I remember running a USAC race at Lakeside in Kansas City one Saturday night in Lyle Corrigan‘s 2×4 Sesco and loading up and leaving the track around midnight.
I was supposed to run a CORA race in Rensselaer the next afternoon and was alone driving home. I had to switch cars back in Rockford at Lyle‘s shop, as the 2×4 was not legal in CORA at the time.
So, after the 500 mile-plus all-night drive, I switched to our other Sesco Badger midget car and headed out to Indiana to the race, another 150 miles from home. I was so tired that I didn‘t remember driving through Chicago, and probably should have pulled over and slept. But, if I had, I would have missed the big $175-to-win race that started a little after noon.
I finally made it and, although I didn‘t win the race, I finished in the top three. I drank a couple of beers with Stan Fox, Tom Steiner and Tim Pangborn, then headed back home, where three hours later I finally got to go to bed.
At a USAC race in Kokomo, Ind.,, I witnessed a real example of what racers who want to be winners do. My good buddy Brodie Hayward and his driver Tanner Thorson showed what it takes to really want to win.
This was the final night of Indiana Midget Week, their sixth straight night of racing.
Brodie‘s team was struggling, having lost their last engine on Saturday night. Brodie and Tanner are trying to win the USAC midget title, and if you break and miss a night, with the competition the way it is, it would be hard to overcome. But Brodie is never one to give up.
He searched the pit area to rent or buy another engine, but although there were a couple of spares in some trailers, understandably, no one was willing to turn them loose, as they knew they might need them.
Brodie finally found an engine that he could borrow from Dave McIntosh, but with the final race less than 18 hours away, getting it switched out posed quite a problem.
Dave generously offered his Toyota engine to Brodie, but that was not the engine make that Brodie had in his car, and it would be an almost impossible task to change everything over in such a short time frame. Of course, when everyone told Brodie it was next to impossible to get done by the next night, it only fueled Brodie‘s fire to get it done.
Brodie went to Tanner and his guys and told them the situation and they all said they would do whatever it took to run the next night. Brodie drove 80 miles to Dave‘s shop to pick up the engine while the boys took the old engine out.
They worked through the night and had to get a different motor plate to fit the Toyota, along with replacing every fuel, oil, and power steering line.
Headers had to be fitted and belly pans changed, along with shortening the driveline and a bunch of other changes. When all was said and done, it might have been easier to build a brand new car.
Through sheer determination and some unending effort, they finished the car around 4:30 the next afternoon. They all cleaned up, loaded the car and tools, and were off on the drive back to Kokomo to try and get things working and dialed back in again.
I know from my own past experiences that Brodie, Tanner and the crew were beyond exhausted. But that is forgotten when you walk into that pit area and know you still have a job to do. Tanner got into the A-Main and, with five laps to go, found himself running third right behind Kyle Larson and leader Chris Windom.
With three to go, they got a break with a yellow and on the restart blew by both Larson and Windom to win this race on sheer determination.
I have to laugh when I hear about how exhausting other sports are when they have to play back-to-back games or when NASCAR has had to run races in the middle of the week to make up for the canceled races from the Corona Beer Virus. These guys had just run six straight nights, working on their car every day after the races, and still were able to win.
If there were 12 straight nights of racing and the situation was still the same, they still would have given it all they had to go racing again.
It was cool to see my friend Brodie and his crew show the world what real racers and winners will do to get there. Through the years, I have been around real racers who are not given anything and will do whatever it takes to get to a race and then try to go out and win it. It doesn‘t always work out after blowing an engine or crashing your car.
It is a tough order to even make it to the track the next race. But win, lose or draw, winners never quit.
Well, maybe except for that day at Hamilton Jr. High School when the world‘s fastest human got beat by a technicality … losing all of his air and having to drop out of the race.
Good job! I‘m sure proud of you and your guys, Brodie. I‘m adding your names to my list of real racers. Oh, and by the way, on top of all his efforts he put in that day, he also won the sprint race after the midget main.
Making memories, Brodie Hayward is.