Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: HTF season commences at Talladega
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: Joining DirtonDirt’s Kyle McFadden and I on our Dirt Reporters podcast this week was Hunt the Front’s Joshua Joiner, a former DirtonDirt staffer whom we like to chat with from time to time because the podcast was his brainchild. (We’re now at 254 episodes, by the way.) It was a great time to invite Joiner on because this Sunday night his family’s Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series begins its points season with the $12,000-to-win Bama Bash at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala. Joiner said more than a dozen drivers have indicated they plan to chase the regional tour’s $50,000 champion’s prize, including 2023 champion Josh Putnam, Dalton Cook, Ashton Winger, Joseph Joiner, Jackson Hise, Dillard Hatchett, Austin Smith and Mario Gresham, as well as rookies Beckham Malone, Trenton Mathis, Jason Lively, Jake Jackson and Walker Greer. Reigning HTF champion Jimmy Owens, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to be plotting a defense of his title, with his plans currently in flux.
No. 2: The Hunt the Front opener at Talladega is positioned well to draw some notable national-touring invaders, with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series running Friday and Saturday at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss., and remaining in the Southeast for a doubleheader next weekend at East Alabama Motor Speedway in Phenix City and Senoia (Ga.) Raceway. Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., has already announced that he plans to enter the HTF show. Will some other Outlaws join him since many will be sticking around the region for the week and Talladega hosts the WoO circuit for a twinbill on April 24-25?
No. 3: One interesting topic that Joiner spoke about with us on the Dirt Reporters was the Hunt the Front tour’s first-ever excursion this season to West Virginia for a Memorial Day weekend tripleheader May 22-24 at Elkins Speedway, Middlebourne’s Tyler County Speedway and Parkersburg’s West Virginia Motor Speedway. The Mountaineer State is certainly off the beaten path for HTF — Joiner said they try to race within a radius of six hours or so from Atlanta — but the series has been receiving interest from tracks farther away, as far north as Michigan, in fact. Last year they did a doubleheader in Kentucky (Burnside’s Lake Cumberland Speedway and Union’s Florence Speedway) that was outside their usual region, but it was a successful trip for them, though it didn’t return this year because it didn’t fit well into the schedule. Joiner said the series is considering making perhaps one weekend trip per season that would take it farther away to new territory, with the area and tracks changing each year to expose the series to different markets. The $500-per-race appearance money program that Hunt the Front has for its top 10 in points certainly helps make such a plan possible.
No. 4: Speaking of Florence Speedway, how about this for an unusual occurrence: the King family-owned half-mile has announced that the start times for this Saturday’s $10,000-to-win Northern Allstar Late Model Series-sanctioned Spring 50 have been pushed later, with hot laps set to start at 6 p.m. and racing at 7 p.m. Typically, March events have start times moved earlier due to cold temperatures, but with forecasts calling for highs in the mid-70s on Saturday, Florence is in the enviable position of enjoying comfortable weather for an evening show early in the season.
No. 5: Florence’s Spring 50 will also include a special $2,000-to-win Dash for Cash among the four heat winners that’s run in memory of the late John Weber. A former co-owner of Florence Speedway who passed away at age 82 last July 10, Weber was instrumental in helping several area racers for more than 30 years, including owning cars driven by Audie and Chuck McWilliams, Jason Jameson and Darrell Lanigan.
