Sides Down To One Final Weekend Of Racing With World of Outlaws This Season

Story By: SHAWN MILLER / SIDES MOTORSPORTS – SALINA, OK – Jason Sides received bad news on Tuesday when the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series announced that weather has forced the cancellation of the Outlaw Boothill Showdown this weekend at Dodge City Raceway Park in Dodge City, Kan., which is one of the best tracks on the schedule for Sides.

He has two feature victories at the 3/8-mile oval, including during his most recent doubleheader at the track in 2015. In fact, Sides has earned two wins, nine top-five finishes and two sixth-place results in his last 12 races at Dodge City Raceway Park.

“We need to run there more often,” he joked. “I feel really comfortable there. There’s usually a really good top with a decent bottom or a really good bottom with a decent top. I’ve been looking forward to going there to help myself get turned around.”

Now his season is down to only one weekend – Nov. 2-4 at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C., for the Textron Off Road World Finals.

Sides competed in a World of Outlaws doubleheader in the Midwest last weekend beginning on Friday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., for the FVP Platinum Battery Shootout. He qualified 24th quickest before maneuvering from sixth to fourth place in a heat race.

“I watched Jason Johnson, who went quickest overall in hot laps, running the bottom in turns one and two and the top in turns three and four,” he said. “I was the fifth car out for qualifying and did the same thing. I was the same time as he was, but then you had a couple of guys rip the top and it all moved to the top and it got quicker by six or seven tenths. We did pick up a row in the heat race, which helped.

“We weren’t bad in the feature. They moved the tires in and there was some grease down there around the bottom. It took a little more patience than I had to hit it and not hit the grease.”

Sides gained a position in the A Main to end 15th.

The weekend wrapped up on Saturday at Salina Highbanks Speedway for the Twister Showdown. Sides timed in 10th quickest in qualifying and he placed fifth in a heat race to start the A Main on the inside of the seventh row.

“The racing line was predominantly around the top,” he said. “It was so fast it was like trying to free up a slot car. It was difficult to get the car freed up enough for us. It was hard to get around there.”

Sides battled just outside the top 10 for most of the race before gaining a couple of positions on a late-race restart to post a 12th-place result.