third in the feature which was better than he’d finished all year. And after that he came to me, he's like, ‘Man, you drive this thing way better than I do. You just keep it the rest of the year.’
“And I did. I was hooked after that. The next year I bought me a four-cylinder and started winning races right off the bat and it just it just took off from there.”
Nichols won 15 four-cylinder races over four seasons, then got the itch to get into his beloved Late Model division for the 2014 season. When he heard that a Mississippi driver was selling a 2001 GRT Race Car — complete with an open trailer — for $9,500, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I was like, it’s time to find out if I can drive a Late Model or not,” Nichols said. "Jeff Floyd, one of my childhood heroes, helped me set it up and got me going in the right direction. Sure enough, I started off first year in Late Models and won six features and the won the points championship and won the best race (at Crowley’s Ridge), the Glen Francis Memorial Cup.
“That was in 2014 man and everything just went up from there.”
He’s been a consistent winner at Crowley’s Ridge since, initially in the vintage GRT car and now in a Black Diamond Chassis with assistance from Jonesboro, Ark., racer Hunter Rasdon.
And while he’s got vintage doorpanels from Moyer, Frye and Floyd hanging in his shop, Nichols finds himself among that racing fraternity of successful Arkansas drivers.
"I would get to talk to these guys and they'd talk to me like a human being. You know, it blew my mind,” Nichols said, adding that while rubbing elbows with top racers, he’s “soaked it all in as much as I could.”
Nichols even dug up one of his old drawings Jeff Floyd’s No. F1, showing it to the retired Walnut Ridge, Ark., driver.
"It's terrible to look at, you know, because I was a kid, but I even got him to autograph it for me, which is cool,” Nichols said.
Nichols knows that becoming a touring racer like Moyer, Frye or Floyd wasn’t a possibility, but finding local success has provided plenty of satisfaction.
"I've ran a lot of different tracks, but the Ridge is 15 minutes from home and when you got a family, it's just easy. You’re home before midnight,” said Nichols, who has concluded his 2025 season. “Especially when you got a 2-year-old. I don't get to travel like that. We don’t have a lot of money to do that kind of traveling and stuff like a lot of guys do, so we're just kind of a Weekend Warrior kind of team.”
He even had to skip the 2024 season because of engine problems, making it all the more meaningful to successfully return in 2025. Nichols didn’t plan on chasing another Crowley’s Ridge title, partly because the family frequently travels to far-flung softball tournaments to watch 14-year-old Addison compete. But several rainouts eliminated racing-softball conflicts that allowed him to capture another crown.
The family supports the endeavors of Mark and Addie, who plays for the Arkansas Nemesis, the top-ranked under-14 softball team in Arkansas.
“She roots me on just as hard as I root her on,” Nichols said, and if he elects to skip a race to watch softball, “she'll get mad at me. She knows I love racing and she'll get mad if I don't go race (and) stay and watch her sometimes.
"I enjoy watching them play more than I love racing. She's 14 years old and they're really good and I get more enjoyment out of watching them win than me winning a race.”
Weekly highlights
• Leading all 25 laps in his Bradford Speedway debut, Jon Lee of Mahaffey, Pa., captured Sept. 14’s $4,000 King of the Bullring in Rew, Pa.
• A four-time Southern All Star champ who has made infrequent starts in recent seasons, Riley Hickman of Ooltewah, Tenn., swept Sept. 12-13 Limited Late Model features at North Georgia Speedway in Chatsworth and I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, Tenn.
• Winning a Sept. 11 preliminary feature at the Legendary 100 at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., Tim Isenberg of Marshfield, Wis., notched his first Late Model victory since 2012.
• Shaun Harrell of Hope Mills, N.C., won Sept. 13’s Sharon Gurley Tribute at Lake View Motor Speedway, pocketing $2,500 at the Nichols, S.C., track.
• C.J. Field of Chatham, Ontario (Buxton Speedway) and Miles Deubert of Medford, Ore. (Southern Oregon Speedway) were among drivers wrapping up track championships with Sept. 13 Late Model victories.
First things first
Recent first-time occurrences at the dirt track:
• Winning Sept. 13 at I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, Tenn., Spencer Cranfield of Cleveland, Tenn., notched his first 602 Crate Late Model feature victory.
Weekly news briefs
• West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells has scheduled a Sept. 25 practice so drivers can try out the new 3/8-mile configuration, new owner Mike Hurley announced. Pit admission is $30 and grandstand admission is free with gates opening at 5 p.m. and practice for all divisions beginning at 6. Because of construction of the main entrance, attendees should enter off of Sams Creek-Big Tygart Creek Road. Race teams can enter from Route 21 on Speedway Road at their discretion. WVMS plans to reopen Oct. 11 with a program that includes a $5,000-to-win Super Late Model feature. The track is also working on the addition of backstretch bleachers.
• Mountain View Raceway in Spring City, Tenn., is looking for assistance for those willing to help prepare the grounds or assist with parking for the Sept. 20 event.
• Richard Ashby, who owned and operated Cedar Ridge Speedway in Morgantown, Ky., the last 15 seasons, died peacefully on the track grounds the morning of Sept. 15 while his grandchildren made laps around the track. The Caneyville, Ky., resident who had been in failing health was 60. While Ashby will be buried at the nearby family cemetery on Sept. 19, the track, called “his pride and joy” in his obituary, plans to be open on Sept. 20 because he “would be severely pissed at all of us if we cancelled a race on his behalf,” his children wrote on the track’s Facebook page.
• Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway promoter Steve O’Neal is on the mend after missing the season-ending Tuscarora 50 weekend because of chest discomfort. After receiving hospital treatment, he was recuperating at home last week and extended his gratitude for support, thoughts and prayers from the racing community.
• Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio, is inducting four drivers into its Hall of Fame along with honoring others at Sept. 20’s Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series event. The drivers are Todd Kane, Don Clark, Rodney Vanover and Tim Shoemaker. Late Model star Delmas Conley with posthumously be honored with the Legacy Award and the Ambassador Award will go to Holdren Construction (Todd, Ronda and Gator).
• Ahead of its season-ending weekend, Park Jefferson (S.D.) Speedway has widened the backstretch a few feet by shifting the wall, added a guardrail in front of the backstretch bleachers, added caution lights in turn two and is adding a PA system for the pit area. The track’s Smurfit Westrock Iron Cup is scheduled for Sept. 26-27.
• The RUSH Crate Late Model organization suspended Ben Scott of Delmar, Del., for one year and handed him a $1,000 fine because he declined an engine inspection following Sept. 12’s event at Georgetown (Del.) Speedway. Sept. 12 winner Nick Davis and third-place finisher Matt Hill passed Sunday’s engine inspections after teardowns by RUSH inspector Travis Harry.
• Central Missouri Speedway’s Sept. 13 event ended the 31-year run of Earl and Susan Walls owning and operating the Warrensburg, Mo., dirt track. The 3/8-mile track was listed for sale in May for $1 million.
• Oak Level Raceway in Bassett, Va., on Sept. 10 received the go-ahead from county officials to reopen with track owner Bo Miller planning events for Late Models and other divisions beginning in March 2026 at the 3/8-mile oval. The original Fork Mountain Raceway, which has been dormant since 2009, had been denied a permit to reopen, but the board reversed its ruling two weeks later after the recent discovery of existing licenses. The board did limit competition to no more than two races per month or 20 per season with an 11 p.m. noise curfew, according to the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin.
• The Pennsylvania racing community is mourning the Sept. 10 passing of Jerry Claar, a former Late Model driver at the track. The Claysburg, Pa., resident was 81. He was a five-time champion at Jennerstown Speedway, South Penn Speedway in Everett, Pa., and Hesston (Pa.) Speedway.
• Lake View Motor Speedway in Nichols, S.C., on Sept. 13 added car owner Nathan Howell along with drivers Andy Skipper and Wade Skipper to the track's Wall of Fame.
• IMCA Super Nationals Late Model winner Greg Kastli of Waterloo, Iowa, a longtime competitor in IMCA's Late Model and modified divisions still competing past retirement age, died Sept. 10. He was 72. Throughout a 52-year racing career that began in the 1970s in his No. 73 race car, Kastli earned 40 IMCA Late Model wins and five track championships, four at Independence (Iowa) Motor Speedway (1994, 2001-03) and one at Fayette County Raceway in West Union, Iowa, in 1994. He’s the third all-time winningest Late Model driver in the history of the 60-year-old Independence track, where he’s a member of the Hall of Fame.
• Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex in Markleysburg, Pa., cancelled Sept. 12’s race the morning of the event because of inadequate staffing.
Weekly points
DIRTcar (Supers): Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill., has 2,498 points to lead Bobby Pierce (2,479) and Tyler Erb z92,328).
IMCA (Limiteds): Zach Zeitner of Bellevue, Neb., has 786 points to lead Logan Veloz (781) and Kale Kosiski (772).
USRA (Limiteds): Cade Nelson of Hermantown, Minn., has 5,924 points to lead Lucas Peterson (5,794) and Jason McFadden (5,400).
WISSOTA (Limiteds): Tyler Peterson of Hickson, N.D., has 1,635 points to lead Chad Becker (1,580) and Dave Mass (1,553).
American All-Stars (Crates): A.J. Hicks of Grayson, Ky., has 590 points to lead Justin Williams (558) and Ronnie Martin Jr. (550).
Crate Racin’ USA (602 Crates): Brett White of Kosciusko, Miss., has 699 points to lead Devin Whatley (689) and Chace Pennington (687).
Crate Racin’ USA (604 Crates): David Williamson of Seminary, Miss., has 695 points to lead Brady Walton and Chris McElhenney, who are tied at 683 points apiece.
DIRTcar (Crates): Dakota Ewing of Warrensburg, Ill., has 1,440 points to lead Denny Woodworth (1,423) and Chase Wilson (1,248).
RUSH (Crates): Jason Genco of Frewsburg, N.Y., and Jeremy Wonderling of Wellsville, N.Y., are tied with 1,334 points with Breyton Santee (1,324) in third.
Ultimate (Crates): Chandi Currence of Clarksburg, W.Va.., has 493 points to lead Kolbe Kimbrew (490) and Noah Whited (387).
Upcoming weekly specials
Among non-touring and independent special events coming up for Late Models at dirt tracks around the country:
Mount Pleasant (Mich.) Speedway (Sept. 19): The fourth annual Katie Hutson Classic pays $3,000-to-win for unsanctioned Super Late Models, the division’s lone race of the year at the track.
Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway (Sept. 19): Super Late Models run twin 20-lap features with $3,000 going to each winner (plus an unpublicized bonus for sweeping both).
Tri-City Speedway, Granite City, Ill. (Sept. 19): The Russ Wallace Memorial includes a $2,000-to-win event for Crate Late Models with Limited Late Model among undercard divisions.
Eriez Speedway, Hammett, Pa. (Sept. 19-20): The September Sweep includes $5,000-to-win Super Late Model programs each night.
Beckley (W.Va.) Motor Speedway (Sept. 19-20): the Mountaineer 50 pays $10,000-to-win for Super Late Models with a provisional eligible for the Beckley USA 100.
Red Cedar Speedway, Menomonie, Wis. (Sept. 19-20): The 45th annual Punky Manor Challenge of Champions pays $1,500-to-win for the opening and $5,057-to-win for the Late Model finale.
Jamestown (N.D.) Speedway (Sept. 19-20): The 54th annual Stock Car Stampede includes an event-high $5,054-to-win purse for Late Models with seven other divisions in action.
Casino Speedway, Watertown, S.D. (Sept. 19-20): The eighth annual Autumn Classic wraps up the season with six WISSOTA divisions including Late Models ($1,000-to-win) for each of two nights.
Shelby County Speedway, Harlan, Iowa (Sept. 19-20): The 33rd annual Tiny Lund Memorial includes seven divisions of action with $855- and $2,000-to-win events for IMCA Late Models.
Wayne County Speedway, Orrville, Ohio (Sept. 19-20): The Sam Huffman Memorial Ohio Dirt Blowing includes two nights of Super Late Models with a $2,000-to-win finale.
Big Sky Speedway, Billings, Mont. (Sept. 19-20): A Late Model doubleheader pays $1,250-to-win each night on a weekend with non-winged sprints, modifieds and legends also on the card.
Lake Cumberland Speedway, Burnside, Ky. (Sept. 20): Super Late Models chase a $5,000-to-win purse for an event scheduled seven days before its date.
Winchester (Va.) Speedway (Sept. 20): Limited Late Models chase a $2,000 winner’s prize in topping a three-division program on Nationals Night.
Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway (Sept. 20): Super Late Models top the card with a $2,000-to-win feature.
Clarksville (Tenn.) Speedway (Sept. 20): The Charles “Chico” Zimmerman Memorial pays $2,093-to-win for the 602 Crate Late Model division (with Super Late Models among undercard divisions).
East Alabama Motor Speedway, Phenix City, Ala. (Sept. 19-21): While a CRUSA 604 Series events tops the card, $7,500-to-win purses are up for grabs for Limited Late Models and 602 Crate Late Models.
