Scott Holland takes over the reins at Odessa, where Saturday night shows will feature IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks and Southwest Racing Specialties Southern SportMods.

“There was a time when you couldn’t have gotten me to a dirt track race,” admitted Holland, former boss at the ½-mile paved San Antonio Speedway. “Then I went to one at Heart O’ Texas Speedway in Waco and now you can’t keep me away.”

With daughter Ivy Jean now enrolled in The Art Institute of Austin, Holland decided this opportunity was the right one to get back in the business and accepted the Champion post after meeting with track owner Murray Erickson.

“We’re creating and perfecting a base to operate from this season. We need to get our car counts up and make sure our track officials are very good before we hold any big events,” he said. “If we’re building an engine, then we’re still work¬ing on the block.”

“Last year we averaged 88 cars running every other week,” Holland added. “We will race every week this year and I’m very, very encouraged. It seems like there are drivers coming out of the woodwork to race.”

Opening night at the ¼-mile buffalo wallow clay course is April 3. Point races are scheduled through Sept. 4.

Champion is part of the ButlerBuilt South Central Region for Modifieds and the Stephenville Starter Southern Re¬gions for Stock Cars and for Hobby Stocks.

“Standardization is the biggest advantage with IMCA. Guys can load up and race just about wherever. They can run the same car year after year after year and that reduces their cost,” said Holland. ”IMCA doesn’t change their rules very often and when they do, the changes are very well thought out. I’m a big believer that the best change can be no change at all.”

That’s not the case when Holland compares publicizing events in the 1990s and doing so today.

“There’s like a night and day contrast promoting then and promoting now, because of the track website and the Inter¬net,” he said. “I can remember sending out 10,000 pieces of mail in a single mailing before. Now, advertising is almost free because of the Internet, email and texting. All it takes is the touch of a button.”

After this past weekend’s USMTS openers at Golden Triangle & Gator Motorplex in southeast Texas with over 60 Modifieds at each show, there is no doubt that THE place to be THIS FRIDAY NIGHT, April 25th is Champion Park Speedway located east of Shreveport-Bossier City and a little west of Minden, Louisiana as the Walker family will host the USMTS Southern Series for the first time.

The track is a wide, 1/4 mile clay oval located beside Interstate 20 at exit 38, Goodwill Road, 38 miles east of the Texas state line, 149 miles west of the Mississippi state line and about an hour south of the Arkansas line. Take exit 38, go north, turn right on the service road and you can’t miss it. The track phone is 318-371-0077 and the website is www.championparkspeedway.net .

Then, THIS SATURDAY NIGHT, April 26th, the USMTS caravan heads south to the edge of Acadiana country to Thunder Valley Speedway in Glenmora, Louisiana located south of Alexandria, then south of Forest Hill and northeast of Lake Charles.

Take US 165 to Glenmora and turn west on LA Hwy 113. Follow past the intersection of LA Hwy 112 at the crossroads community of Union Hill and the track will be ahead on the right. Thunder Valley Speedway is another racy 1/4 mile oval that has been witness to everything from Hav-a-Tampa Late Model shows to World of Outlaw Sprint Car races but will host the United States Modified Touring Series for the first time Saturday night. For information on the Thunder Valley race, call the USMTS office at 515-832-7944.

After the first two races, there is no surprise in the top three positions of Southern Series points standings. Colcord, Oklahoma’s Jason Hughes — the builder and designer of Hughes Racing Chassis — hasn’t had much luck qualifying so far but he has been a passing machine in the features. (USMTS awards finishing points and passing points in the features.) After a runner-up at GTRP and an 8th at Gator, Hughes is the point leader by 19 markers over another Okie, Randy Timms of Wheatland who was last year’s runner-up in the series and the USMTS race winner at Fast Trax Speedway. Hughes claimed the USMTS win at Boothill last year. Timms drives one of those fast Larry Shaw Chassis and had a 7th and a 2nd in Texas with some passing points of his own — just not as many as Hughes.

After a thrilling race at Gator where they had nine lead changes with four different leaders in the feature, Gentry, Arkansas’s Steve Holzkamper — the designer and builder of TRE Chassis — reversed his misfortune of the previous night when he fell out of a 4th starting spot before the feature ever started and was awarded 24th place. Holzkamper came out on top of the thriller and sits 3rd in points at -29.
The next two spots in the standings are familiar names to north Louisiana fans and are also 1st & 2nd in the Dustin Duncan-JustSayYes Rookie-of-the-Year standings. Longview, Texas racer Morgan Bagley in a Shaw Chassis and Robeline, Louisiana’s Kyle Pleasant in a Kraft Kar Chassis this year, are tied for fourth in the standings at -34 while Bagley holds a slim lead over Pleasant in the rookie standings. Bagley had a 5th at GTRP and ninth at Gator after burning a provisional (you only get one provisional every ten races according to USMTS rules) and starting 24th! Unfortunately for Bagley, provisional starters do not earn passing points like someone who qualifies 22nd would get. Pleasant qualified for both shows so he has a provisional in hand on Bagley at the moment. Kyle went from 16th to 6th Friday night and had an 11th at Gator.

In 6th in points, is Woodward, Oklahoma racer and Hughes teammate, Tommy Weder, Jr after he rebounded from a DNQ night in Beaumont with a 21st to 3rd run at Gator! In 7th place in points, is legendary Texas racer and SUPR Late Model contender Howard Willis from Dayton. In a reversal of Holzkamper’s weekend, Willis drove his Dirt Works to victory from the pole at GTRP but was the first out of the event at Gator with a 24th. The difference in passing points has Willis 13 behind Holzkamper and -42 to Hughes.

Another familiar name to Champion Park fans, is David Mitchell of Ashdown, Arkansas. Mitchell is a former track champion at the Minden oval from back when it was called Webster Speedway although the track is quite different today and he won the feature at Champion on April 12th with 32 Mods on hand. Mitchell is 8th in USMTS SS points at -49 on the strength of a 3rd place finish at GTRP with his #13 Shaw Chassis. A more familiar name to Thunder Valley fans is John Whittington of Vidor, Texas. “John-O” has many wins on the central Louisiana oval but perhaps had the worst luck of the leaders on Saturday. After a 13th on Friday, Whittington advanced from 15th to the lead at Gator. Hughes arrived later to challenge but when contact was made and Whittington spun, both were sent to the back of the field with Whittington only able to make it back up to 12th while Hughes scored an 8th. It might be wise to keep an eye on the #5W Bob Pierce Chassis of Whittington’s anytime Hughes’s #12 gets close by this weekend. John-O is 9th in points at -51.

After a near disasterous Friday showing at GTRP, another familiar name to Louisiana fans, Jamie Burford of Keatchie drove his #19 TRE Chassis to a 4th place finish at Gator. A year ago, Burford was third at Gator and the way he runs USMTS shows there, I’m sure he’s counting the days until August 23 when USMTS returns to Willis, Texas. But, Jamie has a lot of wins in both Modifieds and Limiteds at Champion Park as well. Burford sits in the all-important 10th spot in the standings. Under the USMTS Southern Series “Top Dog” program, the top ten drivers are guaranteed $300 against their winnings by the series as long as they keep perfect attendance in USMTS Southern Series events.

11th thorough 15th in points also have a place in the Top Dog program as they are guaranteed $200 against their winnings and 4 of those 5 guys are known well in these parts and are also in the hunt for the Dustin Duncan-JustSayYes Rookie-of-the-Year title. Like Burford, Dustin “Tater” Hyde of Texarkana drives a TRE Chassis, a #8J owned by Ducote Motorsports of Alexandria, LA. The driver is well known at Champion Park while the car and car-owner are better known at Thunder Valley. That may work out well this week for this team. Hyde had the reverse of Burford’s weekend as he was top qualifier on Friday and finished 4th at GTRP but had nothing but trouble on Saturday at Gator. He’s 11th in points.

There’s a tie for 12th in points and both drivers have feature wins in Modifieds at Champion Park Speedway. Michael Robertson will be racing in his back yard Friday night. The Minden Rookie-of-the-Year contender recovered from a bad Friday when he missed the A by just one spot to scoring a top five finish at Gator in the #05 Kraft Kar Chassis. Shreveport’s BJ Robinson took the consistancy route this weekend, qualified for both features with his Dirt Works #02 and finished 11th and 18th.

In 15th in points, was perhaps the biggest surprise of Saturday night from the region. Marshall, Texas racer, Southern Stock ace and defending Red River Shootout Modified champion from Paris Motor Speedway, Derrick Grigsby had nothing to write home about on Friday but made top 8 in qualifying on Saturday and finished 6th in Kraft Kar #99. Grigsby sits fifth in rookie points while Hyde and Robertson are 3rd and 4th behind Bagley and Pleasant.

There are about 30 regulars following the tour at this time but between Golden Triangle and Gator, over 70 different Modified teams competed. Some you know include Timothy Culp, Larry Clevenger, Jeff Huckaby, Paul White, Shane Hebert, Billy Robinson, Mark Smith, Bobby Malchus, Tracy Denby, Phil Dixon, Brandon Kenny, Derick Ramirez and many, many more. But, Corey Babbitt — a local — posted a top ten at Gator and doesn’t even have a USMTS license. Early entry fees at both events are $80 for licensed drivers, $90 for non-licensed drivers and late entries are $100 for both. Both Louisiana races this weekend pay $2000 to win whether the winner has a license or not but, licensed drivers get $250 to start and $80 tow money if they don’t qualify while non-licensed drivers are only guaranteed $200 to start and get less tow money plus other positions in the field don’t pay as well either. For information on how to enter early or how to get a USMTS Southern Series license, call the USMTS office at 515-832-7944 or visit www.USMTS.com to learn more.

Will there be wildcards at Champion Park or Thunder Valley? You bet! Who might they be? Not sure but here’s a list we can start from: Wes Armstrong (who finished 8th at GTRP and then returned home to win the $1000 in the ShopsBuilt.com 30 at Ark-La-Tex Saturday night), Jason Armstrong, Chris Henigan, David Winslet, Tom Wiggins, Jody Davidson, Rick Hearnsberger, Bryan Mewborn, Joel Couvillion, Dougie Murphrey, Rick Duke, Darryl Seals, Jerry Franks, Jr., Tippy Bickham, Jonathan Maxwell, Aaron Jordan, Chris Shown, Stephan Chevalier, Justin Ingalls, John Riley, Michael Knighten and so many more. Let’s just say, with good weather, the turnout at both tracks could be huge!!! Who knows maybe some of them northern Arkies and a couple Mississippi drivers may take advantage of the closeness of these two USMTS shows!

Race Time at Champion Park on Friday night is 7:30 and they will run Limited Modifieds and Factory Stock/Cruisers along with the USMTS cars. At Thunder Valley, race time is 7PM and they will stick to 3 classes too with Limited Modifieds and Thunder Valley Stret Stocks as the support classes. See you Louisiana dirt track fans this weekend at one or the other or both! It’s a rare opportunity so don’t miss it!!!