Page 46 - PULSE-LS2-ISSUE 2_BIG-BOYS-TOYS

How did the transition from rac- ing motorcycles to sprint cars come about?
So, growin’ up in Iowa dirt track rac- ing is kind of like the Nascar of the midwest really. I’ve always been in love with it, I’d go to the races every Friday night. My grandma’s farm backed right up to the dirt track, so I’d always hear ‘em and I’d walk
out of the farm, walk across the field, and go to the races at night. I always in awe of it. I kinda looked at those guys as heroes I guess even though they were just a bunch of lo- cal dudes. Dirt trackin’ was always a thing of mine. So, before the World Vets in 2012, I knocked myself out again. I just had some kids and I’m like “I’m tired of goin’ to sleep, this really sucks.” So, I did the World Vet thing and did okay there, but I felt like I had to do something. My wife and I sat down and we were like “Let’s just look at race cars,” so I got into this sprint car and it was so much fun. I went out at my first race and won my heat race and got third in the main. I was like “Holy crap, how the heck does that hap- pen? I’ve got like twenty laps in this thing,” and I went and did that. But, it wasn’t always like that -- some- times I’d win and sometimes I’d break down. On a dirt bike, it seems easier to be consistent than it is in a race car.
What are some of the glaring dif- ferences between the two sports besides two wheels and four?
The biggest the difference between the two sports that I noticed on day one: in dirt track, everyone is will- ing to help you. They’re willing to give you setup information, they’re willing to give you parts, they’re willing to give you all kinds of stuff, and they’ll approach you with it half
46 THE PULSE • ISSUE TWO
the time. In motocross, they keep stuff kind of close to their chest. But in sprint cars they’re like “Oh, this is always the setup I’d use at this track and it worked really well for me if you wanna try it.” When it comes to racing dirt bikes, there’s not a chance in hell I’m gonna give somebody something so they can get back on the line, especially if they’re competition to me.
What’s the training process like for sprint cars and how easy is it to get seat time before the races?
Almost all of the race tracks have test and tune days before the sea- son starts. So, two months or so be- fore the season, they’ll put on these test and tunes where you can go out and try a bunch of stuff. They’ll give you a half ‘n hour worth of laps here, then you can go back to the pits and you can change some stuff. You need to write everything down, that’s like the biggest thing. You just kind of find a setup that you’re com- fortable with and when the season starts, you just kind of have to stick with what you worked off of on the test and tunes at the beginning of the season; you don’t really get any time in the car. You get like four or five hot laps before the race, but that’s just almost to make sure that your car is working, you’re really not gonna get much tuning in off of that. Traction’s gonna change so much from your hot laps when the track is really heavy, and then you get into your heats and your main and the track slicks off. The test and tunes before the season is where you’re gonna get all of your seat time.
How have things been going on four wheels?
So, I took last summer off ‘cause I wanted to hang out with my kids and spend more time with them.
They play competitive club soccer and it was my youngest kids first year in club, so we do a lot of travel- ing and I just wanted to be a part of that. But, up until that it was up and down really. I went out and won this race by like a half a lap. My car was so good -- I don’t know what the heck I did -- but it was so good that I never had to lift, I could just flat- foot the thing the whole time. Then
I went to that same track the next weekend, ran that same setup, and the car wouldn’t work. I couldn’t get it to do anything and I had to like work my butt off for fifth. It’s kinda like that; some weekends I’ll stomp ‘em and some weekends I’m upside down.
Do you still have time to get out on a dirt bike or has it been all sprint cars since you made the switch?
Yeah, I got my own track. I look at it as a different form of my going out and getting on the treadmill, y’know what I mean. I try to do it like that anymore. I’ll go out to a few tracks here and there. I did an off-road race this summer, one of my buddies owns an off-road series called WEBE Racing, and
I went and did that. I was racing
like 30 Pro and I hadn’t ridden in probably a month. I just got back from a trip back home to Iowa, like
I literally got back probably the day before. It’s one of my best friend’s races and he’s putting it on maybe forty-five minutes from where I live, so I’m like “Y’know what, I’m just gonna go. What the heck?” So, I felt awesome in practice and go into the race -- it was a fifty minute plus one lap moto and the laps were like seven to eight minutes. We’re at
the very end of the day, it’s like 4 ‘o clock in the afternoon and it’s July, so it’s like one hundred degrees, and I’m like old or have a drinking