It was discouraging, and Reeves just didn‘t feel like putting the car back together. Not sure where his career was pointed, he agreed to swap his 355 motor to fellow racer Blake Hollingsworth in return for a midget. He reasoned that he could put this car together relatively easily and make the short tow to the Indianapolis Speedrome and just have fun.
The Speedrome certainly presented plenty of challenges. After all, when he ventured to the fifth-mile paved oval he was forced to match wits with future Hall of Fame drivers Mack McClellan, Rich Vogler, and Mel Kenyon. Then, in early June his pals suggested that he head to Lawrenceburg Speedway to compete with the USAC National
Midget Series.
Several people pitched in to equip him with dirt tires; so, he loaded his car on an open trailer and hitched it to his Toyota extended cab pickup. It would be his first start in a National midget race, and against the odds he led Tom Bigelow, Dan Boorse, and Kevin Doty to the line. It was just one race, but it could be argued that it altered the trajectory of his career.
It was still hard to find rides and, with his limited resources, it was difficult to put together a full slate of races with his own car. When he had a chance to race for Ralph Potter in the 1990 season, he jumped at it. The entire Potter family had been deeply involved in the sport and they, too, had been active at Big Z. The problem for Stevie was that he was tasked with helping Potter develop a V-6 engine and they were beset with predictable mechanical gremlins.
The inability to finish races hurt his soul, and his billfold.
Nonetheless, the team made the 650-mile tow to Belleville, Kan., for the Midget Nationals and hoped for the best. It was a race long remembered for Jeff Gordon‘s romp through the field on the final night.
Often forgotten was a decision to run a special race for teams who didn‘t come armed with a Cosworth or Pontiac, which were clearly the class of the field.
“The race paid $1,000 to win,” Stevie recalled. “And at that time Ralph Potter paid me 50 percent. I thought if I could win this race I could pay for my trip, and I had nothing. I was married and we were broke. I‘m like, I have to win. So we drew for positions and I drew in the back. I was bound and determined to win this race and I came up through the field and I couldn‘t lift. If I lifted, the barrel valve was messed up and the fuel system would bog down.
“So I never lifted and I bounced off the wall a few times, and twice I had the right side tires over the top of the wall and hit the top of the posts. Luckily, it came back down and I stayed on the gas. I ran second and I was so pissed off. I was dejected, and I got out of the car and there were tons of people there, and I was sure there must have been a fight. All of them came over to me because of the way I was running.
”John Bickford (Jeff Gordon‘s stepfather) came up to me and said, “Dude you were scaring the hell out of me, but damn that was impressive.”
Others were watching too.
In spite of what had transpired in Kansas, the Potters felt it was time to shut down, regroup, and try to get the car straightened out in the shop. On a whim, Reeves contacted owner John Black to see about racing his midget on the Springfield Mile. Black admitted that he had been in conversations with Kevin Olson, but nothing had been decided.
Finally, Black relented and told Reeves if he could get the car to the track it was his to drive.
Then a funny thing happened. As he was signing in he bumped into Mark Wilke who said, nearly in an offhand way, that he had almost called Reeves and asked him to drive the team‘s Silver Crown car. Stevie basically brushed it off. Then, as he was walking into the track, he crossed paths with Greg Wilke, who offered the same report.
As for the race, Reeves established a new track record and finished second to Stan Fox, who was racing for Steve Lewis.
While the interest shown by the Wilkes seemed a bit random, it turns out the Gary Grahn had already been bending their ear about his friend. Grahn actually was a customer of the Wilke family business, Leader Cards Inc., and took every opportunity to talk racing. So when the brothers watched Reeves attack the fearsome Belleville High Banks, they were duly impressed. In fact, they did reach out to him for the Silver Crown rounds at DuQuoin and Eldora.
Once again, just as he was prepared to hang it up, Reeves was tossed another lifeline.
This opportunity was a big deal. This was a big-time ride with a team with deep bloodlines. It changed everything.
“When I got in the Wilke car it was like a mental thing,” Stevie said. “It was like, ‘This is what I worked for and now it is up to me.‘ I walked through the gate and it was like I was on kill. I was 100 percent confident every night. There is no excuse. There is no reason I can‘t win. When they say racing is mental, it is 100 percent mental.”
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