West Virginia Motor Speedway
Meticulously groomed WVMS oval draws praise
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
An aerial view of West Virginia Motor Speedway. (Zach Yost)
MINERAL WELLS, W.Va. (June 13) — When West Virginia Motor Speedway sought help molding its reconfigured 3/8-mile oval into a premier bullring worthy of hosting this fall's Dirt Track World Championship, it turned to one of the sport's foremost track-prep minds in Chad Bauman. | RaceWire
Between Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway, Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park, the Illinois farmer has helped prepare racetracks that have become benchmarks across dirt racing.
His fingerprints are especially evident at Fairbury, whose rise into one of the nation's premier Dirt Late Model venues has mirrored years of Bauman's work, and at Vado, where the New Mexico oval earned widespread acclaim while hosting the Wild West Shootout from 2021-25.
Bauman arrived Wednesday alongside fellow veteran track-prep worker Blade Kearns, joining Mackie Flood, who has made the seven-hour tow from his native Campobello, S.C., to spearhead WVMS track maintenance since the debut of the track's reconfiguration last October. In just four days, Bauman has already begun applying many of the principles that have defined his work elsewhere while getting a feel for what the speedway can ultimately become. And from what he's seen, he believes the speedway's future is bright under owner Mike Hurley, who purchased the facility in May 2025 and quickly transformed the longtime 5/8-mile oval into a short track with Cody Watson as promoter.
"This place has a lot of potential. Mike and Cody are doing a lot to this place," Bauman said. "The shape's getting better. It still needs some work, I think. Once they get that right, I think it'll race super well, I really do."
Friday and Saturday marked a noticeable step forward from the reconfigured oval's first few outings. It's also worth remembering just how young the surface still is: Friday and Saturday represented only the fourth and fifth Late Model programs contested on the new layout.
Dennis Erb Jr., whose trademark bottom-groove ways allowed him to pressure eventual winner Bobby Pierce throughout Friday's feature before settling for second, noticed the difference immediately.
"We were making big ground on the middle-bottom there. To be able to launch off (the top) there, which I think saved (Pierce) Friday," Erb said. "But, you know, obviously the racetrack was in a lot better shape than from when I seen it the last time I watched the race here. They did get out there and work this thing and got it to where it's at least a pretty racy place."
Saturday runner-up Drake Troutman echoed that sentiment.
"I think a lot of people can agree that this place has a lot of potential," Troutman said. "Hell, I bet they ain't raced here all but five or six times. It races pretty damn good for it being (that many) times.”
Much of the track-preparation philosophy that's worked elsewhere has translated to WVMS, Bauman said — once the sun goes down, anyway.
"Honestly, a lot of the stuff we're doing is pretty close: the grading, the prepping night-wise. Day-wise it's a little different," Bauman said. "We don't leave it as fluffed up. We're trying to seal it off a little bit to hopefully help take the dust out a little bit. But we're learning. This is the second night we've seen race cars on it."
Bauman and Co. had to work around some obstacles, too. On Friday afternoon, a rain shower rolled through the speedway around 3:30, forcing the crew to seal the surface before they knew how much precipitation headed their way.
“The first day, we didn't know what to expect," Bauman said. "Obviously, we did a pretty decent job."
Even after Saturday's feature, Bauman was already thinking about what he'd change next time. He wished he could've moved the infield tractor tires farther inward to widen the bottom groove after the 3/8-mile favored the top side during the 60-lap feature.
It didn’t come from a lack of effort. Bauman worked on the racing surface until 4:30 a.m. Saturday following Friday's action, then was back at the track by 7 a.m.
"We've been trying to flatten off the bottom a little bit more," Bauman said. "We have it a little bit flatter. Obviously we didn't have enough time. We've been here since Wednesday. Yeah, it's got potential. They put a little bank into it. I talked with Cody for a couple months — I watched all their races and talked him through it, how to get the grader guy to change the shape of it. Obviously it proved (Friday) that it'll race better.”
Bauman will pass along his notes and observations to the rest of the WVMS staff as he returns to work on his family farm that’s located between Fairbury and Pontiac, Ill. If the reconfigured 3/8-mile continues progressing toward its potential, he'll know he provided WVMS the boost they hoped for.
"When they came here, I think they wanted to know what to do with it. So we're trying to show them what to do with it," Bauman said. "They've been watching what we're doing. Mackie's going to be back here for the other two races I won't make it back to. He's been watching what I've been doing. He was here in October, which was good then. It was the first race they had, so he did a good job there. I think he's seen the things we've done as well to make it even better come the Dirt Track.”
Erb applauded the work of Bauman, Kearns and Flood, believing the best racing surfaces are formed when track crews are trusted to do their jobs without outside voices undermining the process.
"I think track people need to go out there and work on the racetrack and not listen to people," Erb said. "I mean, that's the thing. I think there's a lot of people that's telling these people how to work on a racetrack, and I think people just need to leave these guys alone and let them get out there and work on it. I mean, I don't know nothing about track prep, so I don't want to talk about anybody about that. Let's let them go out there and do their job, and then we can do our job in racing.”
As WVMS continues to evolve, it’s already drawn comparisons to another unique venue. Upon arriving Wednesday, Bauman immediately thought of the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, the indoor fifth-mile oval that hosts the annual Gateway Dirt Nationals.
"When I first walked up here, it reminded me of Gateway," Bauman said. "I felt like I was looking at a bigger Gateway. It kind of races the same."
Pierce came away with a similar impression.
"Something about it has tendencies of Gateway," Pierce said. "Maybe because the dirt is a little powdery, like Gateway? Like, me and Hudson both said it — I was talking to him like, I don't know what it is, but we're running on the top really backed in. We really have to back our cars in the corner to run the top.”
That driving style forced Pierce to work the steering wheel more aggressively than he does at most racetracks.
Normally, Pierce said, his hands remain around the 2 or 3 o'clock position on the steering wheel while negotiating a corner. At WVMS, however, he found himself cranking the wheel much farther — nearly to the 5 o'clock position — to rotate his car through the tighter turns.
"I try to keep my left hand in one spot," Pierce said. "So then, like, I'll let go with my right, and then as I'm turning right, my right hand will come off and then kind of give it another pull, I guess. Most places, I’m here,” he added, demonstrating his right hand around the 3 o’clock position.
“When I’m going around the corner here, I’m taking another grab of the steering wheel,” Pierce continued. “And that's when you're really back steering a lot.”
Pierce has watched the evolution of the reconfigured oval from afar, following Tyler Carpenter's victory in last October's debut event and Drake Troutman's win on May 3 before arriving this weekend.
"It put on a good race still. It did seem kind of bottom-dominant," Pierce said of those earlier events. "It was really hard to run on the top, whereas now they got it a little more even. Just depending on how the track plays out, either way you put it, I think when we get in lapped traffic, you're going to see a good race here."
Pierce came away impressed by how much the racing surface evolved over the course of the weekend.
"The racetrack, once it finally got widened out, it was really good," Pierce said. "It's a good shape and size and everything to it. I think the banking that they put in it helped it as well because, I mean, that bottom was still really good, although we were ripping the top mostly. I made a little bobble up there, that bottom guy would be right there on you, and, you know, Dennis Erb was proving that."
If Pierce, perhaps Dirt Late Model racing's fiercest throttle masher, and Erb, whose success has long been built around the bottom groove, both left encouraged by the track, that's perhaps the strongest endorsement the reconfigured oval could receive.
"Yeah, for sure. And that's all we want, right?" Pierce said when asked whether a racetrack earns a stamp of approval if both he and Erb leave satisfied. "Like, whether it's a big track, small track, wherever we're at, we just want two racing lanes and let us put on a show, right? And they definitely gave that for us.”
Beyond the racing surface itself, Pierce believes WVMS is well-positioned to host October's Dirt Track World Championship.
"They got good restrooms, and the concession stands seem nice and everything like that," Pierce said. "So, I think a lot of somewhat concerns are not really too concerning anymore."
Pierce believes October's 100-lap DTWC has all the ingredients to deliver a compelling show — and what’s shaping to be an even greater challenge for the drivers.
"With how you have to drive, plus it had a little character on top … yeah, 100 laps around that … phew," Pierce said. "Talk about cowboy up.”
