SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Mario Clouser has spent a lot of time behind the wheel of sprint cars and midgets throughout his career, but next year he’ll take on a new venture as a rookie on the USAC Silver Crown tour in the Kazmark Motorsports’ No. 92 entry.
Clouser has made a total of 101 USAC national feature starts in sprint cars and midgets, but has never raced a USAC Silver Crown event outside of a test with RW Motorsports roughly a decade ago.
Now, the 32-year-old has the opportunity to wheel a champ car, something he’s eagerly awaited.
“I’ve wanted to run some Silver Crown stuff for a long time,” Clouser said. “We used to run the pavement midget and got to watch them often when we ran alongside the Silver Crown cars, so this is something I’ve always wanted to do. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
Clouser knows there will be a learning curve as he gets accustomed to the longer races, the bigger tracks and the extensive fuel load.
However, he hopes the learning curve is shortened due to the crew he’ll be working with on the all-Illinois team.
Crew chief Bill Guess has worked with Clouser on the midget team for much of the past decade and the two have teamed for a sprint car run in recent years at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Kazmark’s history of USAC Silver Crown success includes a victory with driver Chris Windom during the 2017 Sumar Classic at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track. The group’s success dates back to the Bob Hoerner No. 92, which won twice during the 1990s — first with Jimmy Kite at Phoenix Int’l Raceway in 1997 and with Dave Steele at Indianapolis Raceway Park in ’99.
The majority of driver duties for Kazmark’s team in recent years belong to Jim Anderson on the pavement.
The team, which hasn’t fielded a dirt-track entry with the series since Dave Darland in 2018, anticipates a full schedule by season’s end as Clouser progresses the next year.
“We look forward to running all the pavement races in 2022 with Mario and hope to possibly add some dirt races to the mix later in the season,” team owner Gene Kazmark said.
Clouser has seen the success, he’s seen the equipment and he’s prepared for the opportunity with an experienced crew who’ll be there to guide him as he learns the ropes of Silver Crown racing.
“They’ve been doing it for a while, so they know what they need to do and what needs to happen to put together a good evening,” Clouser said of the Kazmark team. “That will hopefully take a lot of the load off me. I’ll be able to drive, and they’ll be able to teach me a lot in a short amount of time so I won’t have as steep of a learning curve as I would with someone else. Bill’s been great to work with over the past few years and he’s got a pretty good handle on what the car needs to go around the track really well, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Outside of IRP and Toledo, on the pavement side, Clouser is set to compete on new tracks, including Wisconsin’s Madison Int’l Speedway, Indiana’s Winchester Speedway and Illinois’ World Wide Technology Raceway.
This past year, Clouser won the POWRi WAR Sprint Car title.
“It’s essentially going to be all new in my mind,” Clouser said. “I don’t have anything I can really lean on experience-wise besides the midget, which we’ve ran the last couple years here and there. Otherwise, it’s going to be kind of like starting over.”
Clouser plans to start the new year with the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship on Feb. 17-19 at Florida’s Bubba Raceway Park in the Eberhardt-Zirzow Racing No. 6.
His first race in the USAC Silver Crown car will be May 27 during the Carb Night Classic at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.