Patient. Humble. Steady. Blessed.
It’s difficult to describe Mark Dodson in just one word. The Caledonia native and Super Late Model driver is unlikely to to get too excited over a top-5 finish or ever throw himself a pity party if he encounters bad luck on the track.
To Dodson, who finished fifth in the Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series points last year, he’s just happy to be where he is.
“If we can drive the car back to the pits in one piece, we’ve had a good night,” Dodson said.
It wasn’t long ago that Dodson, who started racing Super Late Models in 2001, had to be happy with simply finishing a race in one piece. On a limited budget and learning on the fly, Dodson didn’t have the resources to outfit his car with essentials like rebound and compression-adjustable shocks, though most of his competitors did.
Still, he made it work. He usually ran 20 races a year, but in 2010 he ran nearly 50 races and finished third in track points at both Magnolia Motor Speedway and Columbus Speedway.
“The way I’ve always looked at it is that I’m blessed to get on the track each week and race with guys like (Brian and Rick) the Rickmans, guys like David Breazeale,” Dodson said. “This is fun, and it’s something I dreamed about doing since my dad (John) first took me to the track when I was 18 months old.”
Dodson’s patience has been rewarded of late, in a number of ways. First, he’s won two chassis in the last two years. Dodson, who has Trak-Star chassis, won a free Trak-Star chasis in 2013 and 2014 for being the highest finisher in a Trak-Star car in the MSCCS series.
That made it easier to upgrade motors and suspension, particularly in the shock setup, canister-style Ohlins Racing shocks. Dodson said the major suspension upgrades to his two cars — one, a 355 cubic-inch steel block that puts out about 565 horse power, and the other, an all-aluminum 430 cubic-inch motor that puts out close to 750 horse power — have made a world of difference.
“We’re competitive, for sure,” Dodson said. “We used to just run our suspension straight out of the box, but we have a guy in Birmingham that’s helped tremendously.
“We’re still not superstars — we don’t have that budget — but we had several top 10 runs in the state series last year and some good nights.”
Though Dodson still faces drivers whose cars put out more than 800 horsepower, he’s got a good situation: he can run either of his cars depending on the style of track. However, the car with the larger motor is more expensive to run, Dodson said.
“The smaller motor, when the track slicks up, it’s fine,” Dodson said.
MSCCS race at
Magnolia uncertain
Two races MSCCS races in the Golden Triangle have been rained out this year. Only one race — at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian — has been completed this year.
If the weekend’s forecast stays true, the series will have another race postponed.
The MSCCS series is set to debut at Magnolia Motor Speedway on Saturday, but rain is in the forecast for both Friday and Saturday. Track officials will make a decision on whether to cancel the race sometime today.
The Maxxissippi Kart Series race at Columbus Motor Speedway, originally set for Saturday afternoon has been postponed.
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