September 1, 2024

For well over three decades, Sayre Speedway has crowned the winners of its biggest event with a title suitable for short track royalty, the prized “King of Dixie”.

The historic event at The South’s Action Track featured eight separate divisions all battling it out to take home victories and noble short track status.

The highlight of the night’s schedule for many short track enthusiasts would most likely be the Late Model division, with Late Models being commonplace at mostly every short track in the country in some form or fashion.

Sayre’s Late Model division is truly one of a kind, though. Instead of the more typical separation between two or three various Late Model classes, Sayre has just one Late Model division which features cars with both common body styles as well as “Outlaw” body styles.

It was Dora, Alabama’s Jeremy Williams who ultimately claimed the King of Dixie throne, but he had to charge through the field to do so.

It was originally Charlie Melvin who set the fastest time in Late Model qualifying, but Melvin rolled a five for the invert, placing him in fifth for the start and placing Williams in fourth.

The pair of drivers found their way to the front, with Williams steadily pulling away from Melvin and the rest of the field to take the victory.

“We actually built this car to run the [Snowball] Derby last year. Put an Outlaw body on it and all that stuff,” said Williams. “Then we decided to come down here and run it when we’re not running the Pro.”

Willams also spoke to the uniqueness of the track’s Late Model class.

“It was good tonight. Just got lucky, got out front, had clean air. That was big even here. The division’s kinda split right now because of the body situation. As far as an advantage or not, I’m not really sure. It’s good because you can race a bunch of different types of older Late Models or whatever. It’s a good division for here for sure.”

As he alluded to earlier, Williams is a regular competitor in Pro Late Models and Modifieds of Mayhem at Montgomery Motor Speedway and surrounding tracks, but still appreciates opportunities to race closer to home at Sayre.

“I grew up racing here. Let’s see it’s 2024, so for twenty years now I’ve been racing here. It’s always good to come back for the King of Dixie.”

Other Feature Winners

Buzz – Micah Snow

Super Buzz – Trey Yarborough

Road Runner – Frank McClain

Hot Shot – Chris Mitchell

Pure Street – Cameron Kilgore

Mini Modified – Jody Garner

Limited Modified – Joey Morgan*

*One footnote to mention in the Limited Modified feature is that Brooke Melvin originally scored the victory, but was disqualified due to her car being too light on the scales. As such, second-place finisher Joey Morgan was granted the win.