COLUMBUS, Miss. (Nov. 4) — Three races remain on the Newsome/Raceway Parts Network Crate Racin’ USA Dirt Late Model Series scheduled including a $10,000-to-win event scheduled Nov. 2-4, 2023, at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss., and all eyes at this point of a season are usually trained on a battle for the series championship.
With four victories, a dozen top-five finishes and 14 top-five showings in 18 starts, Middleburg, Fla., driver Mark Whitener has made late-season gazing towards the top of the points leaderboard a rather moot point, and is currently leading the standings and cruising towards the Adam Stewart-managed touring circuit’s $10,000 season championship with a 184-point edge [1,578-1,394] over Mario Gresham in the season-long search for a championship. Six points behind Gresham resides Jake Knowles of Rome, Ga., who has collected 1,388 markers.
Barring a complete disaster, Whitener will soon hit a mathematical wrapup point en route to the title on the highly-popular series for Chevrolet Performance-powered machines, which means many eyes are focused on a late-season duel between Gresham and Knowles for what will probably be a second-place finish in the points standings. Ironically, both drivers reside in Rome, Ga., and only live two or three miles from each other.
After this weekend’s $10,000-to-win event at Magnolia, which is also part of the Crate Racin’ USA $100,000+ Challenge, the battle between the two Romans will continue Nov. 17-18 at Needmore Speedway in Norman Park, Ga., and conclude Nov. 24-25 in the season finale at Cochran Motor Speedway.
Gresham, who has made up a lot of ground in the standings with improving finishes and the normal attrition that gradually takes drivers away from a full-time commitment on the series, says he’s focused and ready for the final three races.
“I feel we’re in a really good position towards the end of the season, because this was all new to us at the start of the year,” Gresham said. “We’d never made a full-time effort on a touring series before, and it was our first season in a 604 Late Model-type car. We had to change a lot of of our habits as far as driving these cars, and also in how you approach racing on the road.”
Knowles has endured an often-frustrating year, and while he’s remained a points contender for much of the year, he’s also watched while Gresham gradually climbed closer to him in the points standings.
“It is what it is, and with the year we’ve had, we‘re just glad to still have a chance to finish second in the points,” Knowles said. “It’s not really been nothing in our control, just bad luck. It’s been a hard season, and we don’t really know why, but we’ve just struggled. Just one of those years. We messed up a motor early in the season, and a couple races before that we had some stuff go wrong. It just seemed like early in the year we were missing opportunities for good finishes."
Knowles was the series champion in 2019 during a year in which he claimed seven victories, and has been a steady contender year after year in his efforts on the series. Gresham entered the ’23 season with hopes, but also a humble dose of reality. It’s a highly-competitive circuit with large car counts that often exceed any touring series in the country, and it’s not exactly an easy place to get your feet wet when it comes to racing on a touring series.
Did Gresham feel like he’d be in his current position when the year opened in early April at Cochran (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
“First year?” he asked. “No…probably not. We started the season hoping to be in the top five in the points, and now we’ve got a real good chance to also finish high in the Crate Racin’ USA $100,000+ Challenge points too. I can’t say we expected to be here at this point of the season.
“That’s been fun, because the competition on this series is unreal,” Gresham continued. “We’ll go to a racetrack where there’s 50 or 60 cars there, and you look around and easily 30 or more drivers have a chance to win the race. Adam [Stewart] and his crew have worked to build a great touring series, and the talent you race against is pretty stout. You race one weekend, and then go home and watch a lot of the same drivers racing on television in bigger short track events. That’s pretty cool to know you have raced against some of those drivers."
Knowles might have the edge on experience, but Gresham probably has momentum on his side heading into the last three stops of the year.
“We can still pull it off, and we ain’t giving up,” Knowles said. “It’s only six points difference, and a lot can happen in three races. “Mario [Gresham] has come over here to Magnolia three or four times to race in weekly shows this year, but I feel we run okay here. Then we have Needmore and Cochran, and we run pretty decent at both places.”
Gresham’s racing season did include an all-night trip from the touring circuit’s Harvey Jones Memorial held during Memorial Day weekend at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla., to the Johnny Stokes-promoted facility, where he won a 604 Crate Racin’ USA Weekly Racing Series feature without much sleep after making a nine-hour journey from the Sunshine State to the Magnolia State.
“We’re really good here at Magnolia and I love the place, and I feel we’ll be fine at Needmore and Cochran, so hopefully we can keep our momentum going,” Gresham said. “It’s gotten better for us in the latter part of the year, and a turning point for us was the King of the Hill event in mid-July at Thunderhill Raceway Park [Summertown, Tenn.].
“We blew a motor, climbed into our 602 Late Model as our backup machine for the rest of the night, and came away with our first top-10 finish of the season. That was a real key to changing the momentum of our year. We’ve had our share of troubles. We blew a motor, broke a rear end one night, and we had a wiring problem that cost us a good finish. That has changed a little bit later in the season, and our finishes have been improving, and we’re hoping we can keep that momentum going over the final three weekends.”
Knowles admitted that momentum is on the side of his not-quite-all-the-way-across-town rival.
“He [Gresham] has picked his pace up late in the season, and it’s good to see him doing well,” Knowles said. “We’re pretty good friends, and we only live about two or three miles from each other in Rome. I like racing with him and he’s done a good job, and especially here late in the year. It looks like we’ll probably go down to the wire before it’s decided.”
Just like Knowles, Gresham is aware there’s serious business ahead. Three chances each, and a final points count. All eyes are focused on the pair in their battle for runner-up honors in the standings.
“It’s been really fun to be involved with the series, and to go up and down the road,” Gresham said. “I have loved every bit of it, and hopefully we can finish the year strong. We go to tracks and there’s kids waiting to meet us, and that happened again here this weekend. One of our little fans that follows us on Tik-Tok came over to meet us for the first time. That is a pretty cool deal. I hope we can finish the year in a positive way, but either way it’s been a blast.”