IntheGrooveApril

In the Groove-May 2005
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May 4th - Meet the Sponsors
May 11th - Opening Night - Jay Doerr
May 18th - The harder you work, the more luck you have
May 25th - Sprint cars take flight

May 4th 2005 - Meet the Sponsors

Where do you find a sponsor; someone who will pay money to advertise on your race car? Finding sponsorship is one of the most difficult things that race teams have to do but without stable financial support teams have little chance of becoming competitive no matter how much talent, experience or equipment they may possess.
So who are the people who sponsor local race teams? In general, they are individuals who already have an interest in racing and have companies, products and services that they want to promote.

Take Dave Sherba for example. Dave is the owner of United Flooring in Strathroy. He began sponsoring driver Bill Daniels in the early 1990’s. He didn’t attend the races but he enjoyed hearing about the team’s progress and successes. However, one beautiful sunny Labour Day weekend he decided to check out a Cascar Super Series Race with his son. “It was fun and I was quite impressed with the cars” he explains “I went back to the Daniels team and told them that if they raced in the late model division I might come out to the races. And that’s what they did. So I began going out Friday nights, and I really started enjoying it”.

To Dave, the opportunity in race car sponsorship is the networking. “I have gotten to know a lot of people” he tells me “and sooner or later they all need flooring. People who enjoy this sport are very loyal to the companies that support racing, so they will come in, buy some product and hang around to chat about last Friday’s race.”

Dave continues to attend the races every Friday night. He finds it is a good way to wind down at the end of a week. And he continues to sponsor race cars. Currently his primary sponsorship commitment is to late model driver Ron Sheridan and the RKR Team. “They run their race program very professionally and they have always represented me and United Flooring very well “Dave says. “If I need them to do an appearance at an event, they will be there”.

The United Flooring logo can also be found on Cole Pearn’s late model and on the Junior Late Model of Kyle Dennis.

Like many other individuals who sponsor racing, Dave has become more involved with racing and with the team he sponsors. The RKR team runs a limited Cascar Super Series schedule in addition to their Nascar late model program and Dave has been the team’s “spotter” at Cascar events for the past two years. As the spotter, Dave provides an extra set of eyes for his driver by watching the race from a position high above the race track and communicating by radio what is happening on the track and the whereabouts of other competitors. “Ron and I seem to make a good combination” says Dave “and I really enjoy it.”

Doug Doerr is another race car sponsor whose interest in the car he sponsors is much more than just a business deal. The owner of Once Upon A Child, a store specializing in new and used apparel and other items for children, Doug also owns and is the major sponsor on the Nascar late model driven by his son Jay Doerr.

A fan of racing for many years, Doug sees the race car as an important element in an overall marketing plan for Once Upon A Child which also includes radio and television ads, bus billboards and other print advertising.

Doug too, has found that race sponsorship works for his business. “We’ve had people tell us that the reason they shop our store is because we race” Doug explains. “It’s a biased opinion because I own the car, but I feel that there is a great deal of value in this kind of advertising.”

In addition to the exposure that the car gets at Delaware every Friday night, the team has taken advantage of many promotional opportunities in conjunction with speedway. Recently it was on display at the John Labatt Center for Delaware Speedway night where it carried its sponsor’s message to many of the 9000+ spectators attending the hockey game.

On another occasion, the team was involved in a fund raising initiative in which people stuck looneys on their car and the money collected was then donated to the Children’s Hospital. The Once Upon a Child sponsorship provided the link which made this team the perfect choice for this program.

From a racer’s standpoint, a race car needs to be seen as two things; a racing vehicle for competing and an advertising vehicle for generating the money necessary to compete. Both are equally important.

From a sponsor point of view, racing provides excellent opportunities for companies to do some creative marketing and have fun at the same time.

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May 11th - Opening Night - Jay Doerr

Jay Doerr was four years old when he painted a picture of a race car with people around it. According to his dad, Jay explained the picture to them, saying; “When I grow up, my dad will buy a race car, and I will drive it.”

Thirty two years later, it is opening night at Delaware Speedway and Jay is, indeed piloting a race car owned by his dad. Jay is one of a handful of drivers in the Nascar Late Model Division competing tonight, for the first time, in the new late model with crate engine combination that is possible now through rule changes introduced over the winter.

Jay put about 120 laps on the car during practise days in April, and is feeling comfortable and excited about his new ride. “I was surprised at how different this car feels (from the old style late model still being run by many competitors in the division)” Jay told me several days earlier at the shop behind his dad’s house where the race car is housed. “It is wider, has a bigger spoiler and the crate engine is fast”.

At 6:40 pm on opening night, Delaware Speedway is a busy place. Practise is in full swing and the pit area around Jay’s car is a noisy, dusty, flurry of activity. Jay has decided that his car is good and the crew are doing last minute adjustments and checks. At 7:15 pm, with practise over, the drivers meeting begins in the tech building. Every driver is required to attend these meetings which update them on procedures, schedules and safety concerns. With the meeting complete, it is a waiting game until heat races begin at 8pm.

Jay Doerr’s racing career didn’t start with the late models. Twelve years ago, he began racing a dwarf car at tracks in Ontario and at invitational races in the United States, moving to the Delaware Open Wheel Modified division in 1997. At the end of the 2000 season, his dad purchased a Cascar late model from veteran racer Bob Morris, who was giving up racing for awhile in order to focus on his fledgling real estate career.

Late models are complicated pieces of equipment, more adjustable than vehicles in other classes, and understanding them enough to get them set-up to running well is both an art and a science. Neither Jay nor his crew initially knew much about the new late model, so Bob Morris made himself available to answer questions and help with the initial set-ups. “When we yelled ‘help’, Bob was there for us” Doug Doerr, Jay’s dad, explains. “He still had a vested interest in our car and we became friends”.

This year, Bob has officially become a part of the team bringing with him 20 years of racing experience. “Before, we always had questions” Doug says of having Bob join the team “We were often unsure what the best thing to do would be. So Bob completes the team.”

Bob is enthusiastic about working with the new style late model which allows the use of more aftermarket and performance parts. “This new car responds to the smallest changes” Bob tells me. “It is a 100% a real race car.”

In his heat race, Jay gets blocked in behind a slow car and spins out when he gets on the brakes too hard. No one hits him as he is stopped sideways on the track which is a small miracle given the tight field and the opening night jitters, but it means he starts the feature race from back in 13th position.

A few changes to the car before the feature improved its handling and Jay was able to run the first 17 laps on the outside, passing cars and moving from 13th to 5th. The first caution came when Jay’s car clipped the car of Andrew Thompson, who had spun ahead of him causing minor damage to the front end of Jay’s car.

A trip to pit road to remove the hood and check for other problems then Jay was back to racing where he moved up once again; this time from 10th to 6th before his car spun on the front strait; a result of contact with Andrew Thompson’s car once again. Jay describes the race as “an exciting, eventful race. It was really fun.”

In the end, he finishes 8th, not his best start to a season, but with all the changes that have happened in the past six months, the new rules, the new car and crew members, Jay knows it will take some time for the whole package to gel. It is a good start to a year that could belong to anybody.

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May 18th - The harder you work, the more luck you have

Luck is often thought of as something beyond our control; it either graces us with good circumstances or curses us with unfortunate ones. In motor sports, it is common to hear racers say that you have to be lucky to do well, and even luckier to win.

And to some degree this is true. Factors, such as mechanical failures, flat tires, being behind another competitor when their engine blows, and sudden changes in weather can have a huge influence on the outcome of a race.

And every race team has lucky stories too; about the day the engine blew up as they crossed the finish line, or the crack in the rotor that was discovered after the race was over. So luck, both good and bad does play a part.

But how big a part does it really play? Watching Pete Vanderwyst enroute to his first win of the year on Delaware’s opening night, it might be tempting to explain his early season success in terms of good luck. Pete was lucky to draw a number which put him at the front of his heat race. He didn’t win the heat race, but he held his position which allowed him a good starting place for the feature race. From there it was just a short jaunt to the front of the field where he took over the lead from team mate Cole Pearn only a handful of laps into the race.

Pete made his win look easy; he made it look lucky.

Talking to Pete this past week, I get a different perspective. “It comes down to preparation” he tells me. “We came out of the box extremely good. We had new equipment and a lot of work went into getting the car ready. We had two very productive practise sessions under our belt and we were able to sort out a couple of small problems with the car. These factors worked in our favour and I think we have the potential to follow that win with another one soon.”

Pete sees his team’s success in terms of taking care of the details. “You make your own luck” he explains, “by making sure you cross the T’s and dot the I’s so when something does go wrong, you are prepared to deal with it; it doesn’t hit you so hard.”
It seems that racing follows a well known formula for luck: preparation + attention to opportunity = luck.

Preparation for race teams happens in three important areas. There is the mechanical preparation of cars and equipment, the team preparation in terms of experience, knowledge and mental attitude, and driver preparation which combines driver ability with the mental toughness to stay engaged and with positive determination throughout the race – no matter what.

For Pete Vanderwyst, driver preparation is something he has taken very seriously. “I have had to learn fast in the last 10 years” he tells me. “I didn’t start racing until I was 24 years old. That’s pretty late.” For Pete this means having his wife Catherine videotape all of his races so he can go over them later. “I watch the other cars to see where they are weak; where I could get by them. I also watch for places where I missed opportunities and places where I could have done better.”

Over the years, Pete has experienced his share of on track driver malfunctions and explains that the balance between aggression and patience, which is the hallmark of top drivers, is something he is continuing to learn through experience and honest appraisal of driving performance.

Like many other race car drivers, Pete also practises racing through mental rehearsal. “Lying awake at night I can run through every race that is memorable to me” he explains. “I can go through every lap in the exact spot I was in, who I passed, where I got on the brakes and where I got back on the gas”.

In a sport where practise doesn’t happen every day, this mental rehearsal can improve driving skills. “Before the race, I sit in the car and focus on going around the track in my mind. I know every corner and how the car feels.”

With thorough preparation, Pete is prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that each race gives him. And in the season opener, that meant taking a win.

Thomas Jefferson has been quoted as saying “I am a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it”. I think that about sums it up.

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May 25th - Sprint cars take flight

Not every stock car driver would want to get behind the wheel of a sprint car. Weighing in at approximately 1600 lbs, sprint cars are rocketed around the track by an 812 horsepower engine and cover the half mile at Delaware Speedway in just over 16 seconds.

Compared to one of Delaware’s new late model stock cars, which weighs in at 2950 pounds and carries a 410 horsepower engine, the sprint cars make forward motion at high speed seem effortless as they dart about on the track like those little neon fish in the lobby aquariums at high end hotels.

It takes a certain kind of driver to appreciate sprint cars, and Mike Ling is one of those drivers. But Mike didn’t go out looking for a sprint car to drive. In fact in the early 90’s, the now 35 year old Ling was one of Cascar Late Models up and coming young stars. But when sponsorship dollars for his Cascar program ran out and Mike was left without any outlet for his need for speed, he began racing microsprints at tracks around Ontario.

When the opportunity to run a dirt sprint car in the United States came along, Mike grabbed it even though he had no experience with the cars. “I learned as I went along” he tells me as we stand next to his sprint car in the pit area at Delaware last Friday night.

He is explaining the mechanics of the sprint car to me. In order to create such a light weight racing vehicle, the design of sprint cars leaves out a lot of the stuff generally found on a car; such as the transmission, clutch and starter. They use a direct drive system that is engaged using a lever located in the cockpit when the vehicle is push started. The driveline, which is attached directly to the crankshaft, is housed in a tube assembly which runs between the driver’s feet in the tiny cockpit. The brake pedal is on one side of the tube, the gas pedal is on the other. Inches above the driver’s head, is a huge angled wing which creates the down force necessary to stabilize the car. Sometimes, when weather conditions are right, Mike tells me, the wings create a vapour trail like that seen behind a jet airplane.

Mike and former microsprint competitor Jim Brown who had become Mike’s car owner, made the move back to asphalt racing in 2000 when they joined the Auto Value Super Sprints division. They took home the rookie of the year award at season end. This year, Mike is driving for a multicar team owned by Mike Katz, a former sprint car driver and long time supporter of sprint car racing. Katz is pleased to have Mike driving one of his cars this season. “He has earned a good name in this series and the other competitors respect him” Katz tells me. “We are always looking for that right combination of driver and team.”

The Delaware event last Friday was the second of the season for the Super Sprints, with Mike bringing home a sixth place finish in the first race. In qualifying, Mike tied for third, posting a time of 16.190. It was a good start to the evening, but the luck was not to continue. During the heat race, a steering part broke and Mike’s car hit the wall several times before coming to a stop in turn 3. The damage to the car was extensive, putting the team out of the event.

As the awards for the Delaware Open Wheel Modified division which also ran last Friday night, were being presented, the pick up trucks used to push start the sprint cars were assembling on pit road. Then the sprint cars begin to arrive, being pushed by ATV’s or golf carts or crews. A push truck pulled up behind each car, nudging it down the track until it fires up and speeds away. As the field slowly increases in size, the cars begin to shift into their starting positions and soon they are ready to take the green flag.

Two laps before the end of the race, a spin on the track brings out a yellow flag and then a red one, the indicator that the race must stop due to an emergency situation.

In this case, the emergency is that the sprint cars are out of fuel. They carry 30 gallons of an alcohol/methanol combination fuel that they burn up at about one gallon per mile and here, almost at the end of the 30 lap race which has included many caution laps, they are in need of refuelling.

Crew members on ATV’s and carrying plastic jugs of fuel begin to appear beside the cars to carry out the required process. As they retreat, the push trucks assemble on the track once again to get the cars restarted for the final two laps.

As field takes the green flag once again, the wind created by the wings carries a horizontal plume of dust past the floodlights on the front strait. It would certainly be interesting to see those vapour trails.

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