Carl Short brings the DTWC home to the place where it belongs ..West Va. motor speedway.

Story and photos By Jim Balentine 

(Mineral Wells, WV)

After hosting the prestigious Dirt track world championship for the Lucas Oil super late models at 7 venues in the past 26 years, DTWC founder Carl Short brought the historic event back to the state of West Virginia and the newly reconfigured 1/3 mile West Virginia motor speedway for its 46th running this weekend. 

The DTWC as it’s known began in 1981 at the  Pennsboro speedway where the famous story of Cambridge,Ohio’s Jim Dunn came out of the consi and started at the tail to win the 100 lap $25,000 event. 

The race grew bigger every year with car counts over 100 yearly and the greatest late model drivers from all over adding their name to the list of Dirt track world championship such as Freddie Smith, Jack Boggs, Charlie Swartz, Larry Moore, Billy Moyer and Donnie Moran would win multiple titles.

After the 1997 the race left Pennsboro and in 1999 and 2000 the race was held at the monster 5/8 West Virginia motor speedway and was back at Pennsboro race in 2001. The race would move from Bluegrass in Kentucky to KC in Chillicothe,Ohio to Lawrenceburg Indiana before returning to WVMS and West Virginia for the final time in 2010. The race would find a home at Portsmouth,Ohio 13 consecutive years before heading to the famed Eldora speedway in 2023.

In 2025 Mike Hurley along with Cody Watson and their staff would turn WVMS from a monster 5/8 mile to a high banked 1/3 mile oval with the opening race bringing over 70 super late models and over 230 cars in 4 classes.. proving the theory that the track needed to be shortened to bring more cars.

The question was then asked..could the DTWC return to its home state and to WVMS? After negotiations with Lucas oil and with the events founder Carl Short it was decided to have the season finale for the Lucas oil late models for the first time since 2010. 

The week of the event rain would plague the preparation of the event with as much as 4” of rain around the grounds leaving some areas flooded. Hurley and his track crew would methodically plan to work on the track when they could and seal it when it would rain so the water would run off the surface.

The track would add more clay and banking in the corners resulting in a 3rd tier guardrail needing to be added, a new larger backstretch grandstand was erected closer to the track and a new souvenir row was created behind the new stands up again the old 5/8 mile wall.. resulting in positive feedback from all.

Hurley would purchase more land near the speedway to accommodate campers and by race day was completely filled and fans would be parking all the way down to the main road. The hillside became full and the new backstretch was almost completely sold out when the event started.  The smell of campfires and the atmosphere surrounding the event proved that the DTWC belongs back where it all began in 1981..in the hills of West Virginia taking it back home.