Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Steele next up in Billy Hicks Racing car
Jeremy Steele (Austin Bumgarner photo)
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: Standout racer-turned-car owner Billy Hicks of Mount Airy, N.C., has often said he enjoys working with young, up-and-coming drivers. He’s decided to give one a chance to be the next pilot of his familiar No. 79 machine with the hiring of Jeremy Steele, a 24-year-old from York, S.C., who will make his debut behind the wheel of the Billy Hicks Racing Longhorn Chassis in Saturday’s Southern All Star-Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals March Madness event at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C. Hicks, whose plans to chase the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series this season with Cory Hedgecock of Loudon, Tenn., ended March 5, is looking at a 2026 schedule with Steele that includes select regional and national shows. “I want to put the fun in racing again,” Hicks told me in a text message. “I’ve been watching (Steele). He is ready to go to the next levels and we want to help him get there.”
No. 2: Steele is coming off a strong 2025 season spent primarily in Crate Late Model competition, winning four five-figure features among his six overall victories that included November’s Turkey 100 at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway. He also captured the Crate Racin’ USA Dirt Late Model Series championship and dipped his toes into the Super Late Model ranks with his Xcell Grading-backed team. He’s coming off a runner-up finish in Saturday’s Carolina Clash-sanctioned Red Rose Rumble at Lancaster (S.C.) Motor Speedway. “Very thankful for this opportunity and looking forward to it,” Steele wrote on his Facebook page regarding the Hicks ride.
No. 3: Congratulations to Devin Moran and his wife Lakia on the arrival of their first child, daughter Poppy Jane, who was born Saturday night just around the time hot laps were starting for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at his car owner Roger Sellers’s Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn. Moran, of course, skipped the race with the baby on the way; Lakia’s due date was March 12 but it took a couple more days for them to welcome their new addition.
No. 4: Ricky Thornton Jr. will finally take a break from his whirlwind early season racing schedule this weekend as he spends some long-awaited time at home with his family in Indianola, Iowa. It’s the 35-year-old’s first visit to his residence in three months following a stretch of racing that included a quick visit to Central Arizona Raceway on Jan. 10 for a single Wild West Shootout start (his lone Dirt Late Model win of the season so far), the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., and and seven weeks of Dirt Late Model and UMP modified competition during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. He’ll return to the cockpit for March 27-28’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series doubleheader at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio, and Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway.
No. 5: I join everyone in the dirt-track racing world in sending thoughts out to those with the World Racing Group and NOS World of Outlaws Sprint Car following the tragic collision of two safety vehicles during Saturday’s WoO Sprint Car event at Kennedale (Texas) Speedway Park that took the life of an ASCS official and seriously injured a WoO official. Billy Hurt of Booneville, Mo., lost his life in the accident; a retired firefighter and EMS worker with over two decades of safety-crew experience at dirt tracks, he was remembered by many as a wonderful, hard-working man and lover of racing. The WoO official injured was Jerry Steele Jr., a resident of Springfield, Ill., who has ties to Dirt Late Model racing; a WoO press release listed Steele in stable condition in a Texas hospital.
