Figure-eight racing is equal parts art and science, with some luck and a healthy dash of pure adrenaline thrown in for good measure.
This Saturday Evergreen Speedway’s Super Figure Eight division takes center stage for the first of its three marquee events this season: the 60 Minutes of FEAR.
This marks the 16th straight year for the 60 Minutes of FEAR, in which drivers compete against the clock and each other to complete the most laps around Evergreen’s figure-eight track in one hour.
“I think it’s just the fact of being able to run for that one hour, seeing how many laps you can get in,” said John “Cowboy” Carlson, who won the race last year and in 2006, when asked what made it special. “Most of our races are short; they’re over in 15-20 minutes. It makes it fun to try to run these longer races.”
Also slated to race on Saturday are the Super Late Models on the five-eighths mile oval — Evergreen’s “big track” — the Street Stocks, Stinger 8s, Hornets and Youth Hornets. Gates open at 5 p.m. with racing at 7 p.m. beginning with a late-model trophy dash.
Former Evergreen promoter Mickey Beadle called the 60 Minutes of FEAR a “racer’s race,” and said the idea originated with former assistant promoter Tom Glithero after a trip to the Midwest and the site of the World Figure 8 Championships.
“It’s a copy of — I don’t know if they still do it — but a four-hour event at the Speedrome in Indianapolis,” Glithero said. “We modified it to fit our track and our racers — I thought if I proposed a four-hour race the figure-eight drivers would hang me from a flag pole — and tied the name in with FEAR.”
Formed in 1966, the year after figure-eight racing was introduced at Evergreen Speedway, the racer-run Figure Eight Auto Racing (FEAR) club managed figure-eight racing until last season, when the drivers were required to join NASCAR. As a member of the NASCAR Home Track program, all drivers at Evergreen are required to be members, and FEAR was transformed into a social organization. (Web site: www.fearracing.org).
Fans of figure-eight racing know there is much more going on than just driving fast and not getting hit. Drivers have to turn both right and left, continuously, on a relatively confined course and usually while surrounded by other cars. Add in the danger of the intersection — called the “X” — and the need to avoid hitting or being hit by other cars.
On Saturday, the racers will do that — turn left, shoot through the intersection into the right-hander, come out and race back to through the X into the left-hander, avoiding other cars all the while — for an hour.
“Shooting that intersection, seeing if you can do it, it’s like getting a thread through the eye of a needle,” Carlson said. “Anybody can shoot the intersection and wreck … It takes a perfectionist to shoot that intersection with other cars and get to the other side without getting wrecked.”
Carlson added that three-time division champion Vern Deitz told him the reason the series is popular with the fans is the entertainment value of watching cars run through the intersection.
“It’s an art,” Carlson said. “That’s why a lot of people don’t do it.”
The very first 60 Minutes of FEAR in 1994 was won by Ricky “The Kid” Deitz, the son of the Vern Deitz. “The Kid” added another 60 Minutes win in 2007 and will be one of an expected 20 or more racers taking part in this year’s edition, along with former winners Greg Scott (2005), Steve Peters (2002) and four-time winner Steve Cox (1998, 2000, 01, 03).
Carlson went 120 laps in winning the event last year, holding off second-generation racer Nick Gunderson — father Brian Gunderson won the second 60 Minutes in 1995 — through the middle stretch before using lapped cars to build up a comfortable margin as time ran down.
“It’s an hour so we’ll have to see how many laps we get in,” Carlson said. “In 2004 we got 180 laps, I think, but there weren’t very many cars left. After lap 130 or so they started falling out because of gas.”
Last year Carlson joined Cox and Scott as the only drivers to win both the 60 Minutes of FEAR and the Figure 8 Nationals in the same season. In addition to this year’s Figure 8 Nationals on Aug. 29 during the Evergreen State Fair, the speedway added a third marquee event for figure-eight racers a 100-lap race during the annual Washington 500 on July 25.
Rumor has it Evergreen Speedway’s upper-tier series will see season-highs for car count this weekend. I’m looking for Nick Gunderson to win the 60 Minutes of FEAR, Naima Lang to continue his mastery of the big track in the Super Late Model feature, Frank Cowgill to return to victory stage in the Street Stock race and Seth Funden to win the Stinger 8 feature.
I look for “Concrete” Carl Edwards to regain his form this weekend, sweeping the NASCAR Cup and Nationwide series races at the Monster Mile Dover. For the Truck series race at Dover I’ll go with Terry Cook to continue his rise.
IndyCar stays in the Midwest, visiting the Milwaukee Mile this Sunday, where Scott Dixon will get Ganassi back in Victory Lane.
The NHRA is also in the heartland, visiting Topeka, Kan., for the Summer Nationals. I like Brandon Bernstein (Top Fuel), Ron Capps(Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) to win.
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