CONCORD, N.C. — The World Short Track Championship has grown to become the East Coast’s largest and most prestigious dirt track racing event on the fall calendar with more than 500 cars racing in 10 different divisions last year.
But what is it about this supersized event at The Dirt Track at Charlotte — now only nine years old — that creates such a turnout?
“Because it’s Charlotte,” said Jason Walls, Series Director of the Mid-East Racing Ass’n, which sanctions four divisions at the event. “On the local short-track dirt racer, The Dirt Track at Charlotte is Daytona, it’s Indianapolis.
“It just means so much for everybody because a lot of the racing that goes on in this region is because of what goes on at Charlotte Motor Speedway — all the connections it has to the outside racing world. It’s so big of a stage for everybody.”
The ninth edition of the event hits the four-tenths-mile, red dirt oval of Charlotte next Thursday–Saturday, Oct. 31–Nov. 2. Walls is one of many series directors bringing their regular competitors to the event, including Adam Stewart of Crate Racin’ USAC, Scott Morgan of the Monster Mini Stock/Thunder Bomber Ass’n and multiple other Southeast-based organizations.
While their car types are all different, the drivers that race them all share a common motive in making their trip out to Concord, N.C., every October.
“Of course, everybody wants to race there — it’s Charlotte,” Stewart said. “You’re in the shadows of the Speedway there. It’s got the name ‘America’s Home for Racing,’ so I think it gives these guys that are on a stage a bigger stage to get themselves some visibility and be able to run at a facility like that as well.”
“These guys that run here — they run with local dirt track racers; they don’t get a chance to shine on a big stage like a lot of these late model drivers do week-in and week-out,” Morgan said. “This is their big stage, a good chance to go and just have fun. A lot of people make a vacation out of the weekend. It’s just an overall good weekend to have fun.”
Stewart has served as the Crate Racin’ USA Dirt Late Model Series director since 2013 and has seen the Chevrolet Performance 604 Crate engine-powered Late Model division’s car count increase every year at the World Short Track Championship, reaching 60 cars last year for the first time since 2017.
But this year, Stewart and the CRUSA officials have added in a new element for their trip to Charlotte. Saturday’s main event will be a points race for all drivers, which could have major implications in the championship standings as their season nears its conclusion. Unlike years past, all points championship chasers will be required to compete, including some of the Southeast’s top Crate racers like Jimmy Thomas, Matt Dooley and Matt Henderson.
“Everybody wants to beat the best, and you’ve got a bunch of cars,” Stewart said. “If you’re gonna be a champion, you’ve got to fight the heavyweights. So, I think it’s being able to outrun that number of cars — those guys that are good.
“For my core group — coming from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee — to come to the Carolinas, it sort of gives them a measuring stick to see how they measure up to the guys from over that way that come from DIRTcar world as well.”
Like the regional touring stars, the local heroes of the Southeast’s weekly dirt tracks flock to Charlotte every October as well. Morgan purchased South Carolina-based MMSA for the four-cylinder-powered Mini Stocks in 2017, and in 2023 brought in the Monster Thunder Bombers brand for the V8-powered Street Stock-type cars, which debuted at Charlotte in 2022.
Both divisions compete regularly around the weekly Carolina dirt tracks and attend Morgan’s series races throughout the year. But to the drivers, Charlotte is special — enough to force some to make extra preparations.
“They’ll actually sit out the whole month of October if they have to just to go get their motors freshened, make sure they got new tires, and go over the car — front bumper to back bumper — just to make sure that everything’s gonna be top-notch and ready to go before they get to Charlotte because it is such a big stage for them,” Morgan said.
Like the weekly racers of the Carolinas, the World Short Track Championship also brings together drivers from the Northern regions of the United States as well — including the DIRTcar Pro Stocks and Sportsman Modifieds from the Northeast, and four of Mid-East’s divisions, which operate around both Carolinas and Virginia.
Walls originally got involved with the event because of the big stage it presents to his racers, but also because of the high level of weekly competition that converges on The Dirt Track at Charlotte and brings out the best his organization has to offer.
“Mid-East breaks our racing into regions — we have a north, a south, a coastal region — which keeps everybody in their own little area,” Walls said. “Through the year, we all race at different places and [World Short Track Championship] just brings everybody together at one time.
“To win this event, it means so much because you’ve beat the best of the best in this region.”
See all 10 divisions of racing in action at the ninth annual World Short Track Championship at The Dirt Track at Charlotte — Thursday–Saturday, Oct. 31–Nov. 2.