Few drivers have created quite as much buzz during the annual Gateway Dirt Nationals as Jason Welshan.

Written by Robert Holman of DirtonDirt.com

While the Rockford, Tenn., driver has enjoyed significant regional success — especially wheeling Limited and Crate Late Models at tracks in the western foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains — he was a relative unknown on the national scene before setting fast time and winning his heat during the 2017 race inside the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. 

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As if setting fast time among 94 entries and starting from the pole position in ’17 wasn’t enough, Welshan grabbed even more attention when, during driver introductions, he walked through the fog and onto the stage holding a makeshift sign — “SCOTT WHO?” — in reference to Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer and fellow east Tennessean Scott Bloomquist, 2016’s inaugural Gateway Dirt Nationals winner.

Finishing fourth in 2017 and again last season, Welshan is one of four drivers to record a top-five finish in two of three Gateway Dirt Nationals main events (Bloomquist, Bobby Pierce and Don O’Neal are the other three). It’s the type of success regional racers dream of when preparing for the Gateway Dirt Nationals, an event that many believe is an equalizer between small budget teams and their well-funded counterparts.

“We’re gonna be down (on horsepower), but I’m hoping the small track will help even that up,” said Matt Henderson of Loudon, Tenn, who plans to enter his Luke Crass-owned CVR Race Car equipped with a Limited Late Model engine. “I think the big cubic inch motors can’t pull enough gear to not lug down in race conditions. Like last year when I was watching it, a guy gets his nose chopped off and checks up for a guy and his car would start shuttering where it was trying to shut off. I’m probably gonna be 50 or 60 points of gear ahead of those guys, so I’m hoping that plays into my favor, too.”

Henderson is among a handful of Tennesseans — there are a dozen drivers from the Volunteer State pre-entered — hoping to make a splash in St. Louis this weekend. Most of them are more than familiar with Welshan and his recent success because they regularly compete against him.

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“(Welshan) is not somebody that I’d say I’m even friends with. We’ve alway been competitors,” Henderson said. “But to see him go out there and have success, I mean, I was cheering him on you know. To see a guy that you race against week in and week out, go out against the best and have a good run really just says how good your program is when you’re able to run door-to-door with him when he comes back home and things like that. That stuff just means a lot. I’ve always pulled for him when he qualified good and even when he brought out his signs poking the bear (in 2017) you know.”

Another expected Gateway competitor, David Seibers of Chapel Hill, Tenn., said it’s easy to pull for a dark horse like Welshan.

“It’s always nice to see the underdog run good against the competitors who are always at races like that,” said Seibers, the reigning MARS Racing Series champion. “I mean, it also makes you feel better about yourself, knowing you’ve been competitive with guys like that and you’re going to the same deal.”

Winchester, Tenn.’s Jadon Frame feels the same way. He’s competed against both Welshan and Benton, Ky.’s Tanner English — last year’s fast qualifier and a heat race winner — at a number of bullrings in the South.

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“Having success racing against them makes you think you have the ability to run good (at the Dome) just because around home we race against them and have battled side-by-side with them,” Frame said. “It’s gonna take hard work and a just a good baseline setup to try to get in and have success like they have had. I think it’s gonna take a bunch of luck, but I do think anybody can do it. It’s the type if racetrack that not many people’s been to. Not many people’s got a bunch of notes. Anything could happen up there, is what I think.”

Seibers agreed with Frame’s assessment because the Dome's fifth-mile layout “is not something they race on all year long,” he said. “It’s not a normal racetrack that everybody has a notebook to, so it kinda just plays into anybody’s favor. I consider a lot of it luck, keeping your car clean and nose clean and staying out of trouble.”

Like Henderson and Frame, Seibers is entering the indoor event for the first time. But while Henderson and Frame will be seeing the monstrous facility up close for the first time, Seibers has been to the Dome as a spectator. After wrapping up the MARS title, he decided he’d finally give the race a try.

“I enjoyed just watching it. I raced on a track similar to that the past two years in a row, so I feel like it’d be fun to race at it,” Seibers said. “After all that (MARS) championship stuff was over, we just decided we’d try it. The atmosphere is great and it’s always nice to do something that’s different than normal, you know with it being inside and all.”

Henderson, who has watched all three years of the event on the pay-per-view video, said he wanted to compete in last year’s race, but was unable to make the trip. He’s glad he’s finally able to scratch it off his bucket list this year.

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“We found some things with the car there toward the end (of the season last year) and that just made us not go ahead and finish it out and go,” Henderson said. “We just want to be part of an event like that. Even if it’s only a small part of it. It’s just cool. I want to be a part of the atmosphere and my car owner wants to be part of the atmosphere.

“Just being a part of something that’s that massive … You know, you go to football games and the crowd is really into it and everybody is there just to be a part of it and dirt racing as a whole doesn’t have those events like that. This is like the World 100, but where a guy that’s not a top-tier budget team can still go out there and compete because the racetrack is small enough to kinda even things up and things of that nature.”

That’s part of the attraction. So is the circus-like atmosphere. Inside the Dome, the Hollywood catchphrase “lights, camera, action” takes on a whole new meaning.

“I guess it was a month or so ago, (car owner) Joe (Denby) said, ’I think we should go and try to run it,’ ” Frame said. “He wanted to go and we’d sent our (entry) in so we decided we’d go. We think it’d be a fun show to try to go and experience for once and if we have good luck we may return. Just seeing the event on TV, just seeing all the flashing lights in the stands and the fireworks, it’s just an amazing thing and it’d be neat to be in it or watching it from the sidelines. But it’d be better sitting in a race car. You know what I mean?”

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As for a choreographed driver’s introduction should they crack Saturday’s starting grid, none of the three said they’ve gotten that far ahead of themselves. First things first, Henderson said.

“The guy that does my graphics on my car, and even the car owner was like, ‘Have you thought about it?’ I said look, it’s a long road to get to that point and if we make it, we’ll worry about the fans,” Henderson said. “I’m optimistic, but I’m realistic and I know it’ll take a lot of work to get there. I don’t know if it’s the right attitude, but my outlook is that I have four months to fix anything I tear up before I’m worried about racing again. So I’m just going to leave it all out there and whatever happens happens. We’re gonna go 100 percent every lap, starting in hot laps on Thursday.”

Added Seibers: “That’s something that my wife and kids have been thinking of and stuff like that. I’m going to race and try to do the best I can do and hope to be on the stage.”