Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: Knowles wins again after health crisis
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: A month ago I did an Inside Dirt Late Model Racing column on Jake Knowles of Rome, Ga., returning to competition for the first time since he was sidelined last September by a serious case of pancreatitis that hospitalized him for 44 days. On Saturday night, in his second start this season since his health scare, the 40-year-old racer was already back in victory lane in the season-opening 604 Crate Late Model feature at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga. Knowles led all the way to snap a personal win drought of four years. I sent Knowles a congratulatory text message and his response made it clear how much the triumph meant to him. “Man, it was awesome. Even though it was just a local show, it was right up there with my Lucas win,” he wrote, referring to a 2009 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win at Cleveland (Tenn.) Speedway that stands as the biggest of his career.
No. 2: There were certainly plenty of tears shed by Knowles and his family, friends and crew after his Dixie checkered flag. His father Wade, a former Dirt Late Model standout himself, and mother Cindy, who is well known for organizing the annual Cruise with the Champions vacation for racers, were both on hand to join Jake’s emotional post-race celebration. It was also Knowles’s grandmother’s birthday; she was at the track watching and was picked up by Georgia racer Landon Bagby and brought to victory lane to hug her grandson and pose for pictures.
No. 3: While Knowles is energized by the win, he reported that he’s still not sure when he’ll debut his new Longhorn Chassis that he’s assembled to make his first Super Late Model appearance since 2020. He’s tested the machine but doesn’t have a race date for it on his schedule yet with several bigger Crate shows in his area on his agenda for the next couple weeks, including this Saturday’s $3,000-to-win Rogers-Dabbs Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series event at Dixie.
No. 4: Did you see Ryan Unzicker of El Paso, Ill., racing around Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway for most of Friday’s 40-lap Illini 100 preliminary feature? He ran in the top-five with his left-front wheel hiked high off the ground as he negotiated the circular quarter-mile bullring. It was a right-rear suspension problem that caused Unzicker’s three-wheeling — and eventually knocked him out running fifth late in the distance — but it definitely gave off vibes of Dirt Late Model racing in the 1990s when the cars of the era regularly had the left-fronts off the ground (and looked cool doing it). Unzicker even mentioned in a postrace Facebook post that the late C.J. Rayburn “would have been proud” because his cars often three-wheeled back in the day.
No. 5: Sending out get-well wishes to longtime Ryan Propst, the ASI Racewear vendor from Vienna, W.Va., who is a longtime stalwart manning a T-shirt trailer at major Dirt Late Model events. He was unable to bring the ASI merchandise trailer, which carries apparel for, among others, Tim McCreadie and Boom Briggs, to the World of Outlaws Late Model Series-sanctioned Illini 100 weekend at Farmer City because he was hospitalized while dealing with complications from the atrial fibrillation that he’s lived with throughout his life. Propst wrote Monday on Facebook that his personal doctor is making headway with medications to control the AFib and he’s feeling “really good” and hopes to “see everyone real soon” at the track.
