FARMER CITY, Ill. — Dennis Erb Jr. is eager to get the 2024 World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models season back on track at Farmer City Raceway — gearing up to continue chasing his second title in three years.
The 2022 series champion currently sits sixth in the points standings after four races in the books. He scored his highest finish with a seventh at Volusia Speedway Park in January’s Sunshine Nationals.
Erb has already seen victory lane in 2024, winning with the DIRTcar Late Models at Clarksville Speedway on March 2. The win adds confidence for the Carpentersville, Ill., driver as he focuses on winning his first Illini 100 — April 12-13.
“It seems to have started out OK for us,” Erb said. “It’s not where I want it to be, but we’re working on a lot of things. We got out of Florida and we had some good runs down there, went off and won at (Clarksville). That boosted up the confidence. We’ve had a couple of good finishes here on the last couple of races we went to.
“We’re looking forward to getting back on tour and hopefully have a good season.”
Though 2023 did not produce results that Erb had hoped for, he and crew chief Heather Lyne have worked on making adjustments to put them back into title contention — switching to Fox Shocks on his No. 28 car in 2024.
“We’ve kept on working with the car, really,” Erb said. “We made a big move by changing to Fox Shocks over the winter and that was really the biggest move we’ve made. We’re continuing to go off and try something new to get the cars to work better.”
While he has never won the Illini 100 at Farmer City Raceway, Erb has his fair share of success at the track — including two wins with both the DIRTcar Summer Nationals and Northern Allstars Late Model Series.
“Farmer City’s a great race track,” Erb said. “We’ve been going there for years and won a lot of races there and I always look forward to getting back there and being these are close to home for me. We don’t get to run there as much as we used to, but it’s always a tough race track with good competition there. Really looking forward to having a good run and get a win in the Illini.
“I haven’t been able to do that and it’s one race I’d really like to knock off here.”
Later in the month, the World of Outlaws CASE Late Models visit 81 Speedway after an exciting debut race last year that resulted in Erb’s one of two wins of 2023.
He hopes to bring home a second win, using the mentality of treating it like any other feature race.
“I’ve raced there a couple of times previous,” Erb said. “To pick up the win from the second time I’ve gone there was a good run for us. You gotta approach it like every other race. When we get back there, we’ll have everything right and going for us.
“Hopefully that works out, we’ve had good runs there, so I’m looking forward to trying to repeat that for sure and just getting back on track and being competitive.”