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By Greg Soukup

Less than 8 weeks from now the 5th annual Racesaver IMCA Sprint Nationals will kick off! For those of you not familiar with the race, and even for those who are, we visit with Steven Richardson who took part in the 2016 version. Steven is from Liberal, Kansas and is 26 years old.

Q:        When did you start racing?

Steven:         I believe 2009 was the year; I was 18.

Q:        Was that sprint cars?

Steven:         Yes. I jumped into a 360 sprint. I raced mini-sprints when I was 10 to 12 years old, and I did that for about 3 years. It was at Garden City Raceway down in Garden City, Kansas. I was the first ever person to flip a mini-sprint. Then I moved away from Liberal and went to school. I went to high school, so I didn’t get to do any racing. Then we moved back to Liberal. My dad had raced for a number of years, so I kind of picked up where he left off. I decided to get my feet wet a little bit, so it’s been downhill ever since.

Q:        So, when did you go to the Racesavers?

Steven:         I think it would have been 2012. In 2013, I raced the last half of the year with the URSS with Rick Salem. We finally got our first win out of the way, and started having a pretty good year, so we went back and we’ve been racing with them this past few years. And then obviously everything has kind of started to shift to the aluminum headed motors with the IMCA, which actually I think is awesome because like last year at the Sprint Nationals we made friends with people from out in Pennsylvania, and obviously people from California; a whole bunch of different states that all got together because of that uniform set of rules; which is really, really nice.

Q:        How did you enjoy racing with all those people from all over the country?

Steven:         I think it’s awesome. I mean, you get the best guys in the country under one roof so to speak, and you can kind of see where you’re at. Not talent-wise necessarily, but as far as your driving level. You can put yourself to the test, and have breakfast with the folks from out there in Pennsylvania and talk with them. You meet a lot of good people and build up the racing community.

Q:        Was last year your first time at the Racesaver Sprint Nationals?

Steven:         Yep! That was our first trip up there, but we’re definitely going to be back again. Hopefully, a lot more times.

Q:        What did you think of Eagle Raceway?

Steven:         It’s got to be the gnarliest track I’ve ever been to, for sure! Especially that turn one hole that gets going, because of the natural spring there. That definitely makes for some interesting racing. Honestly, I kind of like that it’s there. I’m sure a lot of guys will disagree with me, and there will probably come a time when I disagree with myself. It makes it two lanes on the racetrack. You’ve got to either go above it or below it.

Q:        Are you enjoying the Racesaver class?

Steven:         I am actually. Especially with how expensive the 360 class has gotten. Honestly, if you’re going to run a 360 nowadays, you might as well go ahead and buy yourself a 410. It’s nice to show up at a racetrack and have 20 to 30 cars. You go to some of these 360 races and you’re looking at 15 to 20 cars and they’ve only got 9 races or so on the schedule. If you want to do anything more than that you’ve got to really be willing to travel. With the Racesaver IMCA class, there’s a bunch of races around locally and if you want to travel to a bunch of different tracks you don’t have to change a bunch of stuff. You can just load up your car and go to Oklahoma, or Nebraska or even Texas. I mean, it’s nationwide and it’s opened a lot of doors for a lot of people.

Q:        What do you think of the Racesaver rules?

Steven:         As far as the motor, I think it’s awesome. Obviously, you’re going to have a little differential in horsepower, but it’s not enough that someone can just dump a bunch of money that say you could in a 360 or a 410 and just win with horsepower. The only thing that I would like to see changed; I’m not sure if they allow titanium brakes. I know they’re obviously trying to keep the costs down, I do think that would be an improvement. If you’ve got them, you can run them if you want. And then, also the big wing. I’m not such a fan of the big wing with the Racesavers. When we were running the smaller 4 by 4 wings, with Rick in the URSS, I feel like the quality of the racing was a lot better. I’m not saying that it’s bad now, it’s just that you could see guys coming from 14th or pretty deep in the field and really just driving up through the field. You’re still seeing that occasionally when the track is right, but you’re not seeing it all of the time like a few years ago when we were running the smaller wings.

Q:        Did you like the 3-day qualifying format?

Steven:         Yeah. I like that it’s 3 or 4 days of straight racing because that’s what you’re there to do. It’s just really good to focus in on that one thing, which is racing. It’s one of the best vacations that I’ve ever taken, even though you’re working hard the whole time. It’s definitely a real benefit to draw well. If you can draw well and start up front, get out there and win your heat race or get second and get up there in the A, B or even C Features, that definitely makes it a lot easier. Last year we had a little bad luck with the draw, and we started last in our heat race both nights. Then we were only able to advance our position one or maybe two spots on one night because at that point the track isn’t super-wide or super-racy. Obviously, you can do some passing. And then having to come from the F or E Main, it definitely puts an even bigger challenge upon you. If they can manage to take the drawing system out of it, just a tad; I mean, you’re never going to do that completely. But, I think it would make things a little more interesting. It wouldn’t have to be so dependent on that draw.

Q:        Did you stick around for the A Feature on Sunday?

Steven:         Oh yeah.

Q:        What did you think of the 3-wide start?

Steven:         I can definitely see where, from a spectator point, it would be very exciting. It’s very interesting. I know that a lot of the drivers, when it first started happening, they didn’t think it was a good idea. But most everybody has a good idea that they’re not there to tear up equipment. They’re there to have a good time and race hard, so after that first lap it didn’t seem to be that big of a problem. Everybody gets sorted out and keeps their heads on straight for that first lap. Everybody finds their groove and it’s just no holds barred after that.

Q:        Is there anything that we haven’t covered yet that you want to pass along to the teams or fans who haven’t come to the Nationals yet?

Steven:         I definitely encourage everyone to show up. If you’re a racer, and there’s some guys who are on a limited budget who don’t think they can make it out there, which is something that I can completely understand. It’s something that I would definitely put on my calendar to try and make just because the racing is one thing, but you really get a good sense of the racing community. I think that was one of the best parts for us. You transfer to a few mains on a couple of nights, and they run them right back to back to back. We weren’t fully prepared, with it being our first time. But we had guys we didn’t know, and guys we were running with competitively in our own series and as soon as I pulled off of the race track I said “Hey! I need fuel” and guys are running back to their trailer because we didn’t realize that the format was quite that fast. So we had guys that are known competitors, and guys we didn’t even know helping us out; putting in fuel, throwing me a drink of water, recinching my belts or whatever. Everybody’s right there to get you back out and get you back going again. That’s one thing that I heard. A lot of guys who were running 360’s and now they’re running the Racesavers, obviously they might miss the horsepower a little bit, but they can’t believe how much nicer the people are. You’re racing hard, and competing hard, and obviously you’re going to have some ruffled feathers here and there. But, for the most part everybody is there to be competitive and be clean about it. I hope it continues to grow. What was it last year? We had almost 130 cars (Actually 117) and I know there’s a lot more people that could have been there. This year I’d like to see it in excess of 150 honestly. Just to take a little bit of the thunder away from the Chili Bowl and Tulsa Shootout and the Knoxville Nationals. I’d like it to be one of the most prominent races in the country in a few years.

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.

By Greg Soukup

Daren Bolac, 42, from Moyock North Carolina was kind enough to give us his thoughts on the 2016 Racesaver Nationals, Eagle Raceway and other things in a recent interview.

Q:        When did you first start racing?

Daren:           I first started racing in 1995, racing stock cars. I stayed in stock cars until 2006. I ran stock cars on both dirt and asphalt, but we were a little better on dirt and won a championship on dirt in 2003. I sold all of my stock car stuff when I heard that Virginia Motor Speedway was going to try the Racesaver winged sprints. I sold everything that I had because I REALLY wanted to drive a sprint. It’s hard, because in my area there is no sprint car racing. I’m the only sprint car team in Tidewater that I know of. There’s not a whole lot of sprint car racing around here, but it’s something that I always wanted to do. So, when I heard that they were going to do it, I sold everything and went up to Pennsylvania on a Friday night and spent every dime I made selling my stock car stuff buying used sprint car parts. We started in 2007, and actually had a pretty good season trying to figure this deal out. A sponsor helped me out with a little bit of money so I could go to Smiley’s driving school in 2006 during the off-season. Coming from stock cars I had never even sat in a sprint car; didn’t know anything about one, didn’t know how to start one. Smiley gave me a great deal, showing me how to start one, what to do and what not to do, trying to help us out. It helped me out a bunch, that’s for sure.

Q:        Have you been in the Racesavers ever since then?
 

Daren:           Yeah. It’s kind of weird. When they started out, VMS followed the Racesaver program more than the motors, but the cars were pretty much the same. We ran under Racesaver rules in 2007, and that was my rookie year. They ran Racesaver in 2008 and I won the track championship that year. Then in 2009 they changed the rules package to meet ASCS rules because ASCS was trying to come into the east coast. So, they did an ASCS 305 kind of thing. They ran a really different head than Racesaver did, but we won back to back championships in 2008 and 2009. At VMS they had a 3-year deal of sponsorship money for the series from a group of guys that ran there. They lost that in 2010, and they got rid of the sprints. So, in 2010 we basically had a Racesaver motor and we were looking for a place to go. We had always been affiliated with French Grimes. French helped us with our first motor; getting it dyno’ed and tuned up, and he was a really cool guy. So, I said “If we’re going to go anywhere we’re going along with French. In 2010 we went back with Racesaver with the Virginia Sprint Series, and we’ve been with them ever since. We’ve been to almost every region on the east coast in fact.

Q:        Was 2016 your first year at the Racesaver IMCA Sprint Nationals?

Daren:           No. We’ve been there every year that they had it. We haven’t been as successful as we wanted to be, that’s for sure. In 2013 they basically had 2 Nationals, because French still had his Nationals at Fork Mountain and then a handful of us from the Virginia Sprint Series went out there in the fall to Nebraska.

Q:        Where did you finish last year.

Daren:           I didn’t make the show unfortunately. It was probably our best pill draw since we’ve been there, because we were on the front row twice. But, in our heat race another car wanted our spot more than us because he drove right over the top of us, so that put us behind the 8 ball on Friday. And then Saturday we just missed it. I don’t even know if we got up to the B Main; I think we got to the C Main. We definitely struggled, that’s for sure.

Q:        Well, since you had to use it last year, do you like the 3-day qualifying format?

Daren:           I do. I’m not real big on the pill draw and I never have been; just because luck never seems to go my way. But, I can say that last year we had some awesome pill draws. It was really working for us, but we just couldn’t perform when we needed to. But, give me three days and three chances to get in and it’s a pretty cool deal. I actually talked to Roger a couple of years ago about group qualifying. I really like that because it’s qualifying more on performance than luck of the draw. I understand that it takes a lot more track time, but not as much as track owners think. As a matter of fact, French was trying it at the last Nationals before going to Nebraska. In Virginia we’d do group qualifying and it seemed to work out pretty well.

Q:        Do you enjoy getting to race with teams from all over the country?

Daren:           It’s pretty cool. Like I said, we run with a lot of different groups on the east coast. We run the Virginia Sprint Series, we’ve been to New York and New Jersey, the Carolinas and we’ve been to Pennsylvania quite a few times. But coming to Nebraska we get to run with some of the guys from Texas that have become my friends on Facebook because we’ve talked on there and stuff. But to meet them in person it’s a lot of fun; it really is. It’s great to see the people from Nebraska. It’s a good time, it really is.

Q:        What do you think of Eagle Raceway?

Daren:           I think it’s exactly what the t-shirts say; it’s One BadAss Racetrack (laughs). I’ve been to quite a few tracks out on the east coast and one track in Texas, but that’s a very unique race track. It’s a lot of fun. I’m a 3/8’s mile track kind of guy. I’ve been on some ½ mile and 5/8’s mile tracks, which are a lot of fun. But the racing is not as good. When you get to a 3/8’s size, you get some great racing, and with Eagle and the banking that they have, that track is unreal. They put on a really good show. Roger and the whole track crew and everything about it; to have that many cars and to have that nice of a race weekend, it’s not easy to do. I’ve bounced through the hole in turn one quite a few times. It’s scary, that’s for sure. But, like Roger said in the drivers meeting, it’s there….it’s there for everyone….and you have to either race around it or go through it, but it’s not going anywhere. Every track has something, and that’s just part of Eagle. I’ve learned to race the top side at Eagle; maybe not as good as I should. I’ve bounced off the walls most of the times when I get up there, but you either go above it or below it I think is the best deal. That’s just part of the deal. I’ve been to lots of tracks and they have bad wrecks in the same spot all of the time.

Q:        What do you think of the 3-wide start on Sunday?

Daren: I’ve been there 4 years and have never started the A on Sunday. I think the first year we missed it by one or two spots, and that was pretty heartbreaking because we were running pretty good and to miss it by just a couple of spots hurts. I’ve never been a part of it, but it looks exciting. I’m sure it’s a little sketchy. I don’t think it’s ever been done before, to tell you the truth; I know I’ve never seen it. It’s definitely exciting to watch. When I first heard about it, the first thing that came to mind like most of the folks that I’ve met is it’s going to be a crash fest! But, it wasn’t. It was really neat to see it the first time. I think that it shows how much the guys want this to work; how much they respect each other on the track. It takes a handful of good laps to get the race going, and to not tear each other up. It’s really neat to watch. The thing that you have to get pounded in your head, especially at the Nationals at Eagle is that you have to get after it; especially in the heat races. Whenever you get the chance, you have to take it. The good thing is that when you get to the A, that’s always been our goal. If we made it to the A Feature on Sunday, it would be like we’d won; in our little world. Once you get there you have to calm down and take what you can get, at least for a lap or two, and then go after it. I wish that I had more time to travel to Eagle. I wish I had more time on the track to learn it. We’ve been there four times, so hopefully this year we can get to the A on Sunday.

Q:        Is there anything else that we haven’t talked about that you want the teams and fans who haven’t come to the Nationals at Eagle to know about?

Daren:           Just that it’s probably THE best race I’ve ever been a part of since I started racing in 1995. I’ve raced for championships, and this and that, but it’s not as much fun as we had at Eagle. We see a lot of friends that we race with from other groups on the east coast. Those guys come out. And we meet new folks from Nebraska and teams from Texas. To see that big of a group to come out and have racing fun, whether you make the A or not, it’s a good time. It’s tough competition on a tough race track. It’s a heck of a good time.

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.