Dave Hammond has owned and operated his namesake company, Hammond Motorsports, for more than 40 years. Now, he’s handed over the keys to it and DirtCarUSA to new owners: Logan Anderson and Travis Denning.
Hammond will stay on with the company as the new owners take over Hammond Motorsports. Will there be changes? Yes, but the new owners made them to better serve racers.
Like Hammond, both Anderson and Denning are racers, in late models and modifieds, respectively. Anderson made a name for himself in sport mods, winning more than 100 features, before moving into modifieds last year. There he won 11 features in his rookie season. Anderson met Hammond through iRacing and Denning’s a long-time customer of Hammond’s.
An accident three years ago started the gears turning for Hammond to consider selling the business he built.
“I fell and landed on the snout of a wide-five axle tube that was just sitting there, dripping oil,” Hammond said. “Nothing has been the same for me since then. Dr. Chris Beckwith, a chiropractic neurologist who specializes in concussions, saved my life. I’m still going for therapy, and when things relapse, it could be a month or more before I can work.
“It was time to pass the torch,” Hammond continued. “And put my business in the hands of two younger people who are just as aggressive as I am.”
Hammond Motorsports and DirtCarUSA will operate out of two locations: Anderson’s shop in Pella, Iowa, and Denning’s shop in Rock Falls, Illinois. The company will offer daily parts delivery within a 2.5-hour radius of its locations. Rock Falls will manufacture parts. Both shops will carry a full line of parts, with new walk-in retail stores for Hammond Motorsports to open soon. They will also operate a parts truck at East Moline Speedway.
“Eventually, we will have a location in the Quad Cities — we’re looking at locations,” Anderson said. “We want walk-in sales with personal service. We’ll soon have a newer user-friendly website.”
The new owners will continue working with Performance Bodies, with Performance Bodies distributing Hammond Motorsports-made products, such as its popular setup plates, and Hammond Motorsports retailing Performance Bodies products.
Furthermore, Anderson intends to sell a newly designed IMCA modified through DirtCarUSA, which he debuted during the IMCA TV Clash on the Coast.
“The future is bright for Hammond Motorsports customers,” Anderson said. “We are excited for our plans.”
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.
