As Max Adams prepared to strap in at Bakersfield’s Kern County Raceway, he had a lot on his mind. The good news was that he had escaped an unexpected cold snap in the Midwest and was back in his home state.
As Max Adams prepared to strap in at Bakersfield‘s Kern County Raceway, he had a lot on his mind. The good news was that he had escaped an unexpected cold snap in the Midwest and was back in his home state. On top of that, just the fact that the USAC/CRA series was in action was cause for celebration. This group had been idle since November, 2019 due to the shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no mistaking it, everyone was anxious to get back to normal.
Adams had scant time for reflections of this sort because the business at hand demanded his complete concentration. The season was barely underway but Max had already traversed the country doing what he loved. He ventured to Florida to compete in the opening rounds with the USAC National series, but unfortunately the results had been humbling. Even the best get spanked from time to time, but Max had reason for optimism as he crossed into the Sunshine State in February. After all, he had finished out the 2020 season strong and thus had every reason to believe he could maintain that momentum and compete with the big guns of USAC.
Nonetheless, as a professional racer it is best to have a short memory. He had accepted a ride with Josh Ford Motorsports and, at least for the next two nights, he could concentrate solely on driving. That was a luxury he didn‘t have when he was behind the wheel of his own car.
Free from those extraneous responsibilities, he pointed the needle in the right direction by qualifying fourth and easily transferred to the main event through his heat. This was a whole lot better. Then the green flag dropped for the feature event and what appeared to be a good night went south in a hurry. Recalling what unfolded, Adams says, “Damion (Gardner) and I went to split a car and I saw him dive to the bottom and I thought holy cow. I saw Damion flipping and I was like, ‘Man, what do I do? Do I gas it up? Do I stop?‘ I really didn‘t have any time to think. Luckily I didn‘t hit anything, the only thing that hit was him landing on me. That hurt and I was sore. I couldn‘t imagine how he felt.”
The frustration had to have been there, but if you were waiting for finger pointing and harsh words to follow, you really don‘t know Max Adams. “I have never gotten into it with Damion,” he says. “Well, one time we may have rubbed wheels at Petaluma, but I have a lot of respect for him. I love to watch him race. He can make a car do what he wants it to and puts it where he wants. I think that is a pretty rare thing anymore. He is really creative with what he does.”
Adams could be excused for already wondering if it was just going to be one of those kinds of years. Thankfully, the rational side of him quickly staunched those thoughts. There was no reason to develop a negative mindset so early in the season.
In the end, the damage to his car was minor and the only thing to do was to patch things up and head back to the track the following night. It was clear that his team had held up their part of the bargain and, in turn, they watched their man climb confidently back on his steed. It was another fourth-place qualifying effort, and once again he secured his spot in the big dance with a third-place run in his heat.
Veterans Charles Davis Jr. and Troy Rutherford would occupy the front row for the 30-lap affair, with Brody Roa and Adams lining up next. This time the start was less treacherous, and Max quickly fell into an easy rhythm. He was sitting in the fourth spot, but as the laps wound down he became concerned that his forward movement was permanently stalled. Then, in his words, he “got rolling, and it felt really good.”
When he had a chance to seize control of the race he never hesitated. He made a bold move to power around Roa, who had led the first 22 laps, and from there it was a matter of skillfully slicing through traffic. Certainly, it was good to claim his third USAC/CRA victory but, more than that, this win just seemed a bit different. What he felt in the heat of the action was later confirmed with his eyes. “Looking at the video, it seemed like I made some ballsy decisions,” he says with a laugh. “But it was so comfortable to me that it seemed natural. I think that comes from racing so much.”
In all sports, few things matter more than repetitions, and to get the kind of regular work he needed to improve required a different kind of bold move. That‘s the reason he left the only home he had ever known and moved to Indiana. Maybe this really did make the difference but, underscoring that his success at Bakersfield was no fluke, he put in a repeat performance less than two weeks later when the USAC/CRA series assembled again at Tulare. Any way one dissected matters, one thing was for certain: at the moment Max Adams was running downhill.
Adam‘s path to the upper echelons of sprint car racing had all the usual elements, with one unusual twist. His father, Scott Adams, attended high school in Sacramento, and one of his peers was the younger brother of sprint car racer Bryan Bullard. Scott began hanging around the shop and eventually followed Bullard to the race track. Bryan spent some time racing for respected and successful owner Ken Pierson and he was soon busy helping out where he could. Going to the race track had once been an interesting diversion, but it quickly became a regular habit.
Soon he had a family of his own and wife Georgeann would round up the couple‘s two youngsters and join him at the track. While Scott was busy preparing a sprint car in the pits, Georgeann was finding wrestling with two young kids in the stands a bit less thrilling. She did enjoy racing, and actually deserves a great deal of credit for launching her son‘s career. “One day she went into work,” Scott says, “and one of the fellows who worked there brought in an outlaw kart and she looked at it and asked what it was. After she found out about it, she was insistent that we were going to get one. I wasn‘t so sure about this, but that is where it all started.”
What followed next was forever burned in Scott‘s mind, “We put him in the kart in our yard at Loomis” he said, “and he just took off.”
He was just five years old when he started racing competitively at Cycleland Speedway, and over the course of his career in outlaw karts he kept pretty good company. “There were a lot of people who are household names now, like Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick, but there were so many other kids that have gone on to race. It was a pretty good time to be racing outlaw karts.” Adams would race the karts for five or six years, but admits he was never a big winner. That would change when the time came to shift in a new direction.
Scott Adams can remember when things really began to fall into place for his son. “We went back to the Chili Bowl,” he says. “And we were sitting with Gordon Seros, who is an engine builder from back home. We started talking and Max said he wanted to race something with a suspension, so Gordon told us that Zach Zimmerly had a good micro for sale. So, we got home and sold all of our kart stuff and got the car.”