VENTURA, Calif. — It was back on the Ventura Highway last Friday for another go-round in Cory Kruseman’s 360 sprint car.
It was my fifth sprint car race on dirt and, although I still have a lot to learn, every time I get out on track I’m driving better, getting up to speed faster and racing closer and more confidently. That’s a sign that I’m developing more comfort in the car and I hope to keep this pattern moving forward.
Last week, I drove one of Kruseman’s sprint cars that I had never driven before. I have built my entire career on driving widely diverse types of racing machines and hopping from car to car with minimal need for comfort.
As long as I can see, I can race.
The sprint cars were pushed out to pack the track and afterward, I stayed out for hot laps, which doubled as practice and qualifying.
During hot laps I was already feeling pretty comfortable with the car. We were the first group of cars to run hot laps on the track, so it didn’t have any grip in it yet. I adjusted my driving in an attempt to maximize the little grip we had, and I was second fastest in qualifying.
This time around I wasn’t racing against a stacked field of pro USAC drivers, so the competition was definitely a little lighter and the car count was less. That wasn’t going to change my approach to the night’s races.
I was just focused on getting all the seat time I could.
After starting fourth out of four cars in the second heat, I was looking forward to the challenge of moving forward and doing some side-by-side racing.
Unfortunately, on the first lap of the eight-lap heat race, the car in second place lost control entering turn three and stopped in my car’s path. With nowhere to go, I did my best to slow and turn away from the impending collision. I made contact with the right rear of the car and was able to keep the car going until the caution flag came out.
Although the car felt off after the hit, I didn’t want to take myself out of the race, so finished the race. Nothing broke over the next eight laps, but the car became more difficult to drive. I finished third. After the race, the team discovered a broken bearing and that the rear axle was forcibly spinning and grinding against it.
It was determined that because it would take too long to repair the car, so it was finished for the night.
However, there was one way I would be able to race the feature and it was by borrowing the car of one of my teammates who was running in the Senior sprint car division. This worked out perfectly because I had already raced the car before and as long as it stayed in one piece through my teammate’s feature, I would be able to race it in mine.
It went according to plan thankfully, and I was able to hop in my teammate’s car for my 20-lap feature shortly after he was finished with his. However, I had to start the race in last place because I had not qualified that car for the feature.
That wasn’t too big of a deal though, because last place was only eighth, so I still had a good chance of moving forward and getting a decent result. I did my best in the beginning of the race to make forward progress and I passed two cars.
The second half of the contest, I was racing for fifth against a guy that I was faster than but couldn’t quite manage to pass. I was giving him a lot of racing room, and on the second to last lap I managed to finally get ahead of him in turns three and four.
But he was able to do the over-under move on me exiting turn four and take back the position.
I finished sixth, but it was the closest racing I’ve ever done and I thought I drove my best. I struggled to figure out what the car needed to do in the first half of the race, but eventually felt more competitive in the second half.
It wasn’t exactly a weekend to write home to Grandma, but it was another great learning experience that added just one more notch in my belt as a racer.
Every lap counts, every outing matters and every time I’m in a dirt car I can feel the improvements and progress I’m making as a driver. As always, I thank God for the opportunity to race and the blessings he’s provided me. I’m looking forward to the next time I race on dirt.