Tyler Carpenter, Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Thornton Jr - Gateway Dirt Nationals - Indoor Super Late Model Racing A35I1117
Tyler Carpenter penalized for not wearing racing shoes (Photo)
Shane Walters
Gateway Dirt Nationals officials have fined last night’s race winner
On Thursday night, the Gateway Dirt Nationals returned to Downtown Saint Louis, Missouri. The indoor race sees full-blown dirt late models racing inside The Dome at Americas Center on a 1/5-mile dirt oval.
View a photo of Tyler Carpenter’s shoes below.
Tyler Carpenter is the defending race winner. He claimed the main event victory and $30,000 for his win in the last race back in 2019.
On Thursday, dirt late models took to the track for preliminary action. Full contact racing took place and Carpenter returned to victory lane.
Carpenter won the $5,000 preliminary check. As he climbed from the car to celebrate, he did so without racing shoes.
The West Virginia native stood on the roof with Hey Dude style shoes. Racing shoes are typically fire retardant for safety, these were not.
On Friday, race officials have addressed the safety concerns of Thursday night’s winner.
“The Gateway Dirt Nationals Event Management & Staff would like to acknowledge & address an occurrence that took place yesterday evening, where a competitor (Tyler Carpenter, Super Late Model #28) did not have on proper SFI rated safety equipment (Footwear).”
“The situation has been addressed & this driver has been penalized accordingly with a Fine.”
The statement concluded, “We will continue to take safety seriously at this event & take pride in enforcing proper safety guidelines & encourage all of our competitors to obey all safety standards set in place by Event Management.”