DIRTcar UMP Modified racing has long embraced its home in the Midwest, playing host to weekly battles on the black-dirt bullrings that have come to define the region’s motorsports scene.
But since the turn of the decade, a new spark in popularity has brought these high-horsepower machines to tracks all along the Eastern Seaboard with the rise of one of DIRTcar’s newest regional organizations — Modified Mafia Tour.
Since 2023, Modified Mafia has been the go-to series for UMP Modified racing outside the Midwest, hosting events as far north as New York down to the Southern heat of Georgia. This fall, the tour sanctions the UMP Modified portion of the 11th annual World Short Track Championship, Oct. 29–31, for the third consecutive year.
The marquee DIRTcar event has brought over 450 cars in 10 different divisions to The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway in each of the last three years. Forty-two of last year’s 489 total entries were UMP Modifieds, with several standout talents in the field from across the country.
WORLD SHORT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP REGISTRATION/TICKETS
Now in year four of operation, the tour has kept full-field car counts steady, grown its schedule to a comfortable-yet-competitive 25-plus races, and begun putting high-paying marquee events on its calendar to further cement its place as the premier open-engine Modified organization on the East Coast.
“I feel like what we’ve built here, people want to be a part of,” said Tour Director Brandon Riffe. “Some of the best talent in the country in the Modifieds are over here.”
Riffe conducting a drivers meeting. (Credit: Rogue Shots)
Riffe has been the head of Modified Mafia since its inception, breaking ground on the series following the dissolution of the Renegades of Dirt Modified Tour, which began operation around the same region in 2012. Outside the small roster of tracks that raced UMP Modifieds weekly along the coastal states, a void was left needing to be filled for the region’s most ambitious racers with Renegades gone after the 2022 campaign, and Riffe was the one that drivers called on to start something new.
“These guys are my friends, and we kept looking at it, and it looked like if we didn’t do something, these guys weren’t gonna have anywhere to race,” Riffe said. “So, they’re gonna have 40-to-50-thousand-dollar cars that are just gonna sit here because there’s nowhere for them to race. That was the main factor.
“These guys are super talented, they’d already spent a fortune in their programs, and they wanted to race.”
A native of West Virginia, Riffe had been a driver for several years while also working as a DIRTcar technical inspector. He, along with numerous other Modified racers in the area, had been accustomed to racing by and building cars according to the DIRTcar rulebook for several years. This made the choice of sanctioning clear for the start of the new tour in March 2023.
“They kept on me about it, and about the middle of January when everybody went to Volusia, I just bit the bullet and was like ‘Alright, if that’s what you guys want, we’ll try it and we’ll see what happens.’” Riffe said. “I talked to Sam (Driggers, DIRTcar Director) and said, ‘I want to do this, and I want to make sure that you can back me with the sanction and all that so I can run DIRTcar rules.’ And he was 100% for it.”
In its first season, the tour received great support for its North and South circuits, thanks in part to a $2,000-to-win, $200-to-start purse, a points fund for the top-10 finishing drivers, and a host of marketing partners coming on board.
Modified Mafia points leader Austin Holcombe lays down sparks into the sunset (Credit: Rogue Shots)
“We tried to build this from a driver’s point-of-view, really,” Riffe said. “With me being a driver and knowing what I wanted when I ran series races, whether that be contingencies or the points fund and payout or whatever.
“My biggest thing when I was a driver was, all the bottom spots paid the same. So, if I’m running 18th or 12th and they all pay the same, what’s the point of me being out there still? That’s one of our bigger things — we pay really good money to win but we also pay really good money through the field.”
Additionally, Riffe’s expertise on the technical side was a big factor in establishing a fair, honest environment for all drivers to race — another point of emphasis in the tour’s first season.
“Our tech is really strict, probably the best in the country I’d say,” Riffe said. “We tear cars apart. If you’re doing something wrong, you’re going to get disqualified for it. I feel like that is a huge driver’s responsibility because it’s like, ‘Alright, I know I’m on the same playing field as everybody else. So, if I’m getting outrun, I need to make my car faster.’”
After two seasons following a North/South region schedule, the two circuits were combined to fit into one complete schedule for the first time in 2025 with a more robust slate of races and points fund. While only one race remains in its 2026 campaign, the tour will also take part in two high-profile special events in October to cap its fourth season — the Dirt Track World Championship at West Virginia Motor Speedway and the World Short Track Championship in Charlotte.
“It’s been great — we see a lot of drivers we don’t usually see throughout the year that come and race,” Riffe said. “They get a feel of how we do our tech and stuff like that, and we can share information with them about how we do things, our points and our schedule. It’s still a DIRTcar event, but we’re super excited to be a partner in that.
“I feel like it shows that everybody at World Racing Group and Sam and everybody trusts us enough and thinks we do a good enough job to ask us to be a part of it, because it’s a huge event for people that haven’t been — it can be overwhelming with the number of classes and cars.”
Inaugural Tour champion Chris Arnold (Credit: Rogue Shots)
Now three years involved at the year-end bash in Charlotte, Riffe has highly praised the exposure that Modified Mafia receives.
“When we’re able to be on DIRTVision, it’s special for our guys,” Riffe said. “Obviously, when you get a race on TV and you’re a racer, you’re like, ‘Man, I want to go. It’s going to be on TV — people at home can watch it.’ You get to showcase not only to the people that know you can do it, but to potential sponsors or buddies out in the Midwest that didn’t come.”
With more large-purse event plans and races at new tracks already in the works for 2027, Modified Mafia remains one of the fastest-growing dirt track racing clubs in the country. It’s momentum the weekend warriors from the East Coast plan on keeping long into the future.
“I think our long-term goal is just to be here until the end,” Riffe said. “This sport is so demanding and grueling on everybody — tracks, drivers, series, the travel, the amount of money that is put into these events. So, the main goal is the longevity of it — be here in the end.
“In my mind, what we’ve built, the people we have supporting us, the racetracks we have on board, and the drivers we have supporting us, I feel like we’re here for the long haul.”
