RPW Exclusive: Battle For Thunder’s DIRTcar Sportsman Title’s Going To Be Good In ’25

Column By: JOSEPH PHILLIPS / RPW – CENTER LISLE, NY – All racers go through the usual growing pains.

First goal is to finish a race. Then, qualify for a feature and then make it through.

A 10th place finish may bring joy but soon a 12th place finish won’t be acceptable.

Rich Talada, driver of the #08 HigFab chassis DIRTcar Sportsman at Thunder Mountain Speedway, finished second in points in 2024.

Last Saturday, he talked about his desires for this season.

“My goal is to finish one position better in points,” Talada said.  “I finished second in points with no wins.  Now, I want first place.”

DIRTcar Sportsman champ from last season, Matt Brewer, may have some thoughts on the subject, though.  This past Saturday, a heat race win saw Brewer start his #39B in position 12 for the feature.

After a caution-filled race, Brewer finished in the runner-up position.

“I’m excited to be off to a great start,” Brewer said.  “I’m excited about the new Penske shock package we’re using on this Snake Creek Marine, Stone Bros Automotive, Doug’s Speed Shop sponsored ride.”

Brewer was also awarded the Crate Sportsman Driver of the Year award for 2024 by NYSSCA, the New York State Stock Car Association on Saturday night.

Mother Nature did try and test everyone’s patience last week, however, with a three-hour rain delay.  That made the track extremely quick.

“We started fifth in our heat race,” he said.  “I was able to slip into P3 like it was nothing.”

Then another poor redraw saw the potent Sportsman start in P10 for the main event.

“We may have started 10th in the feature, but jokes on them,” he said.  “We turned that baby into a ROCKET and launched it to a P2 finish.”

Brewer’s #39B is looking like one of the favorites for the Sportsman championship in 2025.  However, the season has just started, after several delays.  It’s a long grind to the Autumn months.

As stated earlier, officials worked hard to overcome a three-hour delay for precipitation.  Once it was time. the track crew ran off the remainder of the program extremely quickly, in a roughly three-hour span.

It was a long night with the Sportsman feature finishing just after 1am.  Seven classes were able to get their features in, including the Open Mods, Sportsman, IMCA Modifieds, 600CC Mods and Sprints, Factory Stocks and Vintage Modifieds.  On a normal night, this would be a lengthy program.  However, the rain really threw an even bigger curveball but the everyone did amazing!