A trip to Mahoning Valley in a winged TQ midget remains one of his most memorable racing experiences. “I never felt anything like that in my life,” he said. “You average about 105 mph. You hold it flat to the floor and you are about an inch off the ground.”
The next step in his career was jump-started by the misfortune of a peer. Tim Buckwalter suffered a serious leg injury racing a modified and was sidelined. One of his many rides was Bill Gallagher‘s sprint car, and crew chief Michael began searching for a new driver.
Danner was among the drivers interested in the ride.
“I always wanted to run a sprint car,” Danner said “but with our situation it just never worked out. Then Timmy got hurt and they made the mistake of putting it on Facebook that they needed a driver. I can‘t even imagine the amount of interest they got.
“I talked to Curt and I didn‘t even know who he was at this point. I told him I wanted to run this car, but if that didn‘t work out I understood. At that time, he said he needed someone with more sprint car experience.”
Billy Pauch Jr. took a turn at the wheel, but the most regular substitute at the time was modified driver Billy VanInwegen. While these were certainly capable men, Gallagher became frustrated.
“Brady Bacon had won a race for Bill, so he knew he had a good car,” Michael recalled. “He got tired of people telling him that they had to race a modified or go to this or that race and turn down a ride with him. I told Bill we needed to get a driver who will race this car weekly. In the end, he gave me the permission to bring in a new driver and groom them.”
Two factors played into Danner‘s hands. First, Michael admits he never deletes a text. Second, as he reviewed his previous messages, he found one from a young kid he thought was professional and respectful. Now was the time to do his due diligence.
“Now days when you are looking for a kid coming up you can watch races on streaming video and mothers also record races and put them on YouTube,” he says, “It allows you to go back and do a little research. I also watched him win a race at Bridgeport in a 600 micro and I also watched him at Bridgeport in a SpeedSTR. That is a big old joint for those cars and he kept the car straight and kept his momentum up. I liked what I saw.”
Michael pulled the trigger. The USAC East Coast series had a late-season race at Bridgeport and given Danner‘s familiarity with the track, it seemed like a good place to give the kid a shot. It almost didn‘t happen.
“It was actually funny,” Danner recalled. “He called and I thought it was spam, so I wasn‘t even going to answer. When I did answer he says, ‘Hey, it‘s Curt,‘ but I wasn‘t even connecting who it was. Then he says we want to put you in our car for the race at Bridgeport. So we went down for practice on Friday and I felt really comfortable.”
Even the initial test session had a humorous twist. Michael offered final instructions to his young driver and watched helplessly as Danner hit the track.
“I remember saying, ‘Take it easy don‘t go up on top or anything,‘” Michael said. “Then he goes out and heads right up next to the wall. I‘m like, ‘Oh God.‘”
While Michael‘s anxiety may have piqued, the data told a different story.
“We were the fastest that night,” he remembered, “and there were some good cars there. I knew we were probably going to be good here.”
While it was good for Danner to get some laps under his belt, there were some nervous moments heading into his first sprint car race. On a night marked by threatening weather, Danner finished third in his heat and went to the high side at the start of the feature.
Employing a bold slide job, Danner took the lead from Alex Bright at the white flag and sailed to an improbable victory. Some jaws dropped when the checkered flag waved, but the result indicated Michael‘s bold decision to hire a young man with no previous sprint car experience.
In preparation for the new season, Michael and Gallagher elected to compete in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Championship events at Florida‘s Bubba Raceway Park I February.
Danner cracked the feature lineup on the first two nights of competition but found the track challenging on night three.
“The groove is pretty narrow especially for a non-winged car,” Danner said. “Because I didn‘t have a lot of seat time, I didn‘t feel the most comfortable there. Still, we learned a lot.”
When the new East Coast season opened, Danner‘s goal was to capture rookie-of-the-year honors, but when he stood in victory lane in three of the first four events, many believed he could set his sights higher.
By the first of July the story of this year had been established. Save a Steven Drevicki win at Williams Grove, every event had been won by Danner or Bright. Then the entire foundation of the team was shaken to the core. Michael and Gallagher went to dinner the night before the tour stopped at Pennsylvania‘s Big Diamond Speedway.
During the evening Bill reported he didn‘t feel well. Michael admits that the owner “wasn‘t the epitome of health, but ironically he was in his best shape in a long time. When he was really heavy, he would wear an oxygen mask and have a hard time getting around so he would just stay home. Then he lost lots of weight and things were looking good. He had diabetes and stuff like that and he was fighting bronchitis which didn‘t help matters.”