‘He’s the reason why I race’

Ron Fritzley’s daughter likes to drive fast, and unlike most parents, he supports and even encourages her lead foot.

“She loves to do it and she’s not scared of it,” Fritzley said on April 28, the night Jill Lang started her first super stock race at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe. “You get (racing) in your blood – it’s hard to get out.”

Fritzley should know.

He started racing in the 1970s at Evergreen Speedway and other tracks around the Pacific Northwest. Sometime this year he even hopes to take a turn behind the wheel of Lang’s super stock car.

After a courtship of several years, Fritzley married Lang’s mother when Lang was a 7-year-old. Lang grew up watching him race at Evergreen and that experience got her interested in the sport.

“We were out at the racetrack probably every weekend,” Lang said. “He got my brother and I into racing quarter-midgets when we were kids. … He taught us how to drive a stick shift when we were 9 and he got me my first car at 14.

“He’s the reason why I race.”

Lang’s preoccupation with racing and going fast – “I can’t stand going slow,” she said – led to some youthful encounters with the law.

“After she turned 16, I think she had 19 (speeding) tickets before she was 20,” Fritzley said with a laugh, adding that only one of the tickets held up in court.

Her side of the story?

“He always had fast cars,” Lang said of Fritzley.

Jill Lang took time off from racing to get married – husband Naima Lang is in his sophomore season running super stocks at Evergreen – and have children.

But racing was never far from her mind, and when she started racing in the bomber division at Evergreen a few years ago, Fritzley was there to serve as a mentor, instructor and financier.

It’s a relationship that has continued with Lang’s move up this season to the super stock division, the top tier of the NASCAR Whelen All American series at Evergreen.

Fritzley owns both cars Lang drives, the super stock and the bomber, but father and daughter shy away from assigning Fritzley an official title in their racing relationship. “He basically does everything except work on the car,” Lang said.

During a practice session at Evergreen the day before her super stock debut, Fritzley was, in turn, an owner, a crew chief and a teacher.

“I try to show her the way I used to do things, the way I used to drive,” Fritzley said. “Because she’s new (to super stocks), sometimes it’s a guessing game. … Then I watch the car and see what its doing and try to give her my advice, what I’d do.”

During the practice session, Fritzley guided Lang through a series of laps, methodically working her up to full speed. Fritzley used the time between laps to discuss handling, check tire pressure and make setup adjustments with the help of Naima Lang and his crew.

The next night, despite carefully preparing driver and car, the father in Fritzley came out before the race.

“She means the world to me. That’s why I’m always a little nervous,” Fritzley said. “I never really got nervous (when I was racing) as I do now. … Everybody gets some butterflies before a big race, but this bothers me 10 times worse.”

Lang’s super stock debut didn’t have a Hollywood ending. She got too high in turn one of the second lap and ran off the track, hitting a barrier and ending her race with a last-place finish.

Lang returned to the track shortly after the super stock race to run in the bomber’s main event, finishing seventh.

Her less-than-perfect start in super stocks did not change her plans to compete in Evergreen’s highest level in the future.

“It was a total bummer, but it happens,” Lang said. “I definitely don’t want to give it up. It was fun while it lasted … and it was a learning experience.”

While he may worry about his daughter racing, Fritzley isn’t ready to say he has retired from competition. Standing near Lang at a pre-race autograph session, he expressed a desire to run a few races at Evergreen this season.

But looking at Lang’s super stock car, Fritzley acknowledged the biggest obstacle to him getting back on the track might be the love of racing – and going fast – he instilled in his daughter.

Said Fritzley: “I don’t know if she’ll let me have the car.”