Highland Speedway may be over three hours from Tanner English’s residence in Benton, KY, but the southern Illinois bullring has always felt like home.
A win and three podiums in DIRTcar Summer Nationals competition highlighted his resume, and he’s finished top 10 in every visit since 2019. In his first World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision start at Highland, English did more than merely keep the streak alive. He grabbed the lead on the opening lap of the Beat the Heat 40 and fended off some of Illinois’ finest for his first Series win since 2022.
“Something about this, I like the big crowds,” English said. “I want to do better, I’ll see a big crowd and I’ll just try to make stuff happen that I probably wouldn’t usually. I don’t know why I do that. And just this kind of dirt, it’s powdery dirt, I’m usually pretty good at it. That’s kind of what I grew up on, Paducah [International Raceway] and Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway. Just something about that dirt, it kind of runs through here.”
When the green flag flew, English rolled the high side to pull ahead of Bilstein Pole Award winner Dustin Sorensen on the opening lap. Sorensen didn’t let him go far though, and on Lap 11 he threw a slider into Turn 1 in an attempt to get the top spot back, but English pulled the crossover and stayed on top.
The track started to become bottom-dominant in the second half of the 40-lapper, with English, Sorensen and third-running Shannon Babb keeping it tight around the tractor tires. Bobby Pierce missed that memo, as he got to the outside of Jason Feger for fourth and challenged Babb for third as the only frontrunner on the cushion.
Pierce’s momentum drove Sorensen to move up to defend, but the move backfired when Babb got by on the inside to get to second. The “Moweaqua Missile” ran down the No. 96 and was all over English’s bumper in the closing laps, but was unable to find a way around and could only watch as English took the checkers in a World of Outlaws race for the fourth time in his career.
English’s years of experience at the 1/4-mile paid dividends in formulating a game plan for the Feature and adding to the sense of urgency in the first half. Had he given up the lead early, he knew there would be no guarantee of another chance later on.
“It don’t always rubber, but it usually moves down to the bottom after that top wears out,” English said. “I knew I didn’t need to waste too much time up there, I just needed to protect a little bit up top, build some speed up and move down when I needed to. That was always on my mind. I almost messed up and gave it away there when I tried to pass Brent [Larson] on the outside. Saw him down there and I about messed up, but it just worked out pretty good. Timing was all perfect, no cautions, that worked out a lot. Usually when I’m leading, there’s 37 cautions, so I was happy to not see a yellow flag.”
While Babb was forced to settle for second, that result put him on a World of Outlaws podium for the first time since 2022 at Davenport Speedway.
“Would have worked out better if we started on the pole for sure,” Babb said. “I think we had the right tire, our car was good, Tanner and everybody did a really good job too. I could kind of see the writing on the wall, we needed to get there as soon as possible, it looked like the bottom was pretty clean.”
Sorensen brought the No. 19 home third for his fourth top five of the year, matching his Bedford Speedway performance in May as his season-best finish.
“We were really good there at the start, all over Tanner,” Sorensen said. “Unfortunately, the track kind of got one lane there, but that’ll happen. This car’s really good. We probably should have run second, but I want to win one of these races so damn bad, I thought I’d try the top there and Shannon got by me.”
Pierce and Feger rounded out the top five.
RACE NOTES:
Tanner English set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.
Bobby Pierce won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Shannon Babb won Real American Beer Heat 1.
Tanner English won STAKT Products Heat 2.
Dennis Erb Jr. won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.
Dustin Sorensen won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.
Brandon Sheppard won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdown.
Dustin Sorensen won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Tristan Chamberlain won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.
Shannon Babb won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.
Bobby Pierce was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Jason Feger was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Dennis Erb Jr. was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Nick Hoffman was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Jordan Bauer was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.
Drake Troutman was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Tristan Chamberlain was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision heads north to Spoon River Speedway for the second half of an Illinois back-to-back on Thursday, Aug. 14. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 96-Tanner English[2]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 3. 19-Dustin Sorensen[1]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 5. 25-Jason Feger[5]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[4]; 7. 2-Cody Overton[8]; 8. 9-Nick Hoffman[7]; 9. 10J-Jordan Bauer[14]; 10. 22*-Drake Troutman[9]; 11. 10-Daryn Klein[16]; 12. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[19]; 13. 78-Chad Zobrist[11]; 14. 3S-Brian Shirley[20]; 15. 74X-Ethan Dotson[18]; 16. 16-Matt Bailey[12]; 17. 49-Jake Timm[24]; 18. B5-Brandon Sheppard[17]; 19. 9M-Tim McCreadie[15]; 20. 19R-Ryan Gustin[23]; 21. 26M-Myles Moos[21]; 22. B1-Brent Larson[25]; 23. 93-Cory Lawler[13]; 24. 27-Rodney Melvin[10]; 25. 30-Mark Voigt[22]