By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
As much as it is possible under the circumstances, 60 Minutes of FEAR is about delayed gratification.
Think of it. Why would a driver want to race hell-bent on the figure 8 track at Evergreen Speedway, roar through a dangerous intersection with 19 other cars in the opening few minutes of an hour-long race?
Better to hide in the weeds, stay out of trouble, keep the car intact, then stomp on the gas the last 5 to 10 minutes to nail down the $1,500 top prize.
“You go into this not trying to win it in the first 10 laps,” driver Mike Buse said. “It’s an hour-long race and you have to go through there 600 times. You’ve got to be patient.”
Yeah, right. Patient. Keep your head. Even when cars to your right, left and rear are bumping for position and every 10 seconds you have to fly through an intersection without getting T-boned.
But that’s what drivers will attempt tonight in one of Evergreen’s wildest promotions of the season.
The idea is to finish the most laps. To finish the most laps, it’s advantageous to stay on the track as long as possible. To stay on the track as long as possible, you need to stay out of trouble.
Simple, right?
The catch: “Trouble” is synonymous with the figure 8 crowd – more so than any other form of racing this side of a demolition derby.
“You get out of a figure 8 car and you run a late-model car 100 laps around a 5/8-mile (track), and you’re thinking, ‘Well, THIS is a real wimpy way to race,’” said Steve Cox, three-time FEAR points champion and two-time 60 Minutes winner.
Still, the idea is to race a tad on the conservative side at the beginning, contrary to what drivers are used to in the usual, 25-lap Saturday night main event. It’s more about strategy and less about slamming the car in front of you out of the way and screaming pell-mell through the intersection.
Don’t laugh, but until the race is close to the end, 60 Minutes of FEAR turns into an exercise in finesse.
“You have to keep your nose clean for about three-quarters of the race,” said driver Ron Steltz, who won the 60 Minute race in 1997. “There are going to be red flags. You want to stay up there. You don’t want to drag back behind everybody. The idea is to can stay up there, keep your eyes open for all that’s going on around you and stay out of contact with anybody. The last quarter of the race is where you have to pour it on. A lot of the cars will be taken out of the race.
“But the big thing about the race is to be aware of everything that’s going on around you.”
Sometimes that’s impossible because, as anyone who’s traversed our nation’s freeways knows, you can’t drive for the other guy. And as many yahoos as there are out there, sometimes survival comes down to pure, dumb luck.
Then there’s timing. Knowing when to stand on the gas to hit the split-second window through an intersection and when to brake just before it to avoid having your bumper ripped away.
“At some point, something clicks in your head, you get into a rhythm and just go,” Steltz said.
The duration of the race also demands more of the car than a 25-lap race. Every part must be secured. Every bolt must be tightened. Wear and tear becomes huge.
“You have to double-check and triple-check everything,” Buse said. “Last year, I got knocked out of it because the motor-mount bolt was loose in it and it knocked the fuel pump off the car.”
Ah, yes. Fuel. As long as the race is, no feeling is more frustrating to avoid traffic, only to have the car roll to a stop because of an empty gas tank.
“It’s been really, really close,” Steltz said. “In ‘97, I won the race and I had about 5/8 of an inch of fuel left in my cell.”
But if your car is on the end of a hook, looking like someone dropped it out of a helicopter, fuel economy’s a moot point.
That’s the way it’ll be for many tonight.
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