Thirty-five division entrants checked-in for seventh annual World Short Track Championship
In a stacked field of 35 Summit Racing Equipment DIRTcar UMP Modifieds, Ethan Dotson was first to strike on the weekend, dominating the All-Star Invitational Feature Thursday night and claiming the division’s first race win of the seventh annual World Short Track Championship.
Dotson, the 23-year-old UMP Modified breakout star from Bakersfield, CA, led all 20 trips around The Dirt Track at Charlotte, picking up a $600 preliminary event check and his first career victory at the famed 4/10-mile oval.
“It’s probably the best we’ve been so far,” Dotson said. “We could move anywhere, and it just was really, really good.”
Dotson was introduced to The Dirt Track one year ago in his World Short Track debut, piloting a second Longhorn Chassis entry for team owner/driver Steve Arpin. He turned some heads that weekend, consistently running up front and finishing sixth in the Championship Feature.
He’s back for more again this year with an even bigger bat to swing as the hand-picked driver for Longhorn’s UMP Modified house car program. So far, he’s rarely been flat, scoring multiple high-profile wins at various tracks since the start of the season. Now, he’s focused his attention on The Dirt Track, and has already shown his prowess with the nearly uncontested victory to kick off the weekend.
“I got to come here last year, and I really like this place,” Dotson said. “The track kinda fits my driving style. It’s a lot of fun.
“I’m loving the UMP stuff. The big motor and the better tires – it’s just a lot of fun to be able to do that. I come from Crate racing, so it’s really cool to be able to do this stuff.”
After timing fastest in his Qualifying group, Dotson redrew second-best of all 21 Feature starters, setting him outside the front row for the drop of the green. He jumped out to the lead immediately and hit the jets, blasting around the high side and stretching his lead out to over four seconds at one point before cruising to the checkers.
Dotson gave kudos to top Longhorn engineer Kevin Rumley for his assistance in the team’s recent testing sessions at the track. He said the team’s urge to win the division Championship Feature on Saturday is huge with the company’s headquarters being only a short drive away from The Dirt Track in China Grove, NC.
“We got to spend a lot of time with Kevin Rumley this week; he really helped us out,” Dotson said. “We played with stuff, and he spent a whole day going through this thing and really helped us get a lot of speed.”
Zackery Kloosterman Photo
He and the Longhorn team will face the deep field of competitors again in Friday’s Heat Races and Saturday’s lower mains and Championship Feature as they shoot for the $4,000 grand prize and their fourth title in event history.
Don’t miss a moment of the action as the seventh annual World Short Track Championship continues Friday and Saturday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. Buy a ticket at the gate, or stream every lap from all 10 divisions live on DIRTVision.
Summit Racing Equipment DIRTcar UMP Modifieds 35 Entries
All-Star Feature 20 Laps | 00:16:16.655
1. 00-Ethan Dotson[2]; 2. 7-Evan Taylor[3]; 3. 8-Austin Holcombe[6]; 4. 8S-Kyle Strickler[9]; 5. 5-Jonathan Taylor[8]; 6. 99W-Chris Arnold[4]; 7. -Kenny Shaw; 8. 21S-Kenny Shaw[1]; 9. 25-Jason Altiers[12]; 10. 77-George Dixon[21]; 11. 79D-John DeMoss[13]; 12. 21-Taylor Cook[19]; 13. 52-Colin Green[16]; 14. 95J-Justin Cullum[7]; 15. 71D-Chris Madden[5]; 16. 35-David Stremme[20]; 17. 55-Alyssa Rowe[11]; 18. 96M-Mike McKinney[18]; 19. 99H-Justin Haley[17]; 20. 6-Ryan Ayers[15]; 21. 72-Todd Neiheiser[10]; 22. T2-Greg Hauger[14]
Qualifying Group A | 00:00:50.492
1. 00-Ethan Dotson, 00:16.749[3]; 2. 71D-Chris Madden, 00:16.818[14]; 3. 21-Taylor Cook, 00:16.826[2]; 4. 8S-Kyle Strickler, 00:16.858[11]; 5. 77-George Dixon, 00:17.016[5]; 6. 5CS-Curt Spalding, 00:17.083[9]; 7. 5-Jonathan Taylor, 00:17.184[12]; 8. -Kenny Shaw, 00:17.198; 9. 21S-Kenny Shaw, 00:17.198[10]; 10. 44-Jeff Parsons, 00:17.259[4]; 11. 52-Colin Green, 00:17.320[16]; 12. 12R-Ty Rhoades, 00:17.351[1]; 13. 72-Todd Neiheiser, 00:17.383[15]; 14. 7T-Drake Troutman, 00:17.392[18]; 15. 99-Cole Hilton, 00:17.401[17]; 16. 463-Daniel Sanchez, 00:17.628[13]; 17. 55-Alyssa Rowe, 00:17.759[7]; 18. 74-Mike Franklin, 00:18.098[8]; 19. 95J-Justin Cullum, 00:18.098[6]
Qualifying Group B | 00:01:12.697
1. 35-David Stremme, 00:16.695[8]; 2. 99H-Justin Haley, 00:16.748[1]; 3. 8-Austin Holcombe, 00:16.902[5]; 4. 99W-Chris Arnold, 00:16.960[13]; 5. 7-Evan Taylor, 00:17.040[4]; 6. 11-Troy Loomis, 00:17.099[14]; 7. 6-Ryan Ayers, 00:17.106[16]; 8. 25-Jason Altiers, 00:17.405[17]; 9. 96M-Mike McKinney, 00:17.497[15]; 10. 18-Brandon Kinzer, 00:17.563[6]; 11. 79D-John DeMoss, 00:17.816[7]; 12. 88-Matt Crafton, 00:17.832[11]; 13. T2-Greg Hauger, 00:17.842[10]; 14. 4M-Tim Monroe, 00:17.939[3]; 15. 9T-Mason Canter, 00:18.178[12]; 16. 22-Donnie Levister, 00:18.351[2]; 17. 814-Samuel Lamborgini, 00:19.312[9]
Hot Laps | 00:02:02.234
Hot Laps: 1. 35-David Stremme, 00:16.855[26]; 2. 7-Evan Taylor, 00:16.932[22]; 3. 8-Austin Holcombe, 00:16.953[23]; 4. 00-Ethan Dotson, 00:17.021[3]; 5. 5CS-Curt Spalding, 00:17.052[9]; 6. 5-Jonathan Taylor, 00:17.077[12]; 7. -Kenny Shaw, 00:17.106; 8. 21S-Kenny Shaw, 00:17.106[10]; 9. 71D-Chris Madden, 00:17.127[14]; 10. 99H-Justin Haley, 00:17.175[19]; 11. 11-Troy Loomis, 00:17.237[32]; 12. 18-Brandon Kinzer, 00:17.253[24]; 13. 88-Matt Crafton, 00:17.286[29]; 14. 96M-Mike McKinney, 00:17.324[33]; 15. 6-Ryan Ayers, 00:17.346[34]; 16. 72-Todd Neiheiser, 00:17.353[15]; 17. 99W-Chris Arnold, 00:17.426[31]; 18. 44-Jeff Parsons, 00:17.568[4]; 19. 12R-Ty Rhoades, 00:17.682[1]; 20. 21-Taylor Cook, 00:17.690[2]; 21. T2-Greg Hauger, 00:17.746[28]; 22. 99-Cole Hilton, 00:17.901[17]; 23. 55-Alyssa Rowe, 00:17.909[7]; 24. 79D-John DeMoss, 00:18.087[25]; 25. 52-Colin Green, 00:18.121[16]; 26. 9T-Mason Canter, 00:18.353[30]; 27. 74-Mike Franklin, 00:18.382[8]; 28. 95J-Justin Cullum, 00:18.413[6]; 29. 22-Donnie Levister, 00:18.790[20]; 30. 814-Samuel Lamborgini, 00:19.054[27]; 31. 77-George Dixon, 00:19.054[5]; 32. 4M-Tim Monroe, 00:19.054[21]; 33. 463-Daniel Sanchez, 00:19.054[13]; 34. 8S-Kyle Strickler, 00:19.054[11]; 35. 7T-Drake Troutman, 00:19.054[18]
