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Bailes and AK Race Cars plan HTF Title Chase

Adding even more firepower to an already talented roster of competitors set to battle across the Southeast in 2025, Ross Bailes has announced plans to follow the full Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series this season.

Bailes, a longtime standout Late Model racer from Clover, S.C., has joined forces with Austin Kirkpatrick and AK Race Cars for his first full-time HTF Series campaign and has his sights set firmly on the tour’s $50,000 championship.

With multiple victories on both the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and World of Outlaws Late Model Series, Bailes figures to be a serious contender in this year’s HTF title chase. His impressive résumé also includes a Carolina Clash Series championship (2018), a pair of $20,000 victories in Virginia Motor Speedway’s King of the Commonwealth (2022) and the USA 100 at Beckley Motor Speedway (2023), along with numerous other five-figure paydays.

Competing mostly close to home in 2024, Bailes raced with the HTF Series in all three of the tour’s visits to the Carolinas. He made his presence known with a runner-up finish at Cherokee Speedway, a third at Lancaster Motor Speedway and a seventh at Ultimate Motorsports Park.

Now, teaming up with Austin Kirkpatrick and AK Race Cars, Bailes is ready to tackle a full season of HTF Series competition and go head-to-head with the Southeast’s best Super Late Model drivers.

The quest for the $50,000 Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series championship begins Saturday, March 8, when the series kicks off its points season with a $20,000-to-win event at I-75 Raceway in Niota, Tenn. Follow the championship chase all season long by streaming every HTF Series event live on Hunt the Front TV!

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