Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Thumbs up on track, less so for stew
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: Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., had a theory — well, at least a tongue-in-cheek one — of why he fell short of sweeping the weekend’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series-sanctioned Swamp Cabbage 100 at Hendry County Motorsports Park in Clewiston, Fla. He reported that the didn’t eat a whole cup of swamp cabbage soup like he pledged to do if he won a feature at the third-mile oval “and that’s why the racing gods didn’t let me win on Saturday.” Pierce, who followed up his $12,000 victory on Friday with a close runner-up finish to Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., in Saturday’s 60-lap finale, did attempt on Saturday to ingest the “traditional Florida Cracker dish featuring the tender, nutty heart of the native Sabal palm tree (the state tree of Florida) simmered with bacon, sausage and tomatoes,” but it didn’t go well. “No way was I going to eat a whole cup. I’d legit not make it,” Pierce responded when I texted him about the soup. “It’s kinda like chicken noodle soup if chicken noodle soup was nasty … because it wasn’t good.” Pierce said he tasted the spices and flavorings but wasn’t a fan of the “mushy texture” of the palm heart pieces in the broth, though he noted that perhaps a fresher cup might have been a bit better.
No. 2: Boom Briggs of Bear Lake, Pa., played a key role in helping arrange the inaugural WoO visit to Hendry County, which isn’t far from the vacation residence he has near Lake Okeechobee, and he was very pleased with the weekend. He noted “there needs to be some improvement” in various areas but overall he considered the doubleheader “a home run because of everyone that had negative comments leading up to the weekend.” The car count of 27 entries was modest with the event going head-to-head with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series tripleheader at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla., but the weather was superb (high temperatures in the mid-80s with no threat of rain), spectator turnout was very strong both nights (Saturday had to be a record crowd for the track) and the track surface, while certainly sand-based, provided entertaining racing. “Definitely going to build on it for next year,” Briggs said, though he’s not sure of dates for 2027.
No. 3: Both Briggs and his hired-gun teammate Tim McCreaadie of Watertown, N.Y., plan to log a few more Speedweeks starts before heading home with the final three nights of Feb. 24-28’s Lucas Oil Series action at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway on their schedules. The team will return to their shop after Ocala to prepare for the resumption of the WoO tour on March 13-14 at Tennessee’s Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap and Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville.
No. 4: One participant in the Swamp Cabbage 100 who ended the weekend very high on the country’s southernmost dirt track was Ryan Gustin’s car owner Todd Cooney, who made his thoughts clear with a Facebook post: “If Hendry County isn’t the new East Bay, I don’t know what is.” I’m not sure I’d go so far as to anoint the track as the replacement everyone covets for the dearly departed East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla. — its location 165 miles southeast of East Bay isn’t ideal its paper-clip shape doesn’t turn me like East Bay’s unique layout did — but there’s no doubt Henry County established itself as a Speedweeks player for the future.
No. 5: Hendry County’s doubleheader marked the final Speedweeks action for Sam Seawright of Rainsville, Ala., who enjoyed a fairly successful two-week run in his debut as a full-time driver for Coltman Farms Racing. The 22-year-old authored a respectable performance in last week’s Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. — he notably qualified for the last two WoO features with finishes of 23rd and 15th — and was even better at Hendry County where he finished 10th in Friday’s opener and improved on Saturday with fast-time honors, a heat win and eighth-place feature result. Calling the stretch an “incredible two weeks” in a Facebook post, Seawright also remarked that he “learned so much, made progress every night and left feeling very confident heading into the season.” His next planned action is this weekend’s Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals twinbill at Georgia’s Swainsboro Raceway and Senoia Raceway.
