From the 24 hrs of Daytona in Jan to a 3/8 mile Dirt oval in May.
I was speaking to a good friend of mine, Dave Diebel, a few weeks ago, who was helping out a young driver in late model stocks, and jokingly told him that if they had another car I would love to get in and give it a try. Dave has been in the racing game in northeast ohio for over 20 years and has driven everything. He said they may build a back up car so he can play. So I started telling him about how great Skip is, Because you could lease the rides with a crash damage deductible and it would be neat to do something like that with a late model ride. I told him I knew a whole crop of guys who would like to give it a try. ie you people!!
So Dave called last week and said he went ahead and built that back up car and wanted to know if I wanted to give it a whirl. It didn't take much arm twisting to agree. He told me to bring my race stuff and meet him Saturday at 4 pm at Sharon Speedway a 3/8 mile dirt oval north of Youngstown, Ohio owned by Dave Blaney.
I grabbed the wife and headed to the track. As far as I knew I was going to do a few laps on the dirt to get my feet wet.
BOY WAS I WRONG !!
We show up at the gate a 4pm and I look in the pit area and it is packed with rigs unloading late models, sprint cars and modifieds.
I call dave to find out where he is at and tells me to meet him down at driver registration, I fill out the waiver forms and he tells me to go over to she this lady to pick a pill for may starting position in my heat race. What !! "I thought I was coming out to get some laps, not race". You'll be fine he says. I have never even seen the inside of one of these cars or a dirt track other than on the speed channel.
And of course Dave set the ground work in the Paddock by telling everybody he was bringing in a ringer, who raced at Daytona in January and I fit the part with my shock doctor helmet and gear bag with my brand new unused TRG suit( have to use sometime, didn't get to at Daytona). So Dave goes over how to start the car and what the levers are for (3rd, 4th and reverse is all you get). Lets just say the rules of dirt trak racing are a little more informal than skippyworld, as I ask him about yellows and all the procedures. Then he tells me to get in that my heat race is coming up. No warm up, no hot laps, no qualifying, no Stevie D, no Duck, NO MR. CHICKEN!! How far hath I fallen. I fire up the engine. Doesn't sound very familiar. WOW, my whole body was vibrating.I do my part by getting lost in the paddock I eventually get in line and I'm out on the track for my heat Race.
To quote Murry Marden- " what could possibly go wrong"
I'm on my pace lap and I start to think, always bad in a race car, How good are these brakes , where do I brake, where is the turn in where do I get into the gas, how many degrees is this banking(like it matters). GREEN, GREEN,GREEN I here in my ear!
I mat it down front stretch, Oh no where do I Lift I hit the banking and try to drive it in. That doesn' t work so well, when all else fails accelerate. I jump on the gas and the car rotates and straightens out for the back stretch, what a rush. after the first couple laps I am starting to get the hang of it. Throw it in. The harder you drive it the better it feels. I finish my heat race in good enough shape to make the feature. Now, Dave has the track announcer busting on me as I climb out of the car. After the heat race I talk to some Drivers and get some useful info on how to drive the track and some nuances about the car.
Now we are ready for the feature, I thought 70 cars on the track at Daytona was a lot of cars, that is nothing compared to 30 on a 3/8 mile oval, and I'm near the back of the pack. Green flag waves, and all I see is a cloud of dust ahead of me, so what the hell, I drive in with the thing to the floor. Cars are bouncing off each other as I navigate through this mess, Hey I'm actually passing people as they hit the wall. My skippy crash damage mentality kicks in as I try to avoid any contact. That last about 2 laps and the red mist sets in and it is time to go to work. Just throwing this thing around, getting the feel of the slide, and pounding it down the straights within inches and sometimes less of the other cars . I was just starting to get a nice feel and Checkers. I ended up 18th out of 30. I'll take it, I make it back to the paddock area and climb out with the same perma-grin that you get with that first skippy race we all did. Even better-no crash damage, guess I didn't drive it hard enough
My wife come back to the pits a nervous wreck,Dave has a nice suite at the track which made Sue's transition from Daytona A little easier, she is screaming "this is crazy, and those sprint car guys are just plain stupid". But she already knew what I was feeling because her next sentence was "So, when we coming back!
Ron
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"Wild Bill and Sue survey the Damage"
