Sportsman Drivers Describe All That’s Good With Their Division

The Sportsman class is a relatively new racing division on the dirt tracks around east Tennessee. For many, it provides an opportunity to race in a Late Model car without the high expense often associated with competing in the Super Late Model, Limited(Steel Head) Late Model, or even the Crate Late Model classes. Rules that require harder compound tires to be used and disallow the more expensive shocks are a couple of examples of the regulations employed by most tracks in the region to keep costs in check for this division.

Further, many view the Sportsman division as one where a younger driver can cut his or her racing teeth in a Late Model without having to race in faster cars against more experienced drivers. While at the same time, some of those more experienced racers who may have come to realize that the expense of racing in the higher classes has become too great may hope to prolong their careers in a more economical class.

InsideDirtRacing.com decided to let the drivers themselves describe the class by asking the simple question, “What is good about the Sportsman class?” Here are the answers provided by several area racers:

Andy Ogle: Well, I think the Sportsman class is a good way to get your feet wet in a Late Model. I mean they’re fast enough to keep your attention but slow enough that you can get out there and learn how to drive. I think the Sportsman class is a good thing. The shock rules and tire rules help you out a lot expense wise. And, you’ve always got something else you can move up and work towards. I think it’s a good starter class because they’re good to learn in but as far as being able to travel and race, I don’t really see that happening.

Kyle Courtney: The Sportsman class is a really good beginner class for people coming from a lower class and trying to be competitive. Once they get competitive in this class they will be able to go to NeSmith. We’re doing okay this season and then our plan is to start running a few NeSmith and UCRA races next year and hopefully we can be competitive in those. The Sportsman class gets you prepared if you want to go to Super Late Models or Crate Late Models. It just gets you prepared for whatever route you want to go to.

Philip Thompson: It’s a good place for people like me who came up through a support class to get a good start in Late Models. You can race here more cost efficiently for a good starting point and some seat time. That’s what I’m using it for. We bought us a crate motor because my goal is to get into crate racing and this gives us a place to get some seat time and experience and build up our program so we can run with those guys when we do make the step up.

Heath Alvey: It’s supposed to be a low income class. It helps the guys who don’t do it for a living. It’s a good hobby class. It’s a place where you can run and not have to worry about putting new tires on every week and you don’t have to have the best of everything but you can still be competitive. I’ll eventually move up. It’s a good learner class where you can get a lot of laps and a lot of seat time, but I’d definitely like to move up.

Jed Emert: There’s a lot of good things about the Sportsman class. The biggest thing that I’m trying to be an advocate for as far as talking to people is trying to keep everything rule wise the same. The shock rule is good, I mean that’s a wonderful thing. It’s just good for us low budget teams. For example, me and Steve(Ritchey) broke a motor and if we had to go crate racing it would have to be sealed, but with this we don’t have to be. It’s NeSmith legal but we couldn’t afford to take it to a shop and run it through because that’s $2,500. So we just put it back together with the pieces we had and we can run the Sportsman class. That’s what makes it good. The package is good as far as having hard tires on the rear because we’ve run two sets of tires all year long. Most of us have the goal of moving up to the crate class and if we didn’t have this class we’d be out there learning with the crate guys and stinking up a crate show and then people would be complaining that they need a class for those guys.

Terry Poore: It’s an awesome class. It’s policed well with the crate motor and the steel head option. I really like it because you’ve got a lot of young, up-and-coming drivers and you still get some of those who filter back from some of the upper divisions coming back and racing with you from time to time if they haven’t won. It always has a good car count and good stiff competition. You can always find somebody to race and have a lot of good fun. Some of these new kids are just as fast or even faster than some of the older guys, but some of the older guys who have experience can teach you a lot of stuff if you follow them and watch each week.

Brad Seagle: It’s a cost effective class and it’s good competition. The competition is growing every day in it. For the weekly racer, it’s good because they can come and race and not spend a fortune on a Late Model ride. But for somebody who’s just coming up, it’s also good because they can use it as a stepping stone. The shock rules and the motor rules help you get to the track without spending a fortune. This is just a hobby for us, it’s not something we do every week.

David Kerr: It’s real good. It’s good competition. If they would just keep the motor rules down and keep everything under control I think it will be a good class. I see it being more of a beginner class. The shock rules and things like that are good but they just keep changing the rules from week to week so it’s hard to keep up with them sometimes. I would like to see all the tracks adopt the same rules for the class all the way around.

Nick Perry: I think it’s the competition. You have a lot of cars and a lot of guys. A lot of these guys grew up together in go-karts or another class like Four Cylinder or Street Stocks. Most of the guys in the Sportsman class have been around it a while, but at the same time, you have a lot of new guys so it’s a wide variety of people. I think it was intended to be a stepping stone type of deal and that’s what I’d hope it would be. Myself, I’d like to get my legs under me and maybe move up to a crate or limited and you would hope that’s what everyone wants to do.