September 2021 “The Brandon’s Edition”
It’s been a big month and the World is back to normal now after the globes circled the earth once more. The race for the top spot in the ranking was highly contested with a virtual tie and eventually Brandon Overton took over with Brandon Sheppard doing a slide job to slip into 2nd place. Jonathan Davenport is not out of this by any stretch of the imagination. All it takes at this time of year is for one of the top guns to DNF while the others have high finishing positions and the ranking positions can flip flop quickly.
Tim McCredie is having a Championship year and I expect him to win his long awaited Lucas title. Bobby Pierce and Devin Moran are each having a great year. The future is bright for these two young drivers.
Let’s move east to the great state of Pennsylvania and talk about the next three spots in the ranking. Gregg Satterlee is impressive this year and the wins just keep on coming. Max Blair has slid down the ranking as he has branched out against tougher competition and bigger races. Next let’s bring in one of the best regional racers in the country Dave Hess Jr. With his 20th qualifying race he has made a statement in the ranking.
Last but not least is Tyler Erb. Besides his poor results at Eldora he’s done great. He’s another very exciting driver to watch.
Well folks that wraps up September and it’s been another great month of racing with many ebbs and flows in the rates and rankings. It looks like Brandon Overton is cruising toward #1 but I’m not going to count out Brandon Sheppard and Jonathan Davenport. Anything can happen and a few bad races will hurt Brandon Overton’s overall average with little time to recover as the year winds down.
The ranking qualifier number is now set for 20 features in September and will continue to stay there for the rest of the year. Currently 122 drivers have met this threshold. All results are tracked via DirtonDirt. Without them and their attention to detail because they’re the best, I couldn’t do this and have this much fun. The SLMP ranking will next be published around Thanksgiving time with the Big Top 100. After that it’s full steam ahead into 2022.
With 1379 drivers currently being tracked since January 1st, here is the SLM Performance Ranking “Top 50” for September. It’s the “Best of the Best” from around the country.
1 Brandon Overton
2 Brandon Sheppard
3 Jonathan Davenport
4 Tim McCreadie
5 Bobby Pierce
6 Devin Moran
7 Gregg Satterlee
8 Max Blair
9 Dave Hess Jr.
10 Tyler Erb
11 Dona Marcoullier
12 Hudson O’Neal
13 Tanner English
14 Jared Miley
15 Jimmy Owens
16 Chris Madden
17 Dale McDowell
18 Donald McIntosh
19 Ashton Winger
20 B.J. Robinson
21 Jacob Hawkins
22 Brian Shirley
23 Brian Rickman
24 Ross Bailes
25 Ricky Thornton Jr.
26 Nick Hoffman
27 Frank Heckenast Jr.
28 Michael Norris
29 Ryan Unzicker
30 Kyle Bronson
31 Billy Moyer
32 Zack Dohm
33 Kyle Beard
34 Travis Stemler
35 Mike Marlar
36 Gary Stuhler
37 Sam Seawright
38 Tony Jackson Jr.
39 Chris Ferguson
40 Jeff Rine
41 Garrett Alberson
42 Rusty Schlenk
43 Shannon Babb
44 Wyatt Scott
45 Tyler Bruening
46 Devin Gilpin
47 Josh Richards
48 Greg Oakes
49 Josh Rice
50 Jimmy Mars
What is the Super Late Model Performance Ranking? The SLM Performance Ranking has its origins from the A-Team Ranking developed by Sam Holbrooks in 1996 and printed in “Behind the Wheel” and Late Model America.” The SLM Performance Ranking is a national ranking for Open Motor events that pay a minimum $2500 to win. Each driver who makes a feature event will earn a mathematical formula based rate built on performance, competition and durability. The final ranking is based on rate and logic rules that reward racing more. Nothing in the rate, rank or logic is subjective. It’s just all numbers, math and rules. The SLM Performance Ranking isn’t about who is best but who is having the best year. If you think that makes the driver “The Best” that’s ok with me.
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Mike Ruefer
Photographer & Writer