10/26/2023
Crate Racin' USA Dirt Late Model Series
Brown Wins All-Star Invitational at Charlotte
CONCORD, N.C. (Oct. 26) — Gaffney, S.C., driver Dillon Brown opened the eighth edition of the annual World Short Track Championship at The Dirt Track at Charlotte with a flag-to-flag victory over a 20-car field in the Fox Factory Pro Late Model All-Star Invitational Thursday night at the 4/10-mile oval.
The race weekend for the popular 604 Chevrolet Performance Late Model division is a collaboration between DIRTcar Racing and Crate Racin’ USA, and is a non-points weekend for the latter organization. A large 62-car field was registered and on the grounds for the event, and 60 drivers took time trials, a process that was headed by John Ruggiero Jr., who turned in the best lap at 16.370 seconds.
During the special event that kicked off the weekend leading into Saturday night’s World Short Track Championship feature, Tyrone, Ga., driver Jody Knowles led the field to the opening green flag along with Justin Hudspeth, but the front-row starters yielded to the third-starting Brown, who moved past both competitors in the first and second corners to steal away with the lead.
He led every circuit, and was chased to the stripe by a steadily-closing Trent Ivey, who started fourth. Ivey was last year’s winner of the World Short Track Championship at the high-banked oval that sits in the shadows of 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway, which is located across the highway from the dirt-covered oval.
Completing the top five behind Brown and Ivey in the 20-car field were Hudspeth, Ricky Greene and Jeremy Steele.
“We made a lot of changes to the car this afternoon with shocks and springs, because we feel like we can use this preliminary race as a test session,” Brown said. “I wasn’t really intending to do much early except get positioned in second place, but the car was good and once we got rolling well on the start, I just decided to keep going and we drove into the lead. We might have gotten there, but I still feel like we’ve got some work to do. We need to get a little better for later in the weekend.”
The fourth-starting Ivey moved into second place in turn one on the ninth of 15 circuits, taking the position away from Hudspeth and pulling away to post his runner-up showing. He chased down Brown and closed to within a few car lengths, but couldn’t quite reach the race winner in the latter stages.
Every lap of the World Short Track Championship in the multiple-division program can be watched live on DirtVision with a monthly or annual subscription. Tickets can be purchased here: www.dirtcar.com/events.
All-Star Invitational: 1. Dillon Brown, 2. Trent Ivey, 3. Justin Hudspeth, 4. Ricky Greene, 5. Jeremy Steele, 6. Matt Long, 7. Jody Knowles, 8. Benji Hicks, 9. Colton Truille, 10. Derek Dent, 11. Stephen Pedulla, 12. Brent Trimble, 13. Jamison McBride, 14. Matthew Brocato, 15. Travis Steele, 16. Mark Greene, 17. John Price, 18. Logan Roberson, 19. Dalton Jacobs, 20. John Ruggiero Jr.
Article Credit: Brian McLeod
Submitted By: Carolyn McLeod
