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| 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
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I bought my first sprint car from
Terry Brown of Carthage MO. The picture that you see is our first
car . Larry McCown of Sedalia MO. had let me drive his 4-cylinder
sprint car the summer 
of 1990 and we had a great time. If you go to
my friends page you can read more about him and a lot of other
people. Without any of them none of this would be possible.
Racing is a sport which not only takes a certain amount of talent but more importantly it takes the cooperation among all of the team members toward a common goal . No matter what the contribution is from cleaning up messes and organizing tools to furnishing the financial support that is so essential to being successful in today's racing scene. No one element in this equation is any more vital than another if just one person fails in his or her responsibilities it will normally result in poor performance and could literally mean life or death for the driver.
The 1991 season was a learning experience for us all . Our car was heavy ,our engine was underpowered but it really didn't matter much because I had so much to learn. Rusty Fisher of Sedalia helped me put this car together. The first race that I ever ran in a sprint car was at the Missouri State Fairgrounds at Sedalia, Mo.. The first heat race line-up was on the board and I was starting on the front row . I jumped out into the lead and I thought o.k. I better keep trying to go faster or everyone will pass me MISTAKE!! I misjudged the first corner on the third lap and ran over a tire marking the infield thus I turned the car over in front of everyone! When I got home I viewed the video tape and found that I was already way out in front of the field. So let me see.
This picture is a 1990 Gambler chassis. The photo is from the mile race in Sedalia MO. They are taking out the mile track this year.
Larry McCown whom
we had raced the 4-cylinder in 1989 furnished us this shop to
work in and is still helping us today. Larry has supported us
in many different ways over the years, from painting cars to finding
sponsors to just giving advice. He has always been very important
to our team. Larry introduced me to Bill Ferguson and long time
friend of Larry's. Bill helped us several times when we really
needed it. Since money was always a problem he was always there
when we needed him. During the same time period Charlie Kelly
started helping me do the everyday work and took over the chassis
adjustment at the track. At the same time Rick Williams our plant
manager at Waterloo Ind. got interested in what we were doing
. This seemed an unlikely marriage at the time but he turned out
be an incredible help. He introduced me to people like Tony Ross
and David Furnell two local businessmen who wouldn't even have
considered being involved in racing if it wouldn't have been for
him. As it turned out this guy was the best bolt checker and car
inspector at the track I've ever had . He never thought he was
too good to do any job at the race track. He definitely led by
example. My mom and dad have always been involved with us since
the go-kart days. Some others that were involved were Nick Esquivel,
Keith Rowland, and Charlie Bybee. With all of these people in
place we were ready for the next season.
Some of the dates of events from this point might be out of sequence because we raced so much the next few years, I'll do the best I can.
The very first night of the 1992 season we broke a valve and lost the motor that we started with . That meant we would have to build something and fast! All of the people mentioned above helped in any way they could and we built a new engine that proved to be superior to anyone's around. Any chance to win a points title had gone out the window while we were building the new engine. Everything went pretty smoothly. Everyone was still on board from the previous year and we raced a lot of different places . No track championships, but we won another 10 races and we were in the top three in points at Sedalia again. One down note was the loss of our Gambler chassis that we liked so much and we broke a rod bolt in our good engine but Bill Ferguson was there to help with a new crank assembly.
This
photo shows what was left of the Gambler.
This is what happens when your on the outside against the wall and someone does a side job into the left side of your car!
We started out the year with a Maxim chassis that I really
liked that we purchased after the loss of the Gambler. This year
was a totally devastating year for me both personally and professionally.
The pressure of owning my own team was taking its toll even though
we were running well. Then it happened!! The wreck that no one
can seem to forget. I think every week when I talk to people even
today the first thing out of their mouth is "I remember that
big flip you had". I will tell you the story from their perspective
with my memories thrown in. It was the start of the heat race
and I was on the back row. The first start I got a great run and
passed several cars on the outside of turn one. The flagman restarted
the race. I thought that worked good let's do it again. On the
restart I tried to time a pass between the wall and Rick Yeagers
car and I wanted to time the pass as he turned into the corner.
Something happened in front of Rick that made him check up just
a little bit at that point . I had to make a quick decision either
try to squeeze between him and the wall or hit him. I chose the
first option and thought I'd made it. As I passed him my left
front tire scuffed the edge of his right rear tire( he didn't
even feel it) it was just enough to lift the front of the car
in the air ,the wind literally blew the car over backwards. When
it flipped backwards it sheared the wing off on the ground and
then stuck the rear bumper into the ground acting like a 120mph
pole vault. The car flipped so fast that no one knows how many
times it went over in the air. I flipped from the flag stand out
onto the mile track and cleared the mile fence coming to rest
in the fairgrounds. I could not move even though I amazingly was
still conscious. I didn't know where I was, it was dark and all
I could see were the lights in my digital gauges but that only
lasted for a few seconds as I was staring at my gauges I went
blind. It scared me because I didn't know what was happening to
me and all I could think of was that I might never see my family
again! Finally the safety crew made it to me ,they had to unlock
a fence to get out to me.
When
they started working on me Joy Utz was there talking to me and
I knew that she had been around a lot of accidents so I asked
her if going blind was normal in a big impact like this, she said
"yes" but many years later she admitted that she just
told me that to help me not worry. The crowd was silent and the
only thing people could hear was the sound of some people crying.
From that night on I knew the Lord could have taken me but he
left me here to do something with no guarantees that it would
be easy.
As I was recovering from my loss of vision Bill Ferguson was in the process of getting a Jenkins chassis for us to use. Larry Yunt went on a trip to Speedweeks with me to run with the ASCS guys and I made the mistake of taking my wife at the time. The Jenkins car was the only thing that gave us more trouble than her. At the same time my personal life was falling apart I separated from my wife and I moved in with some friends . It made it very difficult to finish the season while going through a divorce. We had our Jenkins about three weeks when we raced at Pleasenton KS.. Denny Moore on the start hit the outside wall and came across in front of me. I got my car stopped but the people behind me did not. It knocked me out for a second or two and I woke up idling around in the infield . It wasn't that big of a hit, my head was not healed yet. So Rick Williams got us another chassis from Jenkins . Tony Ross from American Compressed Steel helped a lot through all of this to. I'm glad 1993 is over, it certainly changed the way I look at life!
1994 was a very good year the team was doing well we didn't when a championship but we won 11 features that year. The Jenkins cars were not fast any time the track got slick so I learned to lean agianst the cushion a lot and because there were several nights we couldn't be the fastest car I started to become more patient and let the race come to me. With that in mind I learned that if you have a third place car under you if you overdrive it you take home a pile of bent tubing. Third place pays much better!
