“A bet is a bet,” said Dylan Hoch. That’s the reason behind why he donned an inflatable chicken jockey costume in victory lane. Hoch wore the special garb after winning the Slingshot World Championship at Pagoda MX Raceway in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Hoch won the special event three times — 2014, 2016, 2019. This year, however, it moved to the new Pagoda MX Raceway.
(For more on the new track, read “Pagoda MX Raceway: New Track in Pennsylvania Opens.”)
The weekend consists of six features in three days, with the driver’s best four finishes counting toward the title. Hoch placed third in the first feature on Friday. In the second feature he got collected in a melee. Justin House won both of Friday’s features, significantly reducing Hoch’s chances of winning another championship.
Hoch made several changes to his car prior to Saturday’s features. Those adjustments worked, with him winning both of Saturday’s features. Now Hoch had a shot at the championship once again. His cousin Derrick Romig proposed a bet with Hoch.
“Derrick thought I would win the championship,” Hoch, of Mertztown, Pennsylvania, said. “I know we now had a great car, but I had my doubts. He said, ‘If you win, you have to wear this chicken costume in victory lane.’ If I didn’t win, there was no consequence for Derrick. I made the bet anyway. I know it was silly, but it be a good laugh for everyone.”
On Sunday, he repeated his performance on Saturday, once again winning both features. At the end of the day, when Dylan Hoch pulled into victory lane, Romig came prepared with the costume. Hoch then proceeded to run a lap on foot dressed as a chicken jockey around the 1/5-mile oval.
“It was harder to run in that costume than it was to get my car to run on that track,” said Hoch. “It was a one-of-a-kind victory lap. We all had a good laugh.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
Photographers
The Outside Groove contributor from Macungie, Pennsylvania, has covered the sport since 2012. Sabo serves as the official track photographer of Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania. Photography is a family ordeal for Sabo. He shoots with his daughter, Abby, at Shellhammer Dirt Track in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. At Grandview and other venues Sabo travels to, he and his father, Stephen “Poppa Pepper” Sabo Sr., capture the night’s action with their cameras.
