2025 Kubota High Limit Racing Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway

Jacob Allen Silences Keyboard Warriors With Ashton Torgerson Win At BAPS

Ashton Torgerson won in his second race with Shark Racing on Sunday at BAPS Motor Speedway.

May 1, 2025 by Kyle McFadden

Jacob Allen Silences Keyboard Warriors With Ashton Torgerson Win At BAPS

Retiring from full-time Sprint Car racing. Hiring and firing Cale Thomas within two weeks. Tapping 18-year-old 410 Sprint Car rookie Ashton Torgerson as his replacement.

Jacob Allen was certainly the talk of Sprint Car racing social media during his tumultuous month of April. But this week, the 30-year-old Allen silenced keyboard warriors that criticized his recent moves when the young Torgerson landed the Shark Racing No. 1A in victory Sunday at BAPS Motor Speedway.

"We got the win tonight BAPS Motor Speedway! I can’t express enough how proud I am of Ashton and his driving tonight, he drove fantastic all day and in the feature he showed how talented of a driver he is! He deserved every bit of that win!" Allen wrote on Facebook. "I also can’t thank our guys enough, their hard work and dedication was everything you could ask for out of a team! I’m extremely proud of everyone involved! Tonight was a special one."

Torgerson won with Shark Racing in his second-ever race with the team. It was also his first career 410 win in his 25th-career start in the division.

“What a weekend starting off at Port Royal and making the main there,” Torgerson said in BAPS victory lane. “Coming into tonight, we talked about what we could do better and what I could do better with my driving.

“We started off good with quick time in our group, and second overall (in qualifying Sunday). I just can’t thank (team owner) Bobby (Allen) and Jacob enough for what they have done for me and giving me a chance. This thing was on rails. I know I made a couple of mistakes and need to clean that up, but it was a great night.”

Being so young with less than two-dozen 410 Sprint Car starts to his name, Torgerson wasn't the first driver most had in mind as Allen's second replacement aboard the Shark Racing No. 1A seat. From the outset of Torgerson's hire, Allen defended the move to hire the West Coast-based 410 Sprint Car rookie over other drivers on the market, namely free agents Zeb Wise and Dylan Cisney.

He even left a stern message in the comment section of a Facebook post by a Sprint Car racing observer.

"I don’t understand how any of the people in here think their opinions have any value," Allen said. "I don’t read one name that I know of that I’ve seen working on or owning a World of Outlaw team, High Limit team, or even a local team. How can so many of you be so certain and so invested in things when you have no involvement or understanding on any thing that goes on with our program?

"How can so many people be butt hurt that Cale got fired. Three out of three races Cale bent or tore up equipment. More equipment was torn up in two nights then Logan or I have torn up in five years on the road racing with the Outlaws. Sorry we don’t have a vending machine of spare parts or new parts. It’s a business, if Cale tore up that much equipment in three races, what does 70 races look like?

"It just didn’t work out. Move on people, or come down to the shop and help fix all the torn up stuff with the team. Peace."

Allen and Shark Racing have received more attention on social media the last few days when Pennsylvania Posse veteran Danny Dietrich called their win Sunday at BAPS into question. Dietrich posted zoomed-in screenshots of the Shark Racing No. 1A machine, accusing the team of dishing their top wing.

It was later mentioned that one of the screenshots was from Allen's Kubota High Limit Racing win last February at Golden Isles Speedway, but Dietrich still held his belief.

"As for (Ashton). He did a good job and won the race," Dietrich began. "He prolly has no idea his wing had a dish built into it. Or one of the wings he ran at some point. As for Shark Racing. (DIRTRACKr) posted that his photo is from (last February at) Golden Isles where Jacob won the race.

"Dished wings and bigger wickerbills, both make a huge difference, especially on a slick track. Hats off to Shark (Racing) but the cat's outta the bag."

Dietrich also posted a 45-minute-long video via Facebook Live further explaining his claim.

Allen's teammate, Logan Schuchart, denied Dietrich's accusation on Wednesday morning by posting a photo of his No. 1s machine from over the weekend at Knoxville Raceway with the caption: "Same wing as the 1A at Knoxville last week. I’d say Danny Dietrich's wing shows a little more ripples than this. Some people need to focus on their own cars instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing."

As for Jacob Allen's response to Dietrich's accusations, he let a pair of photos on Facebook page speak for itself.