Portsmouth Raceway Park
Fast Facts: Rhino Ag Dirt Track World Championship
By Robert Holman
DirtonDirt.com weekend editor
Portsmouth Raceway Park. (Heath Lawson)
37th annual Rhino Ag Dirt Track World Championship
Dates: Oct. 19-21 (modifieds only on Thursday; Late Model prelims on Friday; modified and Late Model features Saturday)
Track: Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park (high-banked 3/8-mile clay oval).
Purse: $100,000-to-win Late Model feature and $3,000-to-win non-qualifiers’ race.
Sanction: Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
Last year’s winner: Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, Ill.
Tickets: $60 for three-day general admission ($40 for ages 12-17 and $25 for ages 7-11); $70 for three-day pit pass (cash only). All pre-sale tickets must be picked up at the will call window at the general admission gate. For more information, call (740) 858-6661 or email portsraceway@hotmail.com.
Websites: lucasdirt.com or portsraceway.com.
Track phone: (740) 354-3278.
Primary race sponsors: Rhino Ag and Optima Batteries
Notes: The Rhino Ag Dirt Track World Championship is the season finale for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. … For the third year in a row, the Carl Short-promoted race pays a race-record $100,000, matching the season-high first-place purse for Eldora Speedway’s Dream. … Tim McCreadie, Josh Richards and Scott Bloomquist are locked in tight three-man battle for the series championship. The three are separated by just 75-points — the tightest points chase in series history. … Richards won a 50-lap main event at Portsmouth earlier this year. … Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., has an 85-point lead over Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa., in the current Lucas Oil Rookie of the Year standings. … Double sets of heat races Friday will use passing points to set up the feature lineup. … The top-26 drivers who fail to transfer into the DTWC (via preliminary events) will be eligible to start the $3,000-to-win the non-qualifiers race. The winner of the non-qualifiers race has the choice of keeping their $3,000 winnings or forfeiting their earnings to start last in the main event. … The non-qualifiers’ race is known as the Jim Dunn Memorial, honoring the late first winner of the DTWC who rallied from the rear for a stirring victory in 1981 at Pennsboro (W.Va.) Speedway. … The DTWC has had 24 winners. … Portsmouth is the seventh track to host the DTWC; this marks the race’s sixth straight year at PRP. … There have been three different winners in the first DTWC events held at Portsmouth. Brandon Sheppard and Scott Bloomquist have two victories each and Jimmy Owens has one. … Sheppard was the race’s youngest winner at 20 in 2013. … The track seats 4,000 spectators with 300 more seats in the pits. … Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., is the only home-state winner to capture the DTWC, earning $60,000 for his 2003 victory at Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky. ... Along with the family of Mike Duvall, the driver of the Flinstone F1yer who died last month at age 68, portions of the weekend’s 50-50 money will go to the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame, the Chris Francis Memorial Fund, Dirt Racing Outreach and a local volunteer fire department. ... The modified feature pays $4,000-to-win.
DTWC winners
(Complete race history)
Year: Winner, hometown
2016: Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, Ill.
2015: Scott Bloomquist, Mooresburg, Tenn.
2014: Scott Bloomquist, Mooresburg, Tenn.
2013: Brandon Sheppard, New Berlin, Ill.
2012: Jimmy Owens, Newport, Tenn.
2011: Don O'Neal, Martinsville, Ind.
2010: Earl Pearson Jr., Jacksonville, Fla.
2009: Jimmy Mars, Menomonie, Wis.
2008: Brian Birkhofer, Muscatine, Iowa
2007: Chub Frank, Bear Lake, Pa.
2006: Shannon Babb, Moweaqua, Ill.
2005: Scott Bloomquist, Mooresburg, Tenn.
2004: Rick Eckert, York, Pa.
2003: Darrell Lanigan, Union, Ky.
2002: Shannon Babb, Moweaqua, Ill.
2001: Bart Hartman, Zanesville, Ohio
2000: Wendell Wallace, Batesville, Ark.
1999: Steve Francis, Ashland, Ky.
1998: Freddy Smith, Knoxville, Tenn.
1997: Marshall Green, Dalton, Ga.
1996: Billy Moyer, Batesville, Ark.
1995: Jack Boggs, Grayson, Ky.
1994: Ronnie Johnson, Chattanooga, Tenn.
1993: Freddy Smith, Baton Rouge, La.
1992: Ronnie Johnson, Chattanooga, Tenn.
1991: Freddy Smith, Kings Mountain, N.C.
1990: Jack Boggs, Grayson, Ky.
1989: John Mason, Millersburg, Ohio
1988: Donnie Moran, Frazeysburg, Ohio
1987: Larry Moore, Dayton, Ohio
1986: Billy Moyer, Batesville, Ark.
1985: Freddy Smith, Kings Mountain, N.C.
1984: Jack Boggs, Webbville, Ky.
1983: Freddy Smith, Kings Mountain, N.C.
1982: Charlie Swartz, Ashland, Ky.
1981: Jim Dunn, Roseville, Ohio
DTWC purse
Feature event
$100,000
$20,000
$10,000
$7,000
$5,000
$3,500
$3,200
$3,000
$2,800
$2,500
$2,450
$2,400
$2,350
$2,300
$2,250
$2,200
$2,150
$2,100
$2,075
$2,060
$2,050
$2,040
$2,030
$2,020
$2,010
$2,000
Non-qualifiers’ race
$3,000
$1,500
$1,250
$1,000
$900
$800
$750
$700
$650
$600
$500
$400
$350
$300
$250
$200
$200
$200
$200
$200
$200
$200
$200
$200
$200
$200
Event schedule
(Subject to change)
Thursday, Oct. 19
2 p.m.: All gates open
5:30 p.m.: Drivers’ meeting
6 p.m.: Modified practice
6:45 p.m.: Modified time trials
8 p.m.: Modified heat races
9:30 p.m.: Modified consolations
10:30 p.m.: Modified non-qualifiers’ race
Friday, Oct. 20
2 p.m.: All gates open
5:30 p.m.: Drivers’ meeting
6 p.m.: Late Model practice
7 p.m.: First round of heats
9 p.m.: Second round of heats
Saturday, Oct. 21
2 p.m.: All gates open
3:30-4:30 p.m.: Dirt Racing Outreach service
4:30-5:15 p.m.: Autograph session
5:30 p.m.: Drivers’ meeting
6 p.m.: Late Model practice
7 p.m.: Late Model consolation races
8:15 p.m.: Modified feature
9 p.m: Jim Dunn Memorial non-qualifiers’ race
10 p.m.: 37th annual Rhino Ag Dirt Track World Championship presented by Optima
