Farmer City Raceway
Legend's mentorship lives on with rookie Ebert
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Dan Ebert. (joshjamesartwork.com)
FARMER CITY, Ill. (April 11) — When Dan Ebert’s dirt racing career began in the pure stock division 20 years ago, his night wasn’t complete until the Lake Shore, Minn., driver called his mentor to discuss his night at the track.
Waiting on the other end of the line? Legendary short-track racer Dick Trickle, who was then competing on the NASCAR Cup circuit.
“He'd want a phone call every night. It didn't matter what time,” the 36-year-old Ebert recalls. “If we didn't get done ’til 2 in the morning, I'd be like, ‘Man, I probably shouldn't call him. It's an hour later in North Carolina.’ And then the next day (Trickle would say), ‘Hey, why didn't you call?’ ”
Trickle's sage advice, encouragement and support meant the world to Ebert, whose father Russ Ebert spent 30 years crew-chiefing for Trickle during his 1,200-victory career at Midwestern short tracks.
Ebert was too young to remember the Wisconsin superstar's short-track heyday, but when Trickle moonlighted during his NASCAR career with occasional Midwestern starts, Ebert remembers as a teenager gluing lugnuts on wheels at the Minnesota State Fair or changing tires during the Slinger Nationals.
“It seemed like we were always the last ones in the pits at the end of the night. There was always a crowd — and it wasn't because of me. Let's be very clear about that,” Ebert said with a laugh.
“He helped speed up my learning curve as a kid, getting into it and getting going. I haven't forgotten a lot of the stuff that he shared and taught me through the years,” Ebert said. “He's had about every experience there was racing … he was just a great family friend.”
There’s no doubt Trickle, who died in 2013 at the age of 71, would be proud of Ebert’s 2025 assault on the national Dirt Late Model scene. After carving out a successful modified career in WISSOTA and United States Modified Touring Series events, Ebert’s James Trantina-owned team made the jump to Super Late Models to chase the rookie title on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
He’s also making starts with the rival World of Outlaws Late Model Series, including WoO’s Illini 100 weekend at Farmer City Raceway, as Ebert plows into one of short-track racing’s most competitive divisions.
“We’re 100 percent mod guys trying to figure it out,” Ebert admits.
At Farmer City, he’s “just trying to get more laps, more time behind the wheel, learn the new racetracks,” he added. “Just trying to shorten the learning curve, as smart and as fast as we can.”
Fifth in USMTS points last season and a winner of several major modified events over the last seven seasons, Ebert has competed at a high level but is still green in the Late Model division.
"As far as the competitiveness and the intensity, it’s pretty much what I expected,” said Ebert, who was also a snowmobile racer in ESPN’s Winter X Games years ago. “With racing in the USMTS modified stuff, which I've been accustomed to, the intensity and the travel and the day-to-day is virtually the same.”
Through his first 21 Late Model events, he’s logged a single top-10 finish in a full-field feature. He’s 17th in the competitive Lucas Oil Series points and unofficially third in the national tour’s rookie points.
“Obviously, getting into Late Models — first time — and getting into the highest level of Late Models — first time — and getting the most competitive series — first time — obviously that’s a lot of firsts,” Ebert said. “To give myself a grade, gosh, at times I feel like I’ve deserved a B, but then there's a lot of times where I've deserved D's and F’s. There's times when I felt like I've made some progress and done some pretty good things, and then there's times it's like, ‘Have I ever thrown a leg over a rollcage before?’ "
Ebert’s previous Late Model experience came in sporadic WISSOTA starts from 2014-20, primarily in a Harlan Breeschoten-owned car when he snagged a $5,085 King of Dirt victory at I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn. But jumping to national-level Late Models is a major step up from anything he’s done.
“My team owner, James Trantina, he's always looking for the next challenge and wanting to push us and our team to be the best thing we could be,” Ebert said. “We had a lot of success racing modifieds, but it's always what's new? What's next? And he asked if I'd want to consider racing Late Models, and obviously the answer was, ‘Of course,’ I mean Late Models are the most fun. I mean, it’s everybody's dream to do that.”
Crew chief Brenden Bellinger is in his fourth season with Ebert with mechanic Justin Froemming on board, too. Ben Ahlers was along with the team at Farmer City working on tires.
“Everything's all new, so we just dove in head first, right or wrong,” Ebert said. “And like I said, there's times when I felt like we're doing pretty well for what for what our team is and our experience level and then there's other times when you can really tell that I'm very much a rookie.
"We're just hoping not to tear too much stuff up and just get experience and run laps, you know, make features. That's the biggest thing because it's tough for us to get experience if we don't make them. So we put more effort on qualifying and being able to put ourselves in a position to make shows.”
Highlights have been being second quick in his time-trial group a few weeks ago at the MARS Championship Series-sanctioned Nippy 50 at Maquoketa (Iowa) Speedway. And after taking a provisional at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway last month in Lucas Oil action, he made a 27th-to-11th charge in his debut at the historic quarter-mile oval.
"I found that I had to set my (Late Model) goals a lot different and more realistic goals, where when I was racing mods, the goal was to win. You went there to win the race,” Ebert said. “Well, obviously here, sure we're going to prepare and do everything we can to win, but being realistic, I think it's, ‘Hey, let's make features.’ We want to make features and if we can make a feature and move forward, that's a win I think, for where we're at as a team and our experience level.”
At Farmer City, Ebert is pitted alongside the Rocket Chassis house car team, and he’s grateful to Rocket co-owner Mark Richards and his crew providing assistance with his chassis. House car driver Brandon Sheppard, and his BSR Racing crew chief Jeff McGee, have also helped as an "open book (with) very open arms, willing to do whatever it takes to get us up to speed faster,” Ebert said.
Ebert’s prime struggles have come in adjusting to aerodynamic challenges. The lengthy Georgia-Florida Speedweeks stretch also threw Ebert and his team to the wolves.
"I mean, jeez, like three or four nights in a row I think I hit the wall and knocked the front end or the J-bar out of it,” Ebert said. But “nothing catastrophic yet, knock on wood. I mean, it's bound to happen. It's just part of it, but we've been pretty fortunate that way of trying to keep our nose clean and not make too many dumb decisions.
“Like my mentor Dick Trickle always said, ‘To finish first, you must first finish.’ I think we're starting to get a little more consistent, but anymore, everybody's so fast, and you know that you'll have a guy that wins the race one night and he's in the B-main the next night.”
Ebert’s connection to Trickle is never too far.
"When he passed away, his widow (Darlene) gave me all of his short track stuff he had left as far as like tools and parts and pieces,” Ebert said, including a vintage tool to tighten the pinion nut on quick-change gears Ebert still uses.
Also in Ebert’s transporter are a couple of wooden boxes, about 20 inches by 30 inches, to carry equipment. They’re stenciled with “Trickle Racing” with the green one carrying components for Ebert’s oil system and the blue and yellow box storing various suspension rods.
“It's just crazy how life is,” Ebert said, “how the Lord puts people in your life that kind of shapes you to who you are.”
