The plan had always been for Sam Mars to eventually take the seat of the MB Customs house car, the very ride made reputable by his Hall of Fame father Jimmy. But this soon? The 19-year-old couldn’t have predicted that.

“I know my dad talked about it quite a bit, and I knew he was going to retire after 50 years old,” the teenaged Mars said in a phone interview this week with DirtonDirt.com. “But I didn’t know what was going to happen. I knew Dustin (Sorensen) was taking over. I didn’t know how long that was going to be. For the most part, I knew one day it was going to come. And here we are.”

Indeed, that day the Menomonie, Wis., youngster is speaking of — his debut in the No. 28 that’s synonymous with his father and his uncle Chris Mars as crew chief — will arrive with Jan. 6’s opener of the Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park. The six-race miniseries is as advantageous as it gets for someone like Mars just getting his feet wet in the open-competition Super Late Model ranks. (Mars estimates he has 100 laps total at the open-competition level.)

Although the entry list approaches 50 drivers and teams, only four of those competitors — Bobby Pierce, Mike Marlar, Brandon Sheppard, and Tyler Erb — finished inside DirtonDirt.com’s Top 25 poll to conclude the 2023 season. With the sport’s heaviest hitters sitting out comes an opportunity for Mars to bust into the limelight and perhaps make a name of his own.

“The competitive part of it, everyone’s really good,” Mars said of the jump-up to open-competition Supers. “They all have top-notch equipment and they’re getting after it all the time. As far as goals, I’d like to run up front, go out there and make every show. Get a couple top 10s, a couple top fives, and compete. A win would be really cool.”

The car, as evidenced by Sorensen’s pair of top-15 runs and starts in all six miniseries features last year, is certainly capable of fulfilling Mars’s wishes. And as far as taking over the MB Customs house car ride, the younger Mars has spent the last four years rigorously preparing for this moment — from working alongside his father Jimmy and uncle Chris in the daily building of family-branded cars to cutting his teeth in WISSOTA-sanctioned events.

Last year Mars followed the 18-race WISSOTA Challenge Series and assembled the following the stat line en route to a fourth-place points finish: five top fives and 11 top 10s with a best finish of third in June 8’s stop at KRA Speedway in Willmar, Minn. In the two years before that, Mars won back-to-back Wisconsin state championships, where a driver’s best 20 finishes across America’s Dairyland are counted toward the points race. Mars also has a track title at Red Cedar Speedway — his hometown track — and a WISSOTA 100 podium finish in ’21.

All told, the elder Mars wants the rest of the Dirt Late Model world to understand that he isn’t turning the keys of the house car operation over to his son because, well, he’s merely his son.

Sammy, as his family calls him, is the most viable candidate to fill the vacated seat left by Sorensen, who is bound for the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series this season with his own family operation.

“That was one thing, whether it’s the right way I do stuff or not,” the elder Mars said in a recent phone interview. “I didn’t just turn the reins over to him last year and hand everything over to my kid. He’s had to earn everything he’s got. He’s matured a lot. I appreciate what’s there. He’s learned about the fundamentals of race cars. He runs his own business. He’s years above being 19 years old, let’s put it that way.

“He’s not just a kid where his dad bought him a race car and said, ‘Let’s go race.’ He knows how to put his own race cars together; learned why race cars do what they do and what stuff he’s supposed to do on the race cars. He’s learned a lot in a short period of time. I’m proud of him as an individual, not just the racing world.”

Of course, as any father would, in the words of Mars, “There’s nothing more exciting than watching my kid have good runs out there.” The elder Mars will not only get that pleasure by shepherding Sam to the next level, but also fathering his 16-year-old son, Taylor, as he starts a his own Late Model career this year.

“It’s going to be a busy year,” the elder Mars said.

Who knows how many races the Mars boys will log on the whole in ’24, but Sam is hoping to compete in more than 60 events, which would be his most aggressive schedule yet. The MB Customs house car team entered roughly 40 events across the Midwest with Sorensen last season, a pick-and-choose schedule that’ll look similar with the younger Mars now at the wheel.

“We race within our means,” the elder Mars said. “We’re not going to go out, at this point in time, and travel any series or focus on any series. We’re just going to be focused on what races make sense in our area.”

Consistency has been the one virtue that Sam Mars is focused on embodying, both on and off the racetrack. That starts with simply taking care of his equipment, and only having a single DNF in 18 WISSOTA Challenge Series events last year is a good place to start.

“Even on my bad nights, I’d run somewhere in the top five or top 10 … being able to stay up front,” Mars said. “I didn’t get as many wins as I wanted, but I was in contention. Just close and always contending. That’s the big part of it. Being able to contend and compete. That was a big part in getting ready for this next opportunity.”

And while the younger Mars is essentially an open-competition rookie, he’s learned how to handle the pressure that could come with his family’s well respected last name.

“It’s a lot to live up to, but at the same time, they’re almost hoping I’m better than they were,” the younger Mars said. “They want to win as much as I do. As far as pressure, it’s always been there. I don’t think about it that much anymore. I’d be lying if at some points I didn’t. You get used to it. And just keep digging because it’s always going to be there.

“Definitely when I was younger I didn’t know how to deal with it. Then I got older, and I just realized I’m my own person, too, and I can only do so much. And do the best I can do.”

The steepest learning curve Mars faces this year, at least from the outset at Vado’s year-opening event, is harnessing the step up in horsepower. The WISSOTA Challenge Series is a steel-block tour with engines that produce roughly 700 horsepower. The open-competition level, meanwhile, pushes 950 horsepower and presents, of course, stiffer competition.

“There’s a lot still for me to learn with the open stuff,” Mars said. “The cars drive similar, but there’s a lot more power with the motor, too. You have to learn to take the beast that these motors are. You’re on it quite a bit. You just have to learn how to come up to the aggressiveness that these other guys drive every single lap.”

If consistency is the one character trait Mars has been honed in on these last few years, then aggressiveness — not the reckless kind of aggressiveness, but the tenacious and decisive kind — is what he’ll be keyed on fostering at the Wild West Shootout and throughout the 2024 season.

Above all else, the elder Mars would like nothing more than to lead, nurture and impart wisdom on his son as he enters a higher strata of Dirt Late Model racing.

“More than anything, Sam’s my son,” the elder Mars said. “He’s got a good work ethic. More than anything, he’s a great kid. His word is his word. He’s a good kid. He’s a likable kid. He goes out and does a good job at driving. He he has a lot to learn, too, but as I said, he’s 19 years old and has a bright future ahead of him.

“I feel like, moving forward into the future, I’m excited what’s out there for him. I think it’ll be fun all the way around. This is about him. It’s not about me. He’s super pumped. This is all he thinks about — racing. It’s exciting. He’s ready to go drive the heck out of it here.”