INTERVIEW: Dylan Parsons recaps 2024 Pro SPEC championship season

The last time Dylan Parsons sat down with The Checkered Flag, he was preparing for his rookie season in Championship Off-Road‘s Pro SPEC class. A year and a half later, when TCF caught up with Parsons on Friday, he was the newly crowned champion of the category.

TCF and Parsons recapped his 2024 season, discussed the growth of the Pro SPEC class and what makes it one of the most popular divisions in short course today, and even chatted a bit about snocross and what’s to come in 2025.

A transcript of the interview can be found here.

The 2024 Season

Parsons finished fourth in the 2023 Pro SPEC standings. It took some time to get used to his new confines after moving up from 1600 Single Buggy, but he found some steam in the closing stretch with three podiums: a pair of thirds in both races at Bark River International Raceway and a second in the season finale at MidAmerica Outdoors.

“Towards the end of the year, we started podiuming in ’23 and then got Rookie of the Year. We were just building up momentum and just not trying to wreck the truck,” he began. “Beginning of the season, I came in, I tested twice before the season and I’m like, ‘We were ready coming into the first race to run with those guys,’ and we won the first race of the year. We were ready to go.”

The strong ending to his first year proved so encouraging that he picked up full-season sponsorship from Toys For Trucks. A pickup aftermarket accessories seller, the company first appeared on Parsons’ #99 truck at the 2023 Crandon World Cup weekend before stepping up for the entire 2024 campaign. TJ Larson and Bill Ciuplinski, respectively the President and Vice President of Retail, also attended races.

Parsons described the sponsorship activation as “super cool. We’re kind of local and we see Toys for Trucks, they have a couple stores right by us, but most people don’t realise that they have like thirty stores across the country. They bought a couple 4 Wheel Parts and they’re kind of the same thing as a 4 Wheel Parts. Some of their numbers on sales, I never would have even realised that they sell so much of Bilstein and CURT Hitches and things like that. They’re a huge supplier for a lot of those products.”

The 2024 campaign kicked off with the Mayhem at the Motorplex, the first of two rounds at Dirt City Motorplex. The track was the site of Parsons’ first Pro SPEC podium last year when he finished third, and one that he is more than familiar with. He took the lead on the opening lap of the first race and never looked back en route to his maiden truck win, then capped off the weekend with a second in Race #2.

“I got hundreds and hundreds of laps on Lena. It’s the closest track to us and to go test there, we tested there multiple times,” Parsons explained. “Going there and winning, it’s not my favourite track of them all, but we had competitive lap times and we showed up and knew we were ready to go. Winning the first race, it kind of didn’t set in all weekend. We went first and second over the weekend and we were like, ‘Okay, we know we can run with these guys. We knew we can run with them last year. We just have to execute and be there when we have to be.'”

The Antigo Off-Road National at Antigo Lions Roaring Raceway ended up being his worst outing of the season, though it still had its moments. He was able to notch a third on the first day before a flat tyre dropped him to fifth, which he pointed out was due to contact rather than a tyre failure.

A second at the Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run got him back on track before being mired in drama with fellow title competitor Chris Van Den Elzen at ERX Motor Park, where the two collided mid-air in the closing laps on Friday. He salvaged a third, though he admitted he was “pretty upset about” how he was raced.

“We talked the next day, we were good, but it was escalating a little bit there,” he continued.

Parsons noted he also had to get aggressive at times to stay alive for the championship. This was evident at Bark River where things got physical as he held off Van Den Elzen in order to take the points lead: “We bumped on that last lap there and I made an aggressive pass for the win, but you’re going for the win that late in the season for points, if the opening was there, you had to go for it.”

Bark River was an unusually busy time for the series. Besides the usual Off-Road Rumble in the UP, a third race day was added to make up for the Brush Run’s Saturday being rained out. To make Parsons’ schedule even more crowded, he also raced his buggy again that Friday.

Nevertheless, he had a near-perfect weekend as he won on Friday and Sunday. Despite Saturday being marred by a flat that dropped him a lap down, he clawed back onto the lead lap after a red flag to finish second. Perhaps to make the runner-up all the better, he finished ahead of Van Den Elzen and fellow contender Nick Visser.

“I knew coming into the weekend that it was going to be super busy. I actually got an extra guy to come with just because I’m like, ‘We have three days to turn this truck around and if we have any problems, we’re going to be busting our butts,'” he recalled. “Bark River is probably my favorite track. Winning on Friday, it just escalated. We had a flat tyre on Saturday and still battled back to get second. I think the truck was battle tested Saturday like we had no body left. Definitely, winning at Bark River that weekend was as best-case scenario as you could get throughout that weekend, and then we took the Champ points lead at Bark River.”

Parsons entered the Polaris World Championship Races at Crandon International Raceway with a healthy advantage over Visser to the point where he simply needed to start Saturday to secure the title. The non-points race on Sunday, which was part of the Red Bull World Cup, did not go as hoped as he was wrecked out on the opening lap; while it was his only retirement of the year, it not affecting the championship meant it didn’t put too much of a damper on his weekend.

“We came into the weekend and we had to start the race, we had to qualify within a couple positions of Nick. He qualified first and I got second, so I just had to start and I won the championship,” elucidated Parsons. “It was just, ‘Okay, let’s go race. We don’t have to worry about winning the championship, any of that.’

“The high all weekend was up there. You can’t even explain that high. The weekend was awesome. Saturday, it was a dream come true and it was pretty cool.

“Winning at Crandon, I won my first race there in buggy. Winning the ring, that would have been cool to win on Sunday. But winning the championship, we did what we could do. We got taken out on Sunday on the first lap and that was our only DNF for the year; that was my choice because we came into the pits and the tyre was all wrapped up. I couldn’t have won two laps down, but you don’t get paid for fourth in the Red Bull Cup.”

He finished the season with 644 points, 47 more than Van Den Elzen and 49 on Visser, and five wins (he also notched one at the Dirt City Off-Road National). After spending his rookie year trying to get used to the truck, he’s far more comfortable now.

“I’m finally to the point where I feel I can drive it the same way as the buggy. It’s just ‘jump in and drive,’ and it’s just like you drove it like that,” he said. “It was the same thing jumping in the buggy the first time: the first two years, I wrecked a lot of stuff and stuff like that. That was the goal with the truck: the parts were way more expensive, you need to not wreck things. That’s why I was like, ‘I had to go out and prove myself that I can drive it.’

“Now, I can jump in that thing and drive it however I want and it’s super comfortable. That was definitely a learning curve. Last year, I was constantly chasing, it felt like traction, just trying not to spin out in traction. This year, I could throw the truck wherever I wanted to and I knew what it was going to do. I think the Kenda tyres helped a lot on that. Our setup worked well, like we built the trucks all at the same time, Mikey (Vanden Heuvel) had been working with Pro Lites that have been running Kendas for years now.”

Vanden Heuvel, the head of Flying Dutchman Off-Road, and Parsons’ team manager Matt Gerald have been instrumental in developing the truck since entering Pro SPEC.

“Mikey, I go up there maybe once a week and go to lunch with them or whatever, just shooting ideas off each other,” Parsons remarked. “We did a couple things this summer throughout the year and made the truck faster throughout the year. There were just some stepping stones of stuff we wanted to do and we did it before Bark River, we did a couple changes and before spring Crandon and it was huge. We definitely felt the speed come from the stuff we did in the truck.”

The Pro SPEC class

“That’s really cool to know that we’re putting on just as good a show as Pro 2, Pro 4, everything else and we’re not the level they are.”

– Dylan Parsons

Parsons’ first year in Pro SPEC was the third for the class. It was founded in 2021 with input from Ryan Beat, a Pro 2 star who helped design and test the truck. The début season as an actual championship came the following year, where just four drivers competing for the 2022 title, before the grid more than doubled with nine the following year.

As the name suggests, Pro SPEC has certain parts that are identical between trucks to promote parity and provide a more affordable yet competitive option for those looking to climb the short course ladder. The stock engine is one such component, which Parsons noted is exceptionally durable in quality and performance. Although a Pro SPEC truck tends to be pricier than a Pro Lite, which might convince drivers to buy the latter, the engine helps make Pro SPEC the smarter investment in the long run.

“There are all these Pro Lites that guys are seeing for sale for so cheap. You get to explain to them like, ‘How much time’s on all that stuff? Is it all new?’ Then you see a Pro SPEC that’s for sale, I know there are two of them for sale and they’re priced way higher than a Pro Lite, but those engines have zero time on them,” Parsons started. “They’re brand new, they are both brand new, gone-through trucks.

“I’m on my second season on an engine and I haven’t done anything with it; maintenance, that’s all we’ve done. It’s been proven that you could take a stock engine and race. We bounce them off the rev limiter and everyone knows that, but no failures and that engine’s been great versus some of these higher classes. They’re rebuilding engines halfway through the season and Pro Lites are buying engines and shipping them off and getting them rebuilt right away. It’s a big expense where this engine, yeah, it’s $9,000 with all electronics, but it’ll run. Wiring harness all the way out to the alternator, you hook fuel to it and it’ll run.

“My opinion is they’re spending more than that to rebuild them. You just buy a new one and put it in when you think the time is that you blow it up or it’s wore out or whatever, but I’m going to do some leakdown on mine and stuff like that this winter and see where we’re at. It feels stronger now than it did last season, I’ve probably been driving a little bit but it doesn’t seem to be so.”

Besides the equipment, Pro SPEC also offers a solid field of drivers looking to break into the higher rungs of short course. Ronald Kosciesza, the only other full-time driver and a 2024 rookie moving up from Sportsman trucks, was never in the title conversation but enjoyed strong runs as well that included a podium at Bark River.

Part-timers impressed as well. Hunter VanZile was a Mod Kart competitor before heading into Pro SPEC and won at Bark River. Christopher Parrish, who did double duty in Championship Off-Road and on pavement in the Formula 4 United States Championship, won three times at Antigo, Crandon, and ERX. 13-year-old Mod Kart champion Avery Hemmer acquired 2023 Pro SPEC titlist Chad Rayford‘s truck, and Parsons—who had the same truck setup as Rayford in 2023—served as her spotter for testing before the Crandon finale where she finished third in both races.

Other 2024 competitors included Diesel Shanak, who dubiously received the Tough Luck Award for his misfortunes throughout the season en route to a sixth in points, 2022 and 2023 Mod Kart champ Porter Inglese, and the returning Aaron Messenger and Justin Tessmer, who each scored a top five at Fall Crandon.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Wyatt Miller was perhaps the most notable face. Despite being just 12 years old, the dirt track racer and fourth-generation Earnhardt strung together three straight podiums to begin his short course career. Parsons described both Parrish and Miller as “super fast,” while opining the latter could be a major boon in promoting short course because of his background and pace. Miller plans to return to the series in 2025, which he feels is “is putting more eyes on the sport. There’s a few young kids and it’s like, ‘Well, you got to race them the same as everyone else, but you got to remember that they’re 12.’

“Having them come in is only going to make our sponsors get more publicity. Bass Pro Shops is going to post things about that and our truck’s in the same picture or JR Motorsports or whatever. It can put more eyes on short course with him coming in, just like back in the 90s, no one really knew Jimmie Johnson raced short course. That’s where he came from, and he went and did what he did in NASCAR for all those years.

“There’s the crossover of the stepping stones and hopefully Wyatt goes to that at some point and he can say he raced short course to start to grow himself into what he’s going to do.”

With so many personalities and the championship’s three-man battle, it is no wonder that Pro SPEC was a fan favourite in 2024. Parsons cited The Impulse Show, a podcast focused on short course who “would always say we were the best race to watch like every race. We would put on a show every race and there were people coming up to me at the parade and Lena, at Crandon, like, ‘You guys are putting on a great show. All this stuff.’

“That’s really cool to know that we’re putting on just as good a show as Pro 2, Pro 4, everything else and we’re not the level they are.”

The 2025 Season

While the 2024 season just concluded in September, Parsons is already at work in expanding Shock Tech Racing for 2025.

“We bought a semi a couple weeks ago so that’s going to help out with the programme,” he said. “I think I took five trailers to Fall Crandon, just between campers and extra trailers and the UTV and parts. Everything will be all going in one trailer, that’s going to be super nice, and just defend the Pro SPEC title. We got a few other companies coming onboard for next year that we are working out some final details. That’ll help in like, just trying to make the truck better.

“There’s still room for improvement on making the setup better and truck better and there’s a few things I want to change, but just do the same thing again.”

Over the winter, his focus will be on AMSOIL Championship Snocross, where he works as a mechanic. The series is overseen by International Series of Champions, the same sanctioning body that runs Championship Off-Road. The 2024/25 season begins at Mt. Zion Ski Hill (Ironwood, Michigan) on 13/14 December and concludes at Spirit Mountain (Duluth, Michigan) on 4–6 April.

While a different motorsport from short course, there are plenty of aspects that can be applied from one to the other. Parsons himself used to do snocross and cross-country snowmobile racing when he was younger, but found he “had more fun wrenching on snowmobiles.”

“It’s a lot of the same thing,” he explained. “A lot of the stuff I learned from my programme, I’ve learned from snocross and back and forth. You’re dealing with the same people; Champ runs Snocross also, so all the officiating, most of them you’re dealing with the same people. I’m just a wrench for one of the teams. Last year, I worked with Nick Lorenz and we got second in Pro-Lite points. That was a lot of fun and it’s a good filler that I can work for a team like that and then still do my programme in the summer. Super pumped for that. You get to see the country too. I went to Canada last year, Deadwood. It’s super cool.

“You prep the sleds at the shop, you race one day, and then you take it all apart and redo it and put it back together for the next day. It’s the same mindset with a snowmobile as you do with the truck, like it’s make sure you get one chance to go on the track and you got to make sure everything’s perfect.”

Besides Champ, Parsons plans to go to the Mint 400 in March for the newly added short course races if Pro SPEC is invited. He and his classmates have a group in which “most of us wanted to go and it sounds like Beat wants to go, so as long as we get the funds for that, we’re going to go there.”

Once Snocross and possibly the Mint are out of the way, it is full steam ahead to the 2025 Championship Off-Road season. The year begins on 2–4 May at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, a track Parsons visited in 2023 and told TCF soon after that he would love to see on the COR calendar. Indeed, he reiterated that position on Friday.

“Super pumped to go to Wheatland in May,” Parsons commented. “I’ve been there once with the MidAmerica UTV series, but I just went and helped out Colin (Kernz) and that was the first time ever being there. That was the time when the Pro Lites ran there and my truck wasn’t quite done and I’m like, ‘I’m not going down there for that first time driving it,’ kind of thing. But that track looks awesome, like that big jump in the back and the over/under, there’s no track like that around here. I’m super pumped to go there. That should be really fun.”

Besides the usual returning tracks, the series also plans to head to Deadwood for the Black Hills Shootout, which was previously on the 2024 schedule before being pushed back a year. While Parsons likes the area thanks to Snocross, he revealed he isn’t entirely sure if it will happen due to “some issues with permits or something like that.” Arizona and California have also been raised as potential alternatives, though he would prefer Deadwood if possible since it is a closer trip from the Midwest.

“It’s South Dakota or further west,” he heard. “There’s kind of some rumbling of what’s happening there and rumours and stuff like that. I mean, South Dakota would be cool. We race Snocross there and Deadwood is a super cool town. Everything’s right there and supposedly the track was going to be close to town.

“I’m not sure where they’ll put the track there. It’s not mountainous, but it’s pretty hilly right there. There’s cliffs and stuff like that. We’ll see.”

Regardless of where COR goes, he is ready to go for back-to-back Pro SPEC titles.

“I’m just super pumped on the championship. Between Matt and I, that was the goal. That’s always the goal is to win the championship,” Parsons concluded. “I think winning that, we’ve just got to keep growing on it and defend it next year. Just keep growing at it.

“The future is endless. It’s just how far can we go?”

Interview on YouTube