Filling A Seat For A Friend
It’s July 3rd at roughly dinner time and I am preparing to leave on a one month long work trip on the 5th that departs at 0530. I get a call from a Sprint Car buddy of mine who simply asks “you wanna race the July 4th special tomorrow night?” I of course said yes, but what was the deal… why is he calling me so late about running a car the next night? What car, was it finished, was it his, all these questions started swirling around in my head instantly… but my mouth spoke before I could really ask those questions. He quickly said “awesome, call this number and this guy has a car for you to drive.” That was that. I wasn’t sure who I was calling, where they lived, where the car was, what condition the car was in, nothing really. Should make for an interesting call to say the least I figured.
I called Jesse and told him out mutual friend told me to give him a call. I instantly realized who I was talking to. I had met him before and used a trailer of his the previous year. Thankfully he was local and I could come out to the car the next morning to get fitted and make some changes. He told me he had busted his tailbone recently in an almost crash when the car flipped up and slammed back down. He had some sponsors locally that he wanted to get the car out on the track for and heard I might be available. He was hesitant to let someone else drive his car, but I knew I was what he was looking for. Someone who will drive his car, keep it clean, bring it back in one piece, and overall make it a great experience for everyone. I knew this wasnt the time to be super aggressive on the track, but instead to feel out a new track, get a handle on how this car drove, and ways I could make adjustments to make it that much better.
The next morning I showed up and we tore a lot of the car down. I changed the gear, wee grooved tires, cleaned everything, nuts/bolt check, lubed up all the rod ends, and changed out a fuel pump. Every inch of the car was touched in one way or another except for the motor. It was great to learn from him and see how he set up his car and why. During that time I spent a lot of it thanking him for letting me race his car and worked to gain his trust because I could feel some tension inside of him that wasn’t too sure if he was ready to let me take this car out on the track. I don’t blame him, our cars are our mistresses.. we spend a ton of time with them and to let someone else take them out to race while you watch is a hard thing to do for anyone.
The heat race went terrible overall sadly. I drifted back at the beginning of the heat race and was trying different lines, different braking points, and working to find where the grip was. What I found quickly was the car was very tight and my entry into the turn was awful to say the least. I started last and only moved up 2 spots. Nothing great by any means but good to get back out in a sprint car.
Before the main we talked about what I felt and what he saw… we both agreed on everything. He had it tight to keep it “safe,” and wow have I heard that too many times before. We talked about freeing up the car a bit, changing the stagger, changing shocks, changing how far out I had the right rear in comparison to the left… in the end… all we did was add extra fuel and nothing else. I wasn’t going to push the limits on this deal… I was just thankful to be in the car, and to build this relationship. I had to show him I could drive and this was hindering me a bit.
In the main I started last, and as I entered turn one I was still super tight… I knew it was going to happen, but I hoped with the track conditions changing a bit maybe it would free me up some… not so much. The last thing I could think to do was start my entry 15ish feet before everyone else. basically try to set the car super early so when I got to the point of where I wanted to enter the corner the car will hopefully be somewhat set and I can drive off of it. I wouldn’t say it worked amazingly, but it worked good enough. I was able to keep up with other cars and make some clean passes. I needed a caution to reset the field… I knew I was way behind, and wouldn’t you know it a caution flew and brought the field back to me. By this time I had only moved up 2 spots but now they were all there again. The driver instinct inside of me took control as we went into turn one on the restart, I set it in early, it grabbed the grip I was looking for and I passed 2 cars… thats when I realized I was about to launch out of turn two and really be in the mix… annnndddd that’s when it hit me… that’s not what I was there to do sadly. As I started to gain on several cars quickly, I let off and held position. Even after the race Jesse and a buddy of mine said “dude you got it down, you threw it in there and was off to the races… what happened… it looked perfect.” I didn’t say anything until this Blog. I shrugged it off and that was that… I started 15th and finished 9th. All things considered I’ll take it.
Huge thanks to Jesse and his family for trusting me to take his car out there to compete. It was a blast to work with him and to meet his wife. Its people like them that remind me why I love racing locally so much. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes local racing can be the wild west and all the friends you have with you at the track are the ones your brought with… not in this case. It was a blast.
I did not realize how much I missed local dirt track racing. The decision has been made within the Ryan Roulette Racing organization to get our sprint car program up and running again! We are excited to get back to the dirt track and back behind the wheel again… hopefully we find the winners circle soon! Stay tuned for more to follow!