10/22/2024
Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series Set to Make Debut in 2025
Woodruff, South Carolina – Beginning in 2025 a new tour for Super Late Models will emerge in the southern region. Officials have already begun the scheduling process and are expected to promote about 20 events in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. The Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series will feature events with responsible scheduling, sensible travel and purses from $5,000 to $10,000 to win. The new series has partnered with HunttheFront.TV to bring streaming for many of these events live and/or for replay. The series will pay out a solid $30,000 total point fund for 2025 with expectations of potential growth as sponsorship is added.
The new tour under the moniker Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series will be spearheaded by two familiar faces in the dirt racing business. Aiken, South Carolina’s Travis Scott heads up an ownership group which has come together to focus on delivering powerful performances from hard-working, blue-collar racers. The goal of which is to bring entertaining and well-managed events. To that end Scott has enlisted the services of veteran series official Kelley Carlton to serve as General Manager to handle the day-to-day operations of the new series.
Both Scott and Carlton have extensive experience in the racing business. Scott began his career as a fledgling announcer with the Southern All Star Racing Series at the age of just 15. He served as series director for the Maxxis National Tour in karting as well as working as an announcer at many other events over the years. Scott has worked with Carlton as race director and other roles within Carlton’s KELCAR Motorsports which includes the Gateway Dirt Nationals among others. In 2023 Scott was the voice of the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series during its debut season and he has since transitioned into the race director role for HTF. “I am excited to have the opportunity to offer an excellent product to our region’s racers, tracks and fans. We have spoken with teams and tracks extensively, and we feel we have a good understanding of what the needs are of our region. I believe we have a great team assembled and we are eager to build partnerships with our host tracks for highly efficient and entertaining shows.” Scott said.
Carlton has served as a racing official for more than 30 years. He served as the General Manager of the Southern All Star Racing Series as well as the ULTIMATE Super Late Model Series. Carlton’s KELCAR Motorsports has officiated many of dirt racing’s most high-profile events including Talladega’s Ice Bowl, The Gateway Dirt Nationals and the Wild West Shootout. “As I start to look at winding down my career this was really a great opportunity to be able to work with Travis who has really been like a son to me since he was 15. He and I think a lot alike and have the same goals for our racing events. I am looking forward to building this program and being able to hand it off to Travis down the road.” Carlton commented.
A tentative working schedule should be released during the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in December. You can find STSDS on Facebook at Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series; Instagram at southernthundersupers; and X (formerly Twitter) - Stay tuned for website release in the near future.
