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<< Previous   of   Next >> Courtesy Vaughn family  (click to enlarge) NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne (left) congratulates Robby Vaughn of Snohomish after Vaughn won the second annual Kahne Foundation Sprint Car Challenge race at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., on Aug. 29, 2007.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Monday, May 12, 2008 Vaughn ponders career racing sprint cars By Scott Whitmore Herald Writer Robby Vaughn has seen the top of the mountain. Last year, the teen-ager from Snohomish raced against some of the best sprint car drivers in the country in Florida and Iowa, then came home and beat a pair of NASCAR superstars. But seeing the top of the sprint car mountain, and being willing to make the sacrifices to reach it -- and stay there -- are not the same. "It's daunting, almost, just how much time and effort everybody else puts into it," Vaughn, 19, said. "It's just their whole life -- it's all they ever do. "The thing I'd be worried about is doing that for, say, five years, then if I walk away and nothing really came of it, now I'm broke, five years older and have nothing." The dilemma the 2007 graduate of Monroe High School faces is this: Unlike basketball or football, auto racing offers no collegiate step on the ladder to success. There is just racing. Racing top-tier cars of any type, late model or sprint, for a full season at a local track or in a regional touring series is a time-consuming and expensive proposition. Parts, fuel, tires, motors, pit fees, trailers and safety gear eat away savings or, if a driver is lucky, car owner or sponsor money at an alarming rate. Car owners and sponsors are often family or family friends, but even so a driver without enough talent to bring in some winnings won't have a ride for long. Vaughn, who started with go-karts at the age of 8 and loves to race sprint cars -- he called anything else "boring" -- has talent. Last year, driving for car owner Jeff Jansma of Jansma Construction, Vaughn finished sixth in points and was the rookie of the year in the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series -- a regional touring series known this year as the American Sprint Car Series-Northwest. "He's a great driver," Skagit Speedway owner Steve Beitler said of Vaughn. "He's one of our young drivers who are very, very good. I would hate to see him waste that talent." But being successful racing once a week at a track like Skagit Speedway and making a living at racing, especially sprint cars, are two different things. "To be plucked out and get famous, you'd have to be back East, and you have to have a lot of money," Vaughn said. "If you've got the money and the will, you go down there." So he did. With Jansma's backing, Vaughn took time off from his senior year of high school from late January to early February 2007 to race 410 sprint cars at Volusia Speedway Park, a half-mile dirt oval outside Barberville, Fla. There Robby Vaughn raced against some of the top sprint car drivers in the country, including drivers from the World of Outlaws circuit -- who he called "the best in the world." Every evening 60 drivers came to the track intent on making the 40-car field for that night's races. Vaughn drove in 17 races in 23 days and made it into the B main every night and the A main once. "Florida was just a total step up from what he had been doing," said Joe Vaughn, Robby Vaughn's father and companion on the trip to Florida. "Especially the caliber of drivers." A few months after returning to Washington, Robby Vaughn began touring with the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series, racing 360 sprint cars at regional tracks. Vaughn was one of three NSCS drivers invited to compete against sprint car drivers from around the nation at the Brodix 360 Tournament of Champions on Aug. 5, 2007, in Knoxville, Iowa. Although disappointed with a 20th-place finish in Knoxville, Vaughn rebounded to record his first 360 sprint car win later that month while competing against two of the biggest names in motorsports. Vaughn won the second annual Kasey Kahne Foundation Sprint Car Challenge on Aug. 29 at Skagit Speedway, beating NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne. Originally from Enumclaw, Kahne drove sprint cars on the three-tenths mile dirt oval at Alger early in his racing career. "It was exciting but I never thought I'd win it," Vaughn said of the Kahne Foundation race. "Kind of hard to top that one." After racing the equivalent of two seasons between Florida and the NSCS, Vaughn thanked Jansma for the opportunity to drive for him in 2007, but said he could not commit to another year. "I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do this year," Vaughn said. "I told (Jansma) that I just didn't want to waste his time if I'm not sure." For now Vaughn works driving a truck while he sorts out whether he will try to find the time and money to climb the mountain and make racing his career, or if it will be just a weekend hobby. "Racing took up a lot of time last year," said Georgia Vaughn, Robby Vaughn's mother. "Now he's thinking about a (non-racing) career." Regardless which path he chooses, Robby Vaughn will return to the track sooner rather than later: there is a sprint car under construction in the family garage. "It definitely beats anything else," Vaughn said of racing. "You can't live with it or without it."

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