Late Model Stock Cars
And Now Something Completely Different for Derek Thorn
Jul 2, 2022
The Butterbean Queen racing portfolio is under expansion.
The two-time Langley Speedway track champion, 2020 Hampton Heat winner and 2022 CARS Tour winner at his home track is winning elsewhere now too -- on dirt at Dixieland Speedway in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He followed up his first win in a Dirt Late Model on June 24 by winning again at Langley in NASCAR Weekly Series competition. He's having a blast in just racing anything he can get behind the wheel of these days.
His dirt appearances are coming under the HTS Motorsports banner with John Staton.
"I started helping John a couple of years ago and have kind of become a son to him, we’ve become family and he decided he wanted to help me make some dirt starts too," Queen said. "We had some tests and did pretty good and he says, ‘we’re going to race,’ and built me a car."
Queen, who is as dedicated a race fan as he is a racer is effectively living a dream in driving a variety of race cars, because it’s all he has ever wanted to do.
"Everyone wants to be Kyle Larson and I joke about that, but I mean it in the sense that he’s so good at adapting to different race cars, sometimes on the same weekend or same day," Queen said. "So, I really feel like the dirt car helps me with our pavement car too.
"To do what I did that weekend, winning both those races, is something I imagine doesn’t happen a lot. I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to drive both those cars and I was told I was the first driver to win at both of those tracks since 1986, and I think second overall so that’s really cool."
Queen doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, and he isn’t abandoning his pavement goals either, but he hopes he can continue winning locally and challenge himself against more national competition on dirt in the same way he does on pavement.
It’s that Larson analogy again.
"I’d love to do more dirt racing but right now, it’s about getting all the seat time I can and continuing to get better," Queen said. "And whatever the boss wants to do, I’m happy to do as long as he wants to let me do it."
On the forefront this weekend is the South Boston 200.
Queen has won the Hampton Heat at Langley against a similar level of competition and knows his pavement team is in for a challenge on Saturday night.
"This is going to be one of the toughest challenges yet, and definitely this season because we just haven’t raced at South Boston a lot," Queen said. "We like feeling like an underdog and it gives us something to overcome.
"But given our season and what we’ve accomplished on asphalt and dirt, I just want to come out of here with a good finish and learn a lot and set ourselves up well for the Triple Crown. But the way things are going, I don’t see why we can’t do it. We have to stick to our plan and just be there at the end."
These marquee races are of the upmost importance to Queen Motorsports.
"These are the best facilities, the biggest races and the toughest competition," Queen said. "It’s a huge race and all these races and if you win tonight, really, I think against this field you can say it’s the biggest win you could get outside of a Martinsville."
