Racing always has been, in one form or another, a family affair for Travis Jacobson.
The 25-year-old Lake Stevens native started hanging around Skagit Speedway with his father, Gary, as a young child, and his younger brother, Andy, is one of the many racers Travis has competed against in his sprint car racing career.
It’s no wonder then, that Jacobson has family on his mind as he prepares for the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup, which kicks off tonight at Skagit Speedway.
Jacobson wants more than anything to earn his first Dirt Cup win for his grandfather, Ralph “Shorty” Pierce, who has been sick of late.
“My thoughts and prayers are with my grandpa this weekend,” said Jacobson, whose best Dirt Cup finish was a second-place finish two years ago. “This weekend is for you Shorty.”
It’s odd, then, in light of all this family talk, that family is what almost caused Jacobson to walk away from racing this year.
The father of a 16-month-old son, Jacobson had to weigh parental responsibilities with his love of racing.
“I just felt like I had to do to do the right thing for my kid,” said Jacobson. “I just wanted to make sure it was what I wanted. I sacrifice a lot for this sport. It takes a lot away a lot of time and I want him to have a father.”
Rather than give up racing all together, however, Jacobson has found the middle ground that allows him to be a parent. Just when he was ready to give up on racing, Roger Oudman called and asked Jacobson to drive his car. Oudman, unhappy with his own results as a driver, asked Jacobson to fill in.
“The only reason I drove the first night is he thought I might drive better than him,” Jacobson explained. “We had a good race and he decided we should stick with it.”
Now, Jacobson is driving a limited schedule to make sure he has time for his son, Jesson.
“Before I had dreams of moving away and focusing on a racing career,” Jacobson said. “But having a kid totally changes your life around. I’d like to be able to make a living driving a sprint car, but being a good parent is the most important thing now.”
Jesson, while not entirely sure of what’s going on, has quickly become Daddy’s biggest fan.
“You wouldn’t need a DNA test to know he’s my kid,” said Jacobson. “When he was six months old, we put him in a sprint car that was idling, he loved it. When we shut the car off and he started screaming bloody murder.”
The three-day event, which culminates Saturday with a $25,000 payday for the winner, is a chance for locals like Jacobson to compete against some of the best sprint car drivers from around the country.
“Aside from the money, it’s a huge prestige race,” Jacobson said. “Dirt Cup has always been the Super Bowl of sprint cars for us on this side of the country. It makes it a lot more meaningful being a local, because we’re always considered the underdog at this race and we want to represent local racing.”
Barry Martinez is another Snohomish County resident who hopes to represent the area well. The 41-year-old from Lynnwood hasn’t had the success he would have liked in past Dirt Cups, but is confident heading into this year’s race.
“It seems like we’ve always had bad luck at this race,” said Martinez, who owns Advanced Toys for Trucks in south Everett. “We’ve got as good of a shot of anyone out there this weekend, though. We can win on a weekly basis, and we’ve won championship here (Skagit Speedway), but we’ve got people coming from all over the country for this one. If you can take people on in this week and win, it means a lot.”
A win by either Jacobson or Martinez would be the first for a Washingtonian since Kasey Kahne won in 2002 and 2003. Kahne, now one of NASCAR’s rising stars, is the only Washington driver to win the event two years in a row.
Jacobson isn’t the racer with family on his mind this week. Californian Brent Kaeding, a three-time Dirt Cup winner, will be shooting for a fourth win over a field that includes his sons, Bud and Tim.
Like Kaeding, Jonathon Allard has multiple Dirt Cup victories on his resume. Allard, from Chico, Calif., is shooting for his third victory in a row, something that has never been accomplished in the 36-year history of the race.
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