Weekly Notebook presented by FK Rod Ends
Notes: Missourian finds gateway to stick with sport
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt managing editor
Jeff Sloan (Emily Flores/Hot Mess Express Media)
Like many dirt racers in the twilight of their careers, Jeff Sloan doesn't want to simply turn laps. The 60-year-old Charleston, Mo., racer wants to continue being competitive.
"It's easy as you get older to start second-guessing yourself and saying, 'Hey, is it time for me to get out of the way? Am I in the way? Do I just not have the desire to do it anymore?' " Sloan mused. "Because when you've done it most of your life, you know good and well you don't have that drive. You don't need to be out there, really."
But Sloan has been racing half his life, and the fledgling Gateway Outlaw Steel Block Late Models organization has given him a nearby — and relatively economical — way to continue his Dirt Late Model racing. He's won two events this season and is the points leader of the Gary Otte-founded organization that primarily races in southeastern Missouri at Poplar Bluff, Benton and Farmington.
Sloan says his "freak of nature" good health and fitness comes from "getting up and having to work your ass off all your life, you know? I may fall over tomorrow from it, but the good Lord has really blessed me to this point, just really very fortunate to have the health I have," he said. "At the end of the day, that's what it takes to definitely stick around in this business.
"You got to absolutely love it. Every time I crawl in (that race car) now, I feel just like that kid still. I don't always feel that way when I get out of it after beating around," he adds with a laugh, "but for a little while I get to."
Growing up in coal mining country in Southern Illinois, Sloan was drawn to racing through his older cousin Jimmy Sloan.
"He's really been my big brother my whole life," Sloan said. "He was the youngest of seven and I was the oldest of three. We lived across the alley from each other, come from West Frankfort, Ill., originally, where I grew up. … We didn't have a whole lot. Had homemade go-karts and homemade whatever, but I was always into going fast with whatever it was: motorcycle, bicycle, go-kart.
"He got into racing at 17 or 18 in old bomber cars and moved into sportsman (cars) and then he got a chance to drive a Late Model back in the late '70s. I just always was around the garage. I didn't want to hang around with kids. I wanted to be around the garage, messing with the race car."
Sloan's love for racing continued, but his prime focus from ages 20-32 was singing and playing lead guitar for Lord Have Mercy, a "long-haired hard rock band" that toured across 25 states and Canada, never quite making the big time but having a ball along the way.
"We never got the big record deal. We put a couple CDs out, you know, independently, and we had some offers. We were fortunate enough to have good, legal representation that helped us understand how cutthroat the music business is," Sloan said. "We all had the hair and the look and all that stuff. We opened for a lot of the '80s bands that weren't quite in arenas yet that, if you're into that kind of music, you'd know: Dokken, Firehouse, bands like that."
By his early 30s, the grind of the music business ran its course and Sloan climbed off the stage — then climbed behind the wheel of a Late Model. With his cousin Jimmy's health forcing him out of the car, Jeff began racing primarily at Mount Vernon (Ill.) Speedway in the Steel-Block Engine Late Model and then Super Late Model divisions. He got up to speed by leaning on multitime track champ and UMP (now DIRTcar) champ Rodney Melvin.
"It didn't take no time and I was having success. I have to give Rodney Melvin a ton of credit because he was coming over, setting my car up for me and talking to me and helping me out," Sloan said. "But we got in there to win races and after a couple of years, we ended up buying a turnkey '06 Warrior that Rodney had won for winning the last national UMP points championship.
"We bought that car turnkey from him and then did the Super Late Models — and been broke ever since."
Sloan moved to Charleston, Mo., about 20 years ago after marrying wife Stephanie. They'd first met as pre-teens at a dirt track along I-57 in Southern Illinois, then got reacquainted many years later at a major event at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway in Calvert City, Ky.
"I haven't been able to get rid of her since," Sloan says with a laugh, his phone call within Stephanie's earshot. "I wouldn't change it for the world."
In Missouri, Sloan began competing on the Mid-South Racing Association that would evolve into today's Comp Cams Super Dirt Series, a tour that over the years has had standout competitors including Bill Frye, Wendell Wallace, Billy Moyer, Jeff Floyd and others.
"I was just young enough not to realize who I was lining up against every Friday and Saturday night, but learned a ton from racing with them and going up and down the road," Sloan said.
Eventually Late Model options in southeastern Missouri dried up and Sloan's ill-fated attempt to try the modified division ended quickly while his Sloan Race Parts business serviced tracks in Benton and Poplar Bluff.
But Gary Otte's development of a new Limited Late Model organization fit in perfect for a driver who don't want to travel too far or spend too much. Sloan remembers talking to Otte on the phone as the Gateway Late Models organization was developing and they shared the same ideas.
"If somebody would get a couple or two or three tracks to coordinate a Steel-Block Late Model class with easy to police rules. Kind of make the rules to where you could still have good (equipment), but the guy with the 10-year-old MasterSbilt or Warrior sitting in the garage that he ain't got rid of. He could build his own motor and at least stay on the lead lap and feel like he's having fun that's worth it," Sloan said. "And I said, in my opinion, if you did that and you really kept with it, could bring back Late Model racing locally to your Saturday night tracks around here."
In its second season, more than 40 drivers have run with the organization with typically 20 cars at each event. Sloan has scored victories at Benton and the Brownstown (Ill.) Bullring and he's excited about the future. Even his old friend Rodney Melvin, who has continued to run a part-time Super Late Model schedule in recent seasons, is intrigued.
"Rodney, when he called me the other day, he says, I don't got to go buy a brand new Longhorn, brand new Clements wide bore (motor). Dad can put a motor together, I can buy a good couple-of-year-old cars and it won't bother me when it sits here if I don't want to go race that weekend, if I want to take the kids to the lake, if I want to do this. He says but when I want to go (racing), I could go and have some fun," Sloan recalled.
The Gateway action has reinvigorated Sloan, who says his BMF Race Car "made me feel like I'm 25 again" and his racing team is more organized than ever through a chance meeting with Casey Green, now his crew chief.
"He was UPS delivery driver that took a fill-in spot to do our route here in Charleston on a Saturday, and he seen me working on a race car and he was like, 'Man, I wanted to help (a race team).' I'm like, 'Oh boy, another one of these. I said yeah, I can use the help. I'd love it.' Give him my number. I thought, 'Well, I'll never see him again,' " Sloan recounted. "He called me right back that Friday, said, 'Hey, if you're gonna be out there Saturday, I'd like to come and help you and get to know you.' "
It's been a great match with "our chemistry and it's like we've been friends forever," Sloan added. "He has brought organization and stuff that I really struggled with an owner-driver having to do everything. That's a lot of why we're winning, and running up front every time we unload is because of the program and the team he's helped me build. So I'm grateful for that."
Sloan, who admits his connections to rock music and dirt racing have been part of "one crazy life," is glad to have gotten to do all he has, including competing with Hall of Fame racers, running Eldora Speedway's high banks and wheeling around a dirt-covered Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
"I've gotten to do a lot of stuff, for a nobody," he says.
While his rock music days are behind him, he and his bandmates still play the occasional festival, but says he's "domesticated now" and most of his guitar-playing and singing is at the East Prairie Church of God.
"It's about the message," Sloan said of his modern-day musical efforts. "It's not about me out there playing with my teeth and throwing it around my head like the old '80s deal, you know?"
As for the racing, Sloan is relishing this era in guiding younger drivers on the Gateway circuit.
"I kind of feel like the way everybody has come at me in this series, I'm definitely the grandpa," Sloan said. "I get asked so much advice about so many things. …
"I guess I have been doing this a long time, you know, cause these, these younger guys are asking me all these setup questions, all this, all that, and I help anybody with anything. I don't hide nothing," Sloan added. "They're the guys that's going to keep the sport going. We love this kind of racing. So I just want to see it succeed."
The Gateway organization "gives that kid, if he's willing to keep his nose clean and head on straight and work, he can learn a lot that will benefit him in life from how hard you work on a race car and not get the results you want all the time. But you keep coming back. You don't give up. There's a lot of life lessons in this if people stop and look at it that way."
Weekly highlights
• Dave Hess Jr. of Waterford, Pa., earned a $5,000 Tops Super Showdown victory in June 13 Super Late Model action at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y.
• Leading all 25 laps of a caution-free Super Late Model feature, Colin Shipley of McClure, Ohio, fought off challenges from his stepfather Rusty Schlenk at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio.
• Levi Yetter of Cabot, Pa., broke through for his first Lernerville Speedway Super Late Model victory June 12 in Sarver, Pa.
• Taking the lead with five laps remaining, Dustin Smith of Long Grove, Iowa, scored his first Davenport (Iowa) Speedway Late Model victory.
• Travis Denning of Sterling, Ill., on June 14 continued his unbeaten Late Model streak at East Moline (Ill.) Speedway.
• Earning $2,058, Jeremy Wonderling of Wellsville, N.Y., captured June 12's Mike Duclon Memorial at Freedom Motorsports Park in Delevan, N.Y.
• Winning June 13 at Off Road Speedway, Beau Johnson of Plainview, Neb., scored his second straight victory at the Norfolk, Neb., oval.
• Jamie Oliver of Murphy, N.C., stretched a personal winning streak to three in a row with a June 13 Limited Late Model triumph at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Ga.
• Winning for the third straight week at Buxton Speedway, C.J. Field of Chatham, Ontario, took the Late Model checkers June 13 in Merlin, Ontario.
First things first
Recent first-time occurrences at the dirt track:
• Winning June 13 at Spoon River Speedway in Banner, Ill., Zach Taylor of Springfield, Ill., notched his first Super Late Model victory. He's a third-generation Late Model racer with his grandfather Dick and father Matt being longtime Illinois standouts.
• Travis Prevost of Ponchatoula, La., scored his first Crate Late Model victory June 12 at Hattiesburg (Miss.) Speedway.
• Winning from the pole position, teenage standout Lincoln Smith of Belmont, Ohio, notched his first Super Late Model victory June 13 at Midway Speedway in Crooksville, Ohio.
• Justin Karlen of Howard, S.D., notched his first Late Model victory June 14 at Casino Speedway in Watertown, S.D. The 27-year-old has fewer than 100 Late Model starts over eight seasons.
Weekly news briefs
• The winner of June 20's Super Late Model feature at Muskingum County Speedway receives a guaranteed starting spot in the Fourth of July Freedom 60 with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at the Zanesville, Ohio, track.
• Hollis Speedway in Heflin, Ala., cancelled June 13's program because the motor grader malfunctioned earlier that day.
• Veteran racer Charlie Ray Howell will handle promotions for June 27 and July 3 races at Thunderhill Raceway in Summertown, Tenn., track owner Cooter Harris announced.
• Two Missouri tracks have collaborated for drivers who can win June 19-20 features in several divisions, including Late Models. Any driver Late Model winning at both Fulton's Callaway Raceway and Moberly Motorsports Park receives an additional $200 via the Double Down Bonus offered by the tracks.
• Highway 72 Speedway in Corinth, Miss., has pushed back its reopening further to June 26 after a few weather postponements. The track plans to run 604 Crate Late Models along with Limited Late Models and a separate 602 Crate Late Model division with four Fridays in July and August and three apiece in September, October and November.
• Dodge County Speedway in Kasson, Minn., is set to host its first Late Model event since 2003 on June 20 with a $2,000-to-win event. Nine Zero Promotions is hosting the event with Late Models running under rules similar to Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. The event will mark the first Late Model event at third-mile oval since John Kaanta's Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series victory on June 26, 2003. The track's lone other event this season is July 16 for the Dodge County Fair Race.
• The potential for a June 26 event for Fast Threads Gen X Late Models at Fix It Forward Speedway in West Fargo, N.D., won't be held because the facility is preparing for the fair. The reported date was a miscommunication.
• The 54-year-old Humboldt (Kan.) Speedway has been listed for sale with a listing of $769,995 for the 33-acre property. The track was listed by McCurdy Real Estate & Auction. The track this season is on the schedule of the Ross Foundation Sooner Late Model Series, Nutrien Ag Solutions Revival Super Dirt Series, and Comp Cams Super Dirt Series.
• Crystal (Mich.) Motor Speedway on June 13 inducted three members to the track's Hall of Fame, including former Late Model racer Troy VanderVeen. VanderVeen, who now serves as crew chief for nephew Ryan VanderVeen and his son Mason VanderVeen, also competed in the pro stock division. Other inductees were Roger Sowles, a multidivisional racer who died in 2017 at the age 73, and Esther Rohn, a track employee for more than 50 years.
• Larry Bellman Jr. of Wooster, Ohio, sought medical attention after being shaken up in a June 12 heat race tangle at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park. All tests checked out okay and he was OK other than soreness, the track told DirtonDirt.
• Racing at Latrobe (Pa.) Speedway is on hold because the track's insurance renewal has been delayed. The track hopes to return to action June 20. During the break, the track completed a project to replace wooden bleacher boards with aluminum, a requirement for the insurance.
• Plymouth (Wis.) Dirt Track's June 27 Late Model Appreciation Night is sponsored by Rockstar, which is providing a supply of energy drinks to be passed out to early arriving fans. The night's action includes a Super Six Late Model Series.
• With the track's liquor license secured, East Moline (Ill.) Speedway beginning June 14 no longer allows outside coolers and alcoholic beverages. All alcoholic beverages must now be purchased through track concessions.
• Saying the track's June 6 event that lasted until 3:30 a.m. didn't live up to the track's standards, Rockcastle Speedway in Mount Vernon, Ky., will provide free pit and grandstand admission for June 20's event, as well as free transponder rental. "We heard your complaints and we know they are valid," the Matthew and Tessa Norman-owned track said in statement on Facebook. "It wasn't bashing, it was the truth. We're not running from it or making excuses. We didn't start on time or even close to it. The track wasn't suitable for racing … That's unacceptable, but we will fix it." The track said changes have been made to the staff on the track prep crew and scoring tower to improve the show.
• Winston Speedway in Rothbury, Mich., has created better views from the pit overlook deck by adding five "portholes" in the structure.
Weekly points
DIRTcar (Supers): Mike Spatola of Manhattan, Ill., has 903 points to lead Jason Feger (862) and Ryan Unzicker (735).
IMCA (Limiteds): Curtis Glover of Knoxville, Iowa, has 639 points to lead Tommy Elston (518) and Jordan Krug (466).
WISSOTA (Limiteds): Tyler Peterson of Hickson, N.D., has 693 points to lead Shane Sabraski (622) and Chad Becker (577).
American All-Stars (Crates): Logan Walls of Junction City, Ky., has 526 points to lead Dalton Brown (356) and Brandon Fouts (338).
Crate Racin' USA (602 Crates): Allen Edwards of Starkville, Miss., has 544 points to lead Covy Parsons (516) and Joey Tucker (495).
Crate Racin' USA (604 Crates): Shannon Lee of Lumberton, Miss., has 554 points to lead Chris Reid (531) and rookie Gunnar Duke (416)
DIRTcar (Crates): Braden Johnson of Taylorville, Ill., has 524 points to lead Chase Wilson (499) and Hudson Dick (455).
RUSH (Crates): Davin Kaiser has 1,126 points to lead fellow Winchester, Va., racer Devin Brannon (979) followed by Jeremy Wonderling (737).
Ultimate (Crates): Brandon Adkins of Jumping Branch, W.Va., has 170 points to lead T.J. Salango (151) and T.J. Hicks (135).
USRA (Crates): Jason McFadden of Jim Falls, Wis., has 2,456 points to lead Lucas Peterson (2,102) and Josh Wahlstrom (2,044).
Upcoming weekly specials
Among non-touring and independent special events coming up for Late Models at dirt tracks around the country:
Crystal (Mich.) Motor Speedway (June 18-20): Invitation-only Thirlby Throwdown for non-winners opens a three-day weekend for the ninth annual Dan Salay Memorial, an $11,000-to-win event.
Elkins Speedway, Kerens, W.Va. (June 19): The Red Frederick Memorial pays $5,200-to-win for the Super Late Model division's 52-lap feature.
Hidden Valley Speedway, Clearfield, Pa. (June 19): The makeup of the rained out Shawn "Sheetz" McGarvey Memorial pays $3,000-to-win in the Super Late Model special.
Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway (June 19): On York County Racing Club Night, Super Late Models top the card with a $5,000-to-win feature with Limited Late Models also in action.
Dead Horse Creek Speedway, Morden, Manitoba (June 19-20): WISSOTA Late Models are on the card for the McNaught Cadillac Cup.
Beckley (W.Va.) Motor Speedway (June 20): The Beckley USA 100 provides a century grind for the Super Late Models paying $10,000-to-win.
Winchester (Va.) Speedway (June 20): The Jimmy Spence Memorial pays $5,091-to-win for the Super Late Model division with $200 apiece for longest tow and hard luck awards (thanks for Natural Bridge Speedway). Crate Late Models are among three undercard divisions.
Thunder Mountain Speedway, Corbin, Ky. (June 20): The third annual Rod Carter Jr. Memorial pays $2,100-to-win for the Crate Late Model division.
201 Speedway, Sitka, Ky. (June 20): The Big Daddy Dirt Classic includes a $2,000-to-win Super Late Model event with Crate Late Models among undercard divisions.
Electric City Speedway, Great Falls, Mont. (June 20): A Late Model special highlights the card at the Montana oval.
