DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: Smiths conclude successful Sooner season
Delbert Smith in victory lane. (Rickety Roach photo)
Among the latest notes and quotes from around Dirt Late Model racing during the second weekend in October, including World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series action in Louisiana and the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series for Cherokee Speedway’s Blue-Gray 100. Also find a listing of live-streaming video from specials around the country:
Success for Smiths
For most of the season the Hayden Ross Motorsports Foundation Sooner Late Model Series championship battle has been a family affair. It was just a matter of who would end up on top.
That question was answered Saturday at Enid (Okla.) Speedway with Dan Smith capturing the points championship with a fourth-place finish while his father Delbert Smith captured the tour’s season finale.
“It was a battle,” Dan Smith said of the season-long chase. “We both had stretches of bad luck. When we felt like we got on top of it the other car would have trouble. We are one big family. We work on each other’s cars and root for each other to do well.”
Delbert led the final 14 laps for his first victory of the season while Dan’s fourth-place finish secured the title.
“To see him run up front like he should and get the win was great,” said Dan. “I had enough point padding going in that all I had to do was keep him in sight. I probably could have run harder, but did not want to risk it. Enid in October and a Smith in victory lane just feels right.”
Delbert, a 51-year racing veteran, enjoys racing with his son.
“I had too many motor issues at the middle of the year. But it was fun,” the elder Smith said. “We were just trying to keep it all in the family. All the money goes in the same account. He is the future of the team and I am just trying to keep things going and pay the rent.”
Brandon Morton led the first 11 laps of the Enid feature before a red flag waved for Justin Patocka, who sailed off the high side of turn three (he wasn’t hurt).
Delbert Smith took the lead on the restart and hometown driver Kip Hughes charged his way round Morton for second. Hughes finished in the runner-up spot with Morton, Dan Smith and 13th-starting Dalon Helm rounding out the top five. — John Rittenoure
Conflicted winner
Winning Saturday’s 53-lap Dixie Shootout at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga., was deeply satisfying to Donald McIntosh. It doesn’t mean he was celebrating wildly in victory lane, though.
The 32-year-old driver from Dawsonville, Ga., experienced some opposing emotions after clinching the flag-to-flag triumph worth $10,053. He was happy to finally grab a checkered flag in a challenging season he’s spent chasing the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series with team owner Billy Hicks of Mount Airy, N.C., but he was saddened it came following a lap-37 scrape that sent Garrett Smith of Eatonton, Ga., spinning into the inside wall on the backstretch.
McIntosh was apologetic to the 22-year-old Smith in his postrace comments, accepting blame for triggering the incident that came one circuit after a restart. The two drivers nearly tangled off turn four when McIntosh slid off the top in front of Smith, and then moments later they did make contact exiting turn two when McIntosh bounced off the cushion there. Smith’s bid ended there due to the heavy damage it sustained when he smacked the inside wall.
“Honestly, the race car was a lot better than I was tonight,” McIntosh said. “I jumped the cushion down there and unfortunately got into Garrett there trying to get back into the racetrack, so sorry to him. I was just trying too hard and got a little over my head and then over the cushion, but I had a really good race car.
“So again, sorry to Garrett there. When I come back across the racetrack, I know we were just going hard for it there and got together.”
Smith, who was racing on his birthday and just a couple weeks since his engagement, angrily crawled out of his car and expressed his displeasure by flinging his steering wheel at McIntosh’s passing machine.
“Obviously I was pretty frustrated in the moment,” Smith told DirtonDirt on Sunday morning. “I feel like I was very patient with Donald the entire race. It just sucks. I feel like I turned down the hill to leave him a lane to come back to after he jumped the cushion. He jumped it back-to-back corners.
“From what I felt and saw, he had turned left coming off turn two, and when he did, we hit. It was a pretty hard hit and the (Longhorn) car will have to go to the jig (for repairs).”
Smith took note of McIntosh’s victory lane comments accepting responsibility for the tangle.
“I appreciate and respect the fact that he apologized in his interview,” Smith added.
Despite the incident, McIntosh remarked that the triumph in the event sanctioned by Ray Cook’s three tours — Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series, Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals and Schaeffer’s Southern Nationals — was still a morale booster for him and his team.
“It’s been a long year,” said McIntosh, who has one top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in Lucas Oil Series action and will be crowned the 2025 Rookie of the Year during next weekend’s Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. “We’ve had a lot of fun, but to get it done tonight means a lot. I’ve got a really, really good race car, so that definitely builds confidence.”
Adding significance to McIntosh’s victory in his home state was the fact that Hicks’s No. 79 was carrying a powerful Buick engine that McIntosh and his father built themselves.
“This engine dad and I built, it’s a Buick,” McIntosh said, “so to get a track record here (in qualifying) with a Buick, I think that’s really cool.” — Staff and series reports
Loving Wheatland
Tony Jackson Jr. of Lebanon, Mo., was holding a comfortable lead as the laps clicked away in Saturday’s 50-lap Late Model Fall Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatlamd, Mo. But a late-race caution flag presented some drama and Jackson was up to the challenge.
Jackson held off Chris Simpson of Oxford, Iowa, for a half-second victory in the unsanctioned Late Model event. He led all but the opening lap en route to his fourth overall victory of 2025 and first at the 3/8-mile since Aug. 31, 2024.
“I’ve got like a love-hate relationship with this place," Jackson said, noting an 11th-place finish in Friday’s opener. “I either run really good or really bad. We worked it over today.”
Jackson grabbed the lead on lap two after Mason Oberkramer paced the opening circuit. Simpson took second away from Oberkramer on a lap-nine restart but never really drew close enough to seriously threaten Jackson as the race stayed caution-free for a long stretch.
Jackson’s lead was a comfortable 3.5 seconds with just 10 to go with Simpson well ahead of Oberkramer. That’s how they stayed until lap 47, when a caution came out as Brandon Conkwright spun in turn three right in front of the leaders.
Jackson, with a 2.4-second lead, avoided Conkwright. But that gave new life to his pursuers for a three-lap sprint when action resumed.
"Chris is one of the best racers you’ll race with,” said Jackson, who recorded his second five-figure triumph of the season after his $12,000 score on May 10 at Batesville Motor Speedway in Locust Grove, Ark. “Any time you restart with him behind you, there’s a chance he’s going to slide by you. We just stuck with the lane we’d been running that got us to the lead and hoped for the best.”
Simpson made a run at Jackson on the inside as the green waved, but Jackson was able to hold him off and win by 0.557 of a second. Simpson settled for second for the second straight night.
“We were good,” Simpson said. “Just the way the lapped traffic laid out, it seemed like Tony would get by ‘em and they would all come up to the top and block me, but it’s a part of it. It sucks running second, but I can’t complain. A lot of guys wish they could be standing here.
“This is our last race of the year. We’ll take a second and move on.” — Lyndal Scranton
McCreadie sizzling
In capturing his second straight World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series feature for the first time in 20 years, Tim McCreadie used some racing courtesy and slow-speed skills to grab Friday’s triumph at Boothill Speedway in Greenwood, La.
The 51-year-old Watertown, N.Y., driver overtook race-long leader Bobby Pierce on a lap-23 restart and led the rest of the way for a $10,000 victory in the Bayou Classic weekend opener. A whopping $50,000 payday is on the line Saturday night.
McCreadie was stalking Pierce in the second half of the 30-lapper when he made contact with the rear of the leader’s car entering turn one. McCreadie let off the gas as Pierce briefly got sideways.
"I just shut it down until he got going again and stayed behind him — because that's kind of how they taught me to do it, you know, over the years,” McCreadie said. “You just don't jack them up and turn them around and then leave them there. So I let ‘em get going again.”
Pierce indeed gathered his car up with 12 laps remaining, and the frontrunners rolled on until the lap-23 caution set up McCreadie’s winning pass. He and Pierce swapped slide jobs before McCreadie secured the lead for good and added a victory to the previous Saturday’s WoO triumph at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan. It’s the first time McCreadie has won back-to-back on the tour since July 2005 when he won three in a row, twice at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway and then at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio.
"It just happened to be our night,” said McCreadie, who notched his sixth series victory of the season and 39th of his career. “We'll go home tonight, be happy, and go again tomorrow.”
McCreadie came out on top at a 3/8-mile oval that dramatically slowed throughout the night. While hot laps were in the low 14-second range, most of the feature competitors ran 17-second laps in the main event.
“I mean this is one of the few places that slows way down. Obviously it took a little bit of rubber on (corner) entry on both ends, so they're going to have to address that, but it slows down enough where being straight really matters and keeping (the car) underneath you matters,” McCreadie said. “You know, racing a big-block (modified) my whole life and then doing these, and that was kind of how you did it when I first came around and now it's kind of gone the other way a little bit. But every once in a while, when it slows down and I can keep my stuff straight and square, it seems to be pretty good.”
McCreadie will chase his third straight WoO victory and $50,000 on Saturday.
"Any time you can be up front with the guys we got and the (series) guys that showed up this weekend,” he said, “it's pretty cool.” — Staff and series reports
First Super win
Daniel Hilsabeck has taken his lumps as a national touring driver in recent seasons, including this year on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. So for the 35-year-old Earlham, Iowa, driver to break through for a victory — the first of his career in a Super Late Model — was special Friday in the opener of the unsanctioned Fall Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.
Hilsabeck led all 30 laps for a $5,000 payday in the first of two nights of action at the 3/8-mile oval in rural southwestern Missouri. He was fast all night, topping time trials with a 15.913-second lap and winning his heat race to earn the pole for the feature.
After three early cautions, Hilsabeck got rolling and pulled away to lead comfortably most of the race. A lap-27 caution erased a 2.8-second lead, giving fellow front-row starter Chris Simpson of Oxford, Iowa, who regained the second spot on lap 23, one last crack at Hilsabeck.
"I hated to see that caution with three to go," Hilsabeck said. "I felt like I was a sitting duck. I didn't feel like I was all that great at the end, but this is awesome. This is my first Super Late Model win. We've been getting our butt kicked this year with the Lucas Series and it just feels great.”
Hilsabeck handled the restart and held on to beat Simpson by a 0.477-second margin.
“We had a chance at the end, but Daniel was good,” Simpson said. “He could restart really good and get out in front of us to where it was comfortable for him. Congrats to those guys. We'll go back and work on it and see if we can finish one position better tomorrow.”
Hilsabeck, however, won’t be around to chase Saturday’s $10,000 prize.
"I've got a wedding to go to and we're leaving tonight, so we won't be able to repeat," Hilsabeck said in victory lane. Hilsabeck was attending his cousin's wedding in western Iowa but went to Wheatland to make the most of Thursday's practice and Friday's competition. — Lyndal Scranton
Boothill reboot
Upon arriving to Boothill Speedway last season, Dustin Sorensen didn’t have any reason to think he’d be fast. But the 24-year-old Rochester, Minn., nearly captured his first career World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series victory at the Greenwood, La., before Ryan Gustin overtook him in the final laps.
“It didn’t really look like a track that I was going to be comfortable at, wasn’t really like anything I had been on before,” Sorensen said. “I actually hit the wall that night in hot laps, qualified bad and then was able to get a transfer spot in the heat race. That night kind of started the way our whole year started last year with being behind early and then having to fight all night to get somewhere. Fortunately, that night we had a really good car and we were able to get up there and battle for the win.
“I remember I got by Gustin in lapped traffic, and then it was like he decided to find another gear, because all of a sudden he went roaring back by me and drove away. There was some lap cars in my way on the bottom, but he definitely found something there at the end and picked up some speed. Even if there weren’t lapped cars, I don’t think I would have been able to keep up with him.”
Sorensen, last season’s MD3 Rookie of the Year on the national circuit, gets another shot at Boothill during his improved sophomore season. Better starting spots have translated into more nights where Sorensen contended up front. Two months ago at Highland (Ill.) Speedway, Sorensen traded sliders with Tanner English for the lead before crossing the line third. On Oct. 3 at Humboldt (Kan.) Speedway, Sorensen led briefly before winner Dennis Erb Jr. got back around amid traffic.
Like any racer would, Sorensen can’t help but replay those near-misses.
“I definitely think about what I could have done differently,” Sorensen said. “Just so that in the future, I can maybe capitalize on an opportunity. Like Humboldt, after watching the replay, I probably could have slid up in front of Dennis going down the back straightaway and avoided the lapped car pulling into the infield. That’s just something that experience and thinking about it like that, dwelling on it will help you learn faster, but also not getting down about it.”
Friday and Saturday’s Bayou Classic at Boothill gives Sorensen the chance to build on what he learned a year ago in pursuit of the finale's $50,000 top prize.
“We just have a notebook at a lot of these places. Especially somewhere I ran good at, we can kind of start where we left off last year and make minor adjustments from there,” Sorensen said. “Last year, the longer races were a big thing for me because I started in the back so often. But I think I just know something about the longer the race is, the better I get. I don’t know if it’s because I take care of my tires better than some, or I’m just able to take my time and figure out what I need to do with my race car, but it seems like the longer the race is, the better I do.” — Spence Smithback
