On Oct. 9, 2010, Shane Hmiel was seriously injured while qualifying for a USAC Silver Crown race at Terre Haute, Ind.
This is part two of a feature on Troy DeCaire from the September 2020 edition of Sprint Car & Midget Magazine.
On Oct. 9, 2010, Shane Hmiel was seriously injured while qualifying for a USAC Silver Crown race at Terre Haute, Ind. At that point, life shifted again for Troy DeCaire.
“When he got hurt, I was back with a problem. Things were starting to come together and I was starting to have steady money,” DeCaire recalled. “I was at the hospital for 35 days; I was with him every day. My boss and friend was in a coma. They sent me to empty his apartment and take everything to North Carolina, so now I didn‘t have anywhere to live and I didn‘t have a job. It was a tough deal because I didn‘t wanna leave Shane.
“I didn‘t know what to do, because I was in a real weird spot, but I had to make money.”
Then, a glimmer of light appeared.
“I‘m sitting in the hospital and get a call from Bob East. He tells me to come to his shop. I‘d been bugging him regularly to let me drive. He always said no,” said DeCaire. “I‘d stop by once a week. In my mind, your only options were to let me drive or deal with me weekly.
“When I get there, he says, ‘Hang on for a second.‘ I‘m following him around the shop. He doesn‘t talk a lot so I‘m drawing a blank. I had no idea why I‘m there. He goes into his office and is on the phone and goes, ‘Yeah, I got this kid. Uh huh. Yeah, he‘ll stand on the gas.‘ I‘m like, ‘Oh sh*t, he‘s talking about me.‘ ‘No, no, I wouldn‘t waste your effing time,‘ he said, and then hangs the phone up. Then, after he hangs up, he tells me to go to Dayton, Ohio. I only got 17 dollars to my name I told him. He said it will only take two hours to get there and if I can‘t be there in two hours he‘s gonna call the guy up and tell him to not do it. ‘Here‘s the address. Go!‘
“I said, ‘What am I doing, Bob?‘ He still wouldn‘t tell me. I left and called my dad for some money so I could get back home after I got there, and he wouldn‘t do it. So, I ended up siphoning gas out of Shane‘s truck just to get there. When I get halfway there, I‘m talking to Bob (East) and he tells I‘m going to meet J.V. Johnny Vance, I asked him? Then he goes, ‘Listen mother effer, go in there and you do this.‘ So, I immediately call Dave (Steele) and tell him. He goes, ‘For what, Numbs?‘ I told him I had no clue. Maybe a job?
“When I get there, he‘s not there. I‘m looking around and Tracy Hines is there and he‘s working on his car. He didn‘t particularly like me. I tried to talk to him, but he wasn‘t wanting to talk to me. Suddenly Johnny walks in and I tell him who I am. He says, ‘Nice to meet you; what are you doing here?‘ Then I had a blank look on my face and told him Bob told me to drive over here. He then tells me he‘s just effing with me and asks me if I can be in Toledo Wednesday to test the Silver Crown car with them. I said yes and ended up staying there to help get the car ready.”
But, the race did not go as he had anticipated.
“I got wrecked by Jeff Swindell and finished 19th,” said DeCaire. “After the race Vance said, ‘I think maybe you‘re just a wing driver.‘”
Nonetheless, DeCaire finished the season on a high note, as he was able to claim the inaugural Must See Racing championship.
The next two seasons would find DeCaire bouncing from ride-to-ride, some with limited equipment. Regardless, he did win a second consecutive Must See Racing title in 2011.
Just prior to the 2013 season, DeCaire would land one of his most promising rides to that point in his career. Fellow Floridan Dick Fieler hired him to drive his winged and non-winged cars in Midwest events.
“He needed a driver, but I had already been hounding him anyway. I had been talking to him a lot. He is a very interesting guy and I loved talking racing with him. He was around Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, and F-1 guys. He was in charge of sponsorship and marketing and spent two years on the Formula One circuit. He‘s got some crazy stories. I was infatuated by him; I always made excuses just to talk to him to hear his stories.”
Yet, the deal did not play out how DeCaire envisioned and he eventually lost the ride.
“I was excited. It started off great at first; Dick was all in on my ideas. He was paying me a salary deal almost; he was paying me well. Then things started to get chaotic. We had quite a few motor issues. I was living and working in Colorado and flying back-and-forth. I had a difference in opinion with the mechanic. I was getting frustrated. My mom got sick during this time and she was going downhill, as well.”
At that point the family of his girlfriend came to his aid in several respects, including a family-owned midget which he was racing occasionally.
“I was dating Levi Roberts‘ sister. They gave me an opportunity to go out there. I spent a year-and-a-half out there. I loved what I was doing, making racing parts and medical equipment on a seven-million-dollar CNC laser cutter. I didn‘t like it there, though. I packed up my car in the middle of the night and left a really good job to come back to Indiana to sleep on couches again. It all went bad with my girlfriend too.”
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