Sam Seawright
Sam Seawright has big aspirations for where he wants his Dirt Late Model racing career to lead. And after looking at the 17-year-old driver’s path over the past few years, the Fort Payne, Alabama native appears to be on his toward reaching the lofty goals he has set for himself and his team. That path to success began at a very young age when the driver won a United Championship Racing Alliance feature back in 2016, well before he could even drive a car on the road.
At the end of last season the young driver garnered a great deal of attention when he set fast time in his qualifying group for the National 100 at East Alabama Motor Speedway then went on to start that race from the pole after beating the likes of Brandon Overton and Dennis Erb Jr. in a heat race. Ultimately, Seawright had to retire from the feature just after the halfway point following a battle for the lead with Dale McDowell.
Each step up the ladder, the driver who finished third in last weekend’s Valvoline Iron-Man Late Model Series event at Boyd’s Speedway has learned, comes with its own set of challenges. That Iron-Man result was the second such effort for Seawright this season after having also finished in the top-5 in the Cabin Fever event held back in January at the Chattanooga-area facility.
“The biggest challenge is just how strong and close everybody is,” Seawright told InsideDirtRacing.com following that most recent effort at Boyd’s. “One week you can be on top and the next week you’re just an average, mid-pack guy. Everybody is on top of their stuff and everybody works on their stuff so you’ve always got to be on top of your game if you want to compete for wins.”
Seawright is still learning in many ways. He is set to begin his 12th grade year as a virtual learner at Fort Payne’s Plainview High School. During his time in school, his focus has seldom waivered from his primary goal as he declared racing to be the only sport he participates in.
And he is learning the lesson of the race track well. In the disjointed campaign of 2020, the No. 16 Seawright Motorsports machine earned five top-5 finishes on the Southern All-Star Dirt Racing Series tour on his way to a third-place effort in the final standings as the young racer took another step toward his ultimate goal of competing regularly on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
Sam Seawright in his No. 16 machine
“I feel like we get better every time we unload,” the Dynamite Kid declared. “Maybe we can keep going and we might be up there with the Lucas guys one of these days. I feel like I do better on the bigger tracks like Smoky Mountain which is all about keeping up your momentum up and not pinching the car very much. I feel like my best tracks are the ones where you just keep a steady pace.”
Seawright has been racing Late Model cars on dirt for about five years. The driver who began in a 602 Late Model then moved to the Crate Late Model class and now races a Super Late Model has been closely watching one driver in particular that he hopes to someday emulate.
“Brandon Overton,” he answered with a smile when asked if there is a driver he keeps up with regularly. “That guy is awesome. I want to be just like him one day. He just works on his car and if it works it works, and if it don’t he don’t care, he just goes out there and races. I’d like to be like him one day.”
Where would this high school senior like to be five years from now?
“I hope we’re in a Lucas Oil victory lane somewhere.”
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