The Sportsman class has always been a challenge to win.  It is a mixture of up-and-coming young gun talent mixed with some cagey veterans of the sport, that have been winning races since the early years of National Trail Raceway.  This past season saw a “young gun” take home the championship as Shawn Pitts won the 2024 JEGS ET Series Sportsman Championship.

Shawn’s Sportsman season started slowly picking up a few round wins here and there at the beginning, but it was at the halfway point where he really turned it on.  Shawn always seems to turn it up a notch when a Wally is on the line and per usual, he did just that on July 27^th as he picked up his first in of the season during the NHRA.tv Challenge.  Pitts battled it out for the points championship the rest of summer all the way down to the final race weekend of the year.  Shawn won the 2^nd to last points race putting himself in the lead and knowing that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to overtake him.  And after 2^nd round at the final race on Sunday, he was declared the champion!

 “This year has been very busy at Trails with running 3 classes and being in the top 3 in each of those takes a lot of hard work and dedication from my team and me.  We have battled week in and week out to try to be the best that we can and to put ourselves in positions to win,” said a smiling Shawn Pitts. “I want to thank my dad Steve, my mom Becky and my girlfriend Hannah as they have been there for me, supporting me, cheering me on and always helping me, without them I wouldn’t be able to do any of this.”

Next year Shawn plans on making a run for all 3-track championship (Super Pro, Pro and Sportsman) and to hit some of the big money bottom bulb races that he can.

Congrats to Shawn Pitts the 2024 JEGS ET Series Sportsman Track Champion.