Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: English set to debut AK car
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: AK Race Cars founder Austin Kirkpatrick of Charlotte, N.C. — the subject of my latest Inside Dirt Late Model Racing column — spent part of this week in Benton, Ill., at the shop of Tanner English, the Benton, Ky., driver who is set to become the newest member of the AK fold. Kirkpatrick helped English prep a brand-new AK mount that the 32-year-old hopes to debut this weekend in Northern Allstars Late Model Series events at Ponderosa Speedway in Junction City, Ky., and Mudlick Valley Raceway in Wallingford, Ky. “He’s doing his own thing this year and wanted to do something different,” Kirkpatrick said of English, who is campaigning family-owned equipment with sponsorship from Riggs Fiber. “We’re excited to try to win some races with him.” English has made two starts in 2026 with his older-model Rocket Chassis, winning an Ultimate Southeast Series event on March 14 at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn., and finishing third in last Saturday’s Schaeffer’s Spring Nationals show at Thunderhill Raceway in Summertown, Tenn.
No. 2: Kirkpatrick began the 2026 season working closely with AK customers — Skyline Motorsports drivers Tyler Bruening of Decorah, Iowa, and Dallon Murty of Chelsea, Iowa, and Kyle Strickler of Mooresville, N.C. — during Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. The best finish tallied by an AK campaigner was seventh — Strickler on Jan. 23 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., and Cody Overton of Evans, Ga. (subbing for an ailing Bruening) on March 7 at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga. — but Kirkpatrick was pleased with the progress they made. “It was kind of up-and-down like most people’s Speedweeks are,” he said. “We had some flashes of speed and had some nights where we struggled, but I think overall it was pretty good all things considered. Speedweeks is definitely trial by fire. You’re running against the best guys in the world every single night so it’s obviously one of the harder spans of racing, and we had pretty much a blank notebook to go off of going into it so to be able to go down there and show some speed was encouraging.”
No. 3: The Speedweeks performance of the 21-year-old Murty, a rookie in the Super Late Model ranks, absolutely impressed Kirkpatrick. His best finish was 11th in a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series show at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway, but he started 12 features in 15 attempts and even registered a fast-time honor. “Going into it I was trying to temper everyone’s expectations, like, ‘Hey, if we make a few shows, that’ll be a success,’ ” Kirkpatrick said. “This is like the absolute highest level and it’s very difficult. It usually takes guys a while before they start to crack the code on driving at this level. It usually takes guys a few years of getting their teeth kicked in before they can really go out there and perform at a high level. And I think he made more than half the shows, had a quick time … it pretty much was like a fish to water. He jumped out there and was battling with some really, really top-notch guys right out of the gate. It was really impressive. I think as he as he matures and as he develops, he’s just gonna get better and better. I’m super excited to get to work with those guys.”
No. 4: Kirkpatrick said that Strickler’s rollover in a heat race during March 13’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., put a hurting on his AK Race Car. “It messed it up pretty good,” he said. “We put we put a new front clip on and fixed some of the tubes that got messed up in the crash.” The 42-year-old Strickler is ready to climb back in the machine this weekend, perhaps on Friday but definitely Saturday at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway.
No. 5: Last fall, Kirkpatrick’s freshly-built AK Race Car fielded by his longtime friend and sponsor Robert Abercrombie of Deming, N.M., was driven several times by R.C. Whitwell of Tucson, Ariz., including in October’s Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. At the time the 40-year-old Whitwell was in North Carolina working at Kirkpatrick’s shop, but Whitwell departed AK earlier this year to take a Dirt Late Model in the Midwest to continue pursuing his driving aspirations.
