INDIANAPOLIS — It took 61 hours for midget racer Randi Pankratz to drive from her Atascadero, Calif., home to reach The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Amounting to roughly 2,200 miles, Pankratz and her crew left California on Sunday and arrived at the fifth running of the Driven2SaveLives BC39 on Tuesday afternoon.
“We just kind of banzaied it out here,” Pankratz said with a laugh.
The longtime racer and daughter of National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Famer Wally Pankratz has been to the BC39 before. She finished 12th in her qualifier in 2018, sixth in the D main in 2019 and eighth in the D main in 2021. While she hopes to be more competitive in her No. 8 entry this year, her results aren’t necessarily what inspires her to make the long trek east.
“The history this facility has is just incredible,” Pankratz said, gesturing at the 2.5-mile speedway that engulfed her as she stood in the IMS infield. “Truthfully, for years I felt that they forgot that the roots of it was dirt. It’s really cool that they’re bringing it back and they’re actually honoring that.”
There is a laundry list of others who were equally moved to support the BC39 and Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s nod to its heritage, by way of supporting Pankratz.
Earlier this year, the third-generation racer turned to social media to fund her quest to race at the Chili Bowl Nationals. After the method proved fruitful, Pankratz decided to go down the same road for the BC39.
“I just said I needed money and begged, kind of like peddler on the street. I have a huge amount of people who got me back here,” Pankratz said, citing Flamingo Mobile Lodge as a key benefactor. “I’m really lucky that people are willing to give up a dinner, or a lot more than a dinner, to give me this opportunity.”
Unfortunately, her week at the BC39 didn’t get off to the best start.
On Thursday afternoon, there was a constant huddle of worried faces surrounding her sunny yellow No. 8 car in the pit area — according to Pankratz, they were troubleshooting issues with the rear-brake system.
“I do most of the work on the car, so I can’t blame anybody but myself,” Pankratz said.
She did have a little help from John Vadman, who came out to Indiana with her to help wrench on the car.
“He did all the good work,” Pankratz said, chuckling.
Jimmy May also lent some long-distance advice while watching the broadcast from afar.
“He called me after the race and said, ‘You gotta do this.’ So he’s a huge reason that I am even doing halfway decent,” Pankratz said.
With 20-20 hindsight vision, she pinpointed a few issues that hindered her preliminary performance on Thursday — which ultimately resulted in a 13th-place finish in the semi-feature.
“I didn’t do a couple changes in the heat races that I should have made, and that would’ve maybe put us farther up,” Pankratz said. “I think I’ll start pretty far back Saturday, because we went backward a little bit in everything. Hopefully we got rid of all the bad luck tonight.”