Eldora Speedway, because of the nature of the track and the status of the events staged at the legendary Ohio oval, is commonly noted as among the most fearsome. World of Outlaws star Logan Schuchart recalled the first time he attended the Kings Royal.
“It had more banking than it does now and you had to run right up against the wall,” Schuchart said. “Not a fun or comfortable thing to do, especially if your car doesn’t feel right.”
USAC veteran Jerry Coons Jr. shares Schuchart’s sentiments and recalls the days when he found the oval difficult to tame.
“Even though I had success at Belleville (Kan.) and people want to compare the two, I struggled at Eldora,” Coons noted. “In the sprint car, I had a tough time finding the balance of how straight to drive the car and how much you had to still set it in the corner. When I started driving for the Hoffmans, I knew they were always fast there. I also knew if I didn’t get fast there, I would be fired quickly.
“I told Rob (Hoffman), ‘Look, I’m not the best here so tell me what I am doing wrong compared to other guys and work with me to get better.’ He couldn’t tell me how to do it, that was up to me. After a couple of races there I got better, and my confidence was up. So now to have won in three classes and still holding the non-winged sprint car records means a lot to me given the way it started.”
Another driver who has enjoyed tremendous success at the Big E is Tyler Courtney. Like Coons, “Sunshine” wasn’t an overnight sensation at Tony Stewart’s place.
“The track that scared me was Eldora,” he said. “Just because of the speed and because you had to run the wall to be fast. I didn’t do that at first, so it didn’t go well. So, I sucked for a while. Then, eventually you go there enough times and ‘sack up’ and then you conquer your fear.”
Former USAC Silver Crown and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Mike Bliss also pinpointed Eldora as a personal irritant, but in his case, there was a fundamental reason. He never cared for racing on dirt. For others, as noted above, repetitions tend to increase confidence.
Justin Grant, the defending USAC sprint car champion, is one of the few drivers who openly admits he confronts fear. He also thinks some of his peers are less than forthright on the subject.
“I have always had the ability to be scared shitless but go perform,” he said with a laugh, “A lot of guys I feel like say, ‘Oh, that doesn’t scare me, or sprint cars don’t scare me, but these things scare the crap out of me. Every time I strap in, I know it is a big deal driving these things. I have always been very present about that.”
The Terre Haute Action Track gets Grant’s attention.
“The straightaways are really long and the entry is really tight and you make your time on entry there,” Grant explained. “You come down and it looks really narrow and it is hard to hold your car in a good spot. It is walking back and forth down the straightaway and you are trying to find your entry point through chop, some holes and a curb. Trying to get down gets exciting at times. I like racing at Terre Haute and I like winning at Terre Haute, but I also like coming home from Terre Haute.”
Racer and now USAC official Tommie Estes Jr. has taken a sprint car to victory lane at the Belleville (Kan.) High Banks but has tremendous respect for the place. During the recent USAC Silver Crown appearance at the High Banks, he implored drivers to respect the track, warning them that this was a place that can bite back. He wasn’t joking.
“When I first went there it had more banking and a shorter fence,” Estes said. “It was just very fast. I just respected that place because I saw it end a few careers.”
Hall of Famer Jimmy Sills raced across the country, but in his mind the legendary Kansas oval was among the most intimidating.
“The first time I went there I was in a non-winged car,” Sills said. “It had rained a lot that week and the track was rough. With the force of the car planted into the bank and the ruts, it tried to tear the wheel out of your hands. It didn’t help that there was a fatality in the B main. I watched other drivers like Doug Wolfgang to figure out how to run there. But it was also extremely hot that night and about 10 laps into the race my motor went south. I said, ‘Thank you Lord, and pulled in.”
Spencer Bayston also found victory lane at Belleville, which proved to be both a physical and emotional challenge.
“Having lost Bryan (Clauson) in 2016 and then heading back to the track that took him a year later, I feel had most of us drivers shook up,” he recalled. “I knew how special that place was to Bryan and he always went there with an attack mentality. So I decided to go into the 2017 race with that same mentality and was able to come out on top.”