Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Gilpin mourns loss of crew chief, friend
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: The Dirt Late Model world lost a familiar face on Sunday with the passing of Walter Branum, the veteran mechanic affectionately known as “Gator” who died at his home in Columbus, Ind., from an apparent heart attack. Just 55, Branum worked as a crew chief for multiple drivers since 1992, most recently serving as the head wrench for fellow Columbus resident Devin Gilpin. In fact, two days before his passing, Branum, who joined Gilpin on a full-time basis at the end of the 2023 season, was with Gilpin for Friday’s Northern Allstars Late Model Series-sanctioned Jeff Gullett Memorial at Ponderosa Speedway in Junction City, Ky., where Gilpin won a $3,000 Dash for Cash and ran second for the first 20 laps before fading and retiring due to a broken rocker arm. Gilpin was left in “total shock” when he heard the news on Easter Sunday. “In the last three years Walter and I have grown so close and became best friends,” Gilpin wrote on Facebook. “He was more than a crew chief. He was my buddy man. This hurts bad. I can’t believe it’s real. I pray that God comforts his wife, his children, his mother, all of his family and friends during this time. I just can’t believe it. He was so pumped Friday night after we won the 3k Dash (and started) on the pole of the feature. We had put so much effort into this race car for 2026 to be better and get faster and there is no doubt he made us faster this year already.”
No. 2: Branum, who leaves behind his wife of 18 years, Cheryl, four children and four grandchildren, got his start in Dirt Late Model racing crewing for Indiana racer Dickie Phillips. He had short tours of duty with two of the division’s all-time greats — the late Scott Bloomquist for much of the 1997 season and later Billy Moyer — and his extended stretch in the early 2000s with Randy Korte of Highland, Ill., included a Crew Chief of the Year honor on the national Hav-A-Tampa/UDTRA series. Branum also worked for, among others, Mark Voigt, Brian Belong, Brandon Kinzer and Chad Stapleton before joining Gilpin, and in recent years he offered consulting services to various racers in the Midwest.
No. 3: While Branum was well known across the Dirt Late Model landscape from his over 30 years in the sport — Gilpin said he couldn’t believe how many people knew him — he was “Gator,” not Walter, to the vast majority in the industry. According to Gilpin, Branum was tagged with the “Gator” nickname by Dickie Phillips apparently as a play on the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon character, Wally Gator, from the 1960s.
No. 4: Speaking of Brandon Kinzer whom I mentioned above, I discovered something about the 2026 racing plans for the veteran driver from Allen, Ky., that I didn’t realize: he’s going asphalt racing this season. A Super Late Model regular for over 20 years beginning in the early ‘90s, the 48-year-old has competed mostly in open-wheel modifieds in recent years but since late 2023 has also done some Dirt Late Model racing with the Topless Outlaws tour. Kinzer has several Topless Outlaw events on his ’26 schedule —he started his campaign on March 4 with a 14th-place finish in the circuit’s season opener at North Georgia Speedway in Chatsworth — but will focus his action on the Grand National Super Series, a fledgling pavement tour in the Southeast that runs for modest purses (typically $750-to-win) using old NASCAR, ARCA and Pro Cup cars. (Former NASCAR Cup regular Jeremy Mayfield was the series champion last year.) He made his first attempt with the series last year when he leased a car to run twin features at Carteret County Speedway in Swansboro, N.C., and enjoyed himself so much (he finished sixth in both races) that he has his own team this season (Hendrick cars and Robert Yates motors) and is looking to run the entire 12-event slate for the Grand National Super Series, which kicks off this weekend at Dominion Raceway in Woodford, Va. Kinzer’s longtime publicist, Ryan Delph, said racing on asphalt is “always something he wanted to try and wanted to cross it off the bucket list before he retired.”
No. 5: In Monday’s Take Five I noted that Bobby Pierce’s wedding on Saturday to the former Abby Foster included the couple making a racing-themed exit following the ceremony with attendees waving checkered flags and Bobby popping a bottle of champagne. Pierce told me that the walk-out was really a special nod to Abby’s late grandfather, who passed away several years ago. “He was a big race fan and actually tagged along with my dad to the races a few times way back in the day. His garage actually had a poster of my dad’s car hanging on his fridge,” Pierce said, calling it “crazy” to think that his future wife’s grandfather had a connection to Pierce’s family. (Pierce also said the wedding had some other racing-related touches, including a checkered-flag dance floor and a Bell helmet rather than a guestbook that attendees signed as they entered the reception hall.)
