Fast Talk presented by MD3 and Five Star Bodies
Fast Talk: Recapping Gateway's big weekend
As Bobby Pierce caps his 32-victory season with a $70,000 Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals victory, our roundtable discusses action at The Dome at America's Center in the weekly feature presented by MD3 and Five Star Race Cars Bodies (edited for clarity and length):
What was your favorite Dome highlight?
Kevin Kovac, DirtonDirt senior writer: Watching Bobby Pierce put together a perfect weekend to become the first three-time winner of the Gateway finale certainly ranks highly, but my top highlight was something that didn’t even happen on the racetrack. It came outside The Dome on Saturday afternoon when I walked along the downtown St. Louis streets teeming with Dirt Late Model fans and then saw throngs gathered at the entrances, waiting for the doors to open. It just gave me a warm feeling that a niche sport that I love and cover for a living could draw such an immense crowd.
Kyle McFadden, DirtonDirt staff reporter: Watching the stream from home for the first time in four years, I’ll have to say the highlight for me is the terrific coverage from the FloRacing production team. Of course, announcers Dustin Jarrett and Ben Shelton are two of the best in the business, but pit reporters Blake Anderson, Trenton Barry and Chris Moore develop more rapport year after year while growing their Late Model knowledge with each trip to The Dome (Blake has a sprint car background while Chris, I believe, comes from a Northeast modified background), which makes for a richer broadcast. Some may not agree, but I think The Dome has become Dirt Late Model racing’s biggest event on the calendar. Not biggest race — the biggest event. That was evident by watching from home and seeing the many people chime in on social media.
Aaron Clay, DirtonDirt weekend editor: My highlight from this past weekend’s Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals was the back-and-forth battle between Jonathan Davenport and Dan Ebert towards the end of Friday’s second 25-lap preliminary feature. I don’t have the exact statistics, but I’d say Ebert and Davenport traded slide jobs for four or five straight laps, each driver bouncing their right rear quarterpanel off the wall, with Ebert eventually prevailing for a fifth-place finish. Not only was it a highly competitive battle, but it was great seeing Ebert run near the front and essentially outduel Davenport for a top-five finish.
Bryan Ault, DirtonDirt contributing reporter: I think the Friday night fun between Hudson O’Neal and Kyle Bronson was a high moment and really encapsulates what The Dome is and should be. Here are two guys who are clearly frustrated with their competitors (some justified, some not) with badly-damaged race cars that are impossible to fix and get back to the track. They have every reason to be frustrated with the weekend, and yet they have a moment of good-hearted levity, with the burly Bronson picking up O’Neal off his feet to mimic a fight and O’Neal taking it all in stride to the cheers of the raucous crowd. At no other track or event would that take place during a national-touring event or track. Personally, I could go without the R-rated interviews, but that’s the kind of fun The Dome is made for.
And a noteworthy Dome lowlight?
McFadden: I’m fed up with drivers who feel they need to pepper interviews — or mark their few seconds of fame — with F-bombs and trashy language. Look, I get it, what makes our sport great, and not sterile like so many forms of professional motorsports, is that drivers aren’t afraid to show their personality. But my gosh, sometimes it’s so over the top it’s flatout embarrassing, especially with young children and families tuning in. Our sport will always be looked down upon and not taken seriously if we keep feeding the narrative that dirt racing is an unprofessional, backwoods spectacle instead of a legitimate motorsport that means business. Personality is great. Passion is great. But there’s a line between raw emotion and needless vulgarity.
Clay: My lowlight was how the track's wall and catchfence were constructed in such a way that easily ripped the rear quarterpanel and spoilers off of most cars that appeared to make light contact. I was pleased to hear Cody Sommer address this issue in Saturday’s drivers’ meeting, but it bothered me how easily most cars sustained damage. Hopefully implementing a different construction is easy, as it would be ideal for cars to be able to make light contact with the wall/catchfence and only sustain minor damage without shedding debris onto the racing surface. I hope it is something they can better address in the coming years.
Ault: It was a bummer to see Mike Harrison’s chances end with a spin in the main event. The Dome is perfect for giving relatively unfamiliar Late Model drivers a legitimate shot to compete, and the modified ace did just that. Harrison finished second to three-time winner Bobby Pierce in Thursday’s preliminary event, outrunning two-time Gateway winner Brandon Sheppard. Harrison was clearly thrilled with such a strong finish against a stout field of competitors. Too bad his spin battling with Jason Feger in Saturday’s finale resulted in a 15th-place finish. The Dome giveth, and The Dome taketh away.
Kovac: How about the miserable weekends for three of the event’s most well-known entrants? Former winner Tyler Erb was done after just a handful of laps because of terminal engine trouble in Thursday’s time trials. Garrett Alberson drew plenty of attention with the ’90-style body he had on his Roberts Motorsports car but he tore it up in Friday’s qualifying session and, while his crew patched it up, never recovered. And Mike Marlar caught the wall during Friday’s time trials and mangled his Maximum Domestruction-themed Velocity Chassis, which had its fuel cell ripped completely asunder. Their fates showed how quickly a driver’s hopes and best-laid plans can be dashed at The Dome.
Is there any part of Gateway’s experience outdoor promoters could adopt in a reasonable way?
Clay: I know The Dome’s comfy indoor confines are part of what makes souvenir and vendor sales successful at the Gateway Dirt Nationals, but I would love to see any outdoor event improve the presentation of race teams and parts vendors. There’s something special about walking down the vendor aisle, or sifting your way through a busy walkway as fans purchase their favorite driver’s merchandise, that gives the Gateway Dirt Nationals that big event feel. Couple the visual aesthetics with the (assumed) financial profit and it seems like a win-win for vendors, race teams and the event promoter.
Ault: Outdoor tracks don’t have as much lighting and high-tech video screens, but if you’re going to do driver introductions at any major event, let drivers and crews go all out, just like The Dome. Make it a competition with some prize money (or a set of tires or fuel) thrown in for the driver, crew or family who does it best. At major events it would let crews have some much-needed fun on the road when the pressure to win is much higher, and give the fans something to watch and cheer for.
Kovac: I truly don’t think there’s too much track promoters can transfer to their outdoor shows from The Dome, which is simply such a unique event because it’s in a gigantic, pro-level facility that naturally provides a setting that regular dirt tracks can’t match. Perhaps, though, promoters could lean more heavily into the pit and infield reporting that happens during the Gateway Dirt Nationals. There’s no doubt that hearing from so many drivers all weekend helps forge a connection between them and the fans — although I’d say the frequent, uh, colorful language that so many Dome competitors seem to fall into amid the Gateway intensity doesn’t need to be replicated elsewhere.
McFadden: Somehow, someway, getting the crowd more involved with a nightly event never hurts. Cody Sommer is creative with the T-shirt toss into the grandstands to reveal the redraws for both Late Models and modifieds. His giveaways are always popular and well-supported. And I know the Gateway broadcast has three pit reporters, but interview industry personnel and fans during the course of the night adds a nice touch to the program. Finding ways to make fans feel special and involved can go a long way.
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Ault: First, credit to Cody Sommer for making the fence-repair process much quicker. One of my quibbles when I attended in 2023 was the lengthy delays caused by fence repair. All that downtime created a lot of boredom and it’s clear Sommer realized that and made the necessary repairs, also putting up a taller wall so cars would stay inside the track. Now, for a suggestion: I would remove the pit-stop challenge and instead do a traditional dash for determining the first three rows on the preliminary nights. The pit stop challenge felt like a long delay in the action. Plus, the racing would probably be entertaining with The Dome’s best finishers all fighting for a spot up front.
Clay: I was surprised to see The Dome's racing surface become rougher and appear to gain character as the weekend progressed. Most surfaces become smoother, with fewer ruts and bumps, as more laps are completed, but it seems the temporary fifth-mile surface actually becomes more rugged. I’m not sure if it’s feasible, but I would prefer to see the surface stay as smooth as possible throughout the weekend, allowing for better racing and less mechanical failures throughout the program’s higher-paying main events.
McFadden: A hot pit, please. I understand we don’t want a gazillion guys changing flat tires throughout the night, dragging down the program. But for the feature, I would like to see a hot pit included next year. It puts a damper on the event that a guy like Jonathan Davenport has to park it for the night because he can’t change a left-rear tire.
Kovac: I’d love to see Saturday’s schedule of events streamlined just a bit (no win-and-you’re-in races? Have the modified feature lineup already set?) so the published 7 p.m. start time for opening ceremonies before the two features can more likely be achieved. This year, despite starting Saturday’s qualifying events right at 3 p.m., driver intros for the Late Model finale didn’t commence until nearly 9 p.m. I’d also love to see some extra time on Saturday opened up to perhaps make the Late Model feature longer, not only to provide additional feature racing but also to make its length more equal to its now crown jewel-level payoff. I envision maybe a 75-lap feature with a halfway break where crews could come on the track and patch up their cars in front of the fans while drivers are interviewed, but I would imagine that officials would need to figure out a way for teams to make pit stops to change flat tires and continue racing or there wouldn’t be many cars left at the end of a longer race since attrition is already heavy with 40 laps.
Pick one: your favorite graphics design or driver introduction?
Kovac: I couldn’t help chuckling over Ashton Winger’s driver introduction antics. It was pretty creative of him to come out wearing a Brenden Smith T-shirt and have Kyle Bronson — the driver who felt wronged by Smith in Friday’s preliminary feature and loudly let Smith know it — chase him down, pick him up and toss him onto a folding table in feigned anger. Of course, the table didn’t give quite as much as the participants expected, which nearly left Winger with a back injury minutes before the start of the feature.
Clay: My favorite graphic design was Tanner English’s nod to the Christmas Vacation movie and the Griswold family station wagon. Not only did English’s Coltman Farms Racing Longhorn sport a wood-panel design on each side, but his team stepped it up a notch and actually mounted a Christmas tree to the car's roof for hot laps. I believe English even offered to run the Saturday night feature with the tree strapped to the roof if Cody Sommer were to grant him one of the promoter’s emergency provisionals after English was swept up in a qualifier incident that ended his weekend.
Ault: I’d say my favorite graphics design was Mike Marlar’s monster-truck themed Maximum Domestruction wrap. I wasn’t impressed with it at first — the lettering was difficult to read with the orange and gray colors — but once Marlar got behind the wheel on Friday night, he evidently wanted to make sure the wrap lived up to its name and it became my favorite car of the week. Seeing Marlar hit the fence and watching the fuel cell fly into the air, along with the back-half of his car completely destroyed, was something I haven’t seen before. It’s amazing his crew was able to get it repaired for Saturday’s action.
McFadden: The graphics design and paint schemes topped the intros, for sure. It sparks great interest on social media and generates a lot of momentum for the event. It’s terrific marketing for teams and drivers, showing the potential The Dome has to attract and introduce potential new sponsors, backers and businesses into the sport. It also gives drivers good reason to unveil their latest lines of merchandise. There are so many facets with these special paint schemes that help grow the sport in ways a normal race weekend can’t: Exposure, brand-building, sponsor engagement and a shot of momentum that carries into the New Year.
