CONCORD, N.C. — For most dirt late model drivers, the winter months involve recharging their batteries after a long season and restocking parts and pieces ahead of the new year. But if you’re Tristan Chamberlain, the break also includes graduating high school.
The 18-year-old’s first two seasons on the road with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision were a balance between attending online school while also racing full-time. There were plenty of days when Chamberlain wrote essays in the toterhome in the morning before putting on his firesuit for hot laps hours later.
Starting in 2026, Chamberlain will be able to place his full focus on racing, which he believes will accelerate his growth behind the wheel in season three with on the tour.
“Before, I’d have school from 8 a.m. to sometimes 1 or 2 p.m.,” Chamberlain said. “It didn’t matter when it was, doing homeschool at the racetrack and it was just my dad out there working. It’s definitely good for me, I get to work on it more to help my dad out, take some of the load off him. Getting more involved, shifting my focus more to it, I can focus more on the driving aspect. I don’t have to switch my brain off and on between school and racing. Definitely looking forward to that this year, it’ll be different than the past two years where I was juggling that.”
Aside from academics, it’s been a busy offseason for the Gibson Racing team as they prepare to head to Volusia Speedway Park next week for the season-opening DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals (Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 22-24).
“I think going to Florida, it’s just going to be the family as of right now,” Chamberlain said. “Our longtime friend, Mark Saul, he’ll be coming down during the February run, so he’ll be helping out. But as of right now, it’s just us. And then my dad went to pick up a new car from Tye Twarog, we’ll be switching back to Longhorn this upcoming year. We’ve got one done right now, then he’s picking up that one, and we’ll be working this week to get it ready since we’ll be leaving Monday. Kind of in a little bit of a pinch, but it won’t be that bad.”
Chamberlain is entering his third year as an Outlaw with a renewed sense of confidence with multiple nights of experience under his belt at most tracks on the schedule. The signs of progress between his freshman and sophomore seasons were there, as evidenced by his back-to-back top 10s at Arrowhead Speedway in August and his six local wins between the late model and the DIRTcar UMP Modified he debuted in the second half of 2025.
“Going to all those different tracks, it just takes time,” Chamberlain said. “I mean, you look at all the rookies, it just takes time to adapt to every different race track. Even this year, we’re going to a bunch of new race tracks that I’ve never been to before either. That’s one thing with the World of Outlaws, they always end up changing the schedule here and there and involve a bunch of different, unique tracks from down south to up north. The longer you do this, the more you’ll be able to adapt quickly, have a notebook and go back and see what you did before.”
After placing 14th in the final in 2024 and 13th in 2025, Chamberlain is ready to take the next step up the order this season and become a true contender. Doing so against the toughest late model competition in the nation isn’t going to come easy, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.
“Really, I just want good finishes,” Chamberlain said. “I’m not afraid to say I’ve been a 12th, 13th-place car, had some top-10 runs. I definitely want this to be my year. I want to show everyone that I have the speed to do this and the drive to do it, that my team is definitely capable of running the World of Outlaws. As long as I do my job and everyone else does their jobs like they’ve been doing, I think we’ll have a good year.”
