Remember Brandon Sheppard? He’s the New Berlin race car driver we wrote about last summer, midway through a breakout season that saw him speed and slide his way to the top of the national dirt car racing scene. Sports Illustrated might have the dreaded cover jinx, but not Illinois Times, as Sheppard just kept winning after we plastered him on newsstands everywhere (“Cleaning up,” Aug. 10, 2017). He ended the season by winning the points championship in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, good for a $100,000 check he collected on Nov. 7, which brought his World of Outlaw winnings to $398,000 for the year. He won 18 of the 43 races he entered on the circuit and finished in the top five 37 times. This week, dirtondirt. com, a leading website for dirt car racing, named Sheppard driver of the year. Also this week, National Speed Sport News, which boasts that it is the only motorsports periodical available on microfilm in the Library of Congress, put Sheppard sixth in its prestigious power rankings, which ranks the best drivers in the nation and includes NASCAR and drag racing as well as dirt track and Indy car competitors. But Sheppard remains his typical stoic self, according to his father, Steve Sheppard, who said his son didn’t get much excited at the honors. “He’s pretty calm and cool and collected – it’s just really shocking how he reacts to things,” Steve Sheppard says. Up next are races in St. Louis scheduled for Dec. 14-16, but there’s a big if: Sheppard’s baby is due to be born in mid-December, so he might be in a maternity ward instead behind the wheel. But if the baby is anything like her father, it will be a fast delivery.