Well, after a little over a half hour on the phone, I wrote the article that you see below.
I truly enjoy letting people know about those in my racing family who never get the spotlight put on them. People like World of Outlaws drivers, the big name Late Model drivers, etc. all get plenty of publicity. But you never read about the low-budget racers, the people who work on the cars or the behind the scenes people in general. I try to remedy that oversight.
I hope you enjoy this latest offering of mine.
Are sprint car people born, or do they learn to love the sport as they grow up? In the case of 53-year old Darren Knudson from Lincoln Nebraska, I would have to guess that he was born to the sport. In fact, he was at the races before he was born and made his first actual appearance at a very early age.
“My parents took me to Eagle Raceway when I was just 6 days old on September 18th, 1965. I grew up at the racetrack. My mom was a big race fan and Dad worked on lots of cars throughout the time I was growing up. We always had somebody’s race car at my house. Mom and Dad took me to all kinds of races. The way that I learned my numbers and colors was from the race cars. Somebody would ask me what somebody’s car number was, or what color it was when I was a kid. And that kind of thing was how I leaned numbers and colors. I was always around different drivers, different car owners, guys who did chassis set-ups. I learned a little bit here and a little bit there. Eventually I learned enough to start going out on my own and setting up a car at 21”.
His racing education grew quickly. “My father was working on the #23 car owned by Roger Abbott that George Odvody was driving. I believe that it was a CAE sprint car and was one of, if not the first sprint car that ran around here. At that time, they were running what they called supermodifieds, which were just Model A’s and ’32 Fords modified to race. At 79 he’s still working on the 360 car that Tadd Holliman drives. During the Racesaver IMCA Nationals he helps out Jeremy Schultz from Minnesota and off and on he works with Bill Garrow on his Racesaver sprint. In the past he’s worked on cars driven by Regan Kitchen, JJ Riggins, Lloyd Beckman, Don Maxwell. In fact, the #7 410 sprinter owned by Jim Gessford was the first car that I ever worked on with him. I started working with Dad back in ’77 or ’78 when I was 11 or 12 years old. By the time that I was old enough that they could sneak me into the pits I was all about doing that. I kind of helped out a little bit; rolling tires around and things like that”.
As you can see, Darren got his love of sprint cars naturally from his parents and has never lost it, no matter what happened. “When I was helping with the #7, we ran all over, even with the World of Outlaws. I think it was 1980 and Gessford had bought a new Stanton chassis. Mike Schaeffer was driving it at Knoxville. He got into turn 1 too high and completely destroyed the car its first night out. So, Jim bought one of the very last cars built by Don Maxwell. He put Roger Rager in the car to drive it at Peoria, Illinois on Friday night and at Knoxville on Saturday and follow that with a daytime Outlaw show at Sunset Speedway on Sunday. We got to Des Moines and it had been raining for quite a while, so we decided to stay there. The Peoria show eventually rained out. Saturday, we had mechanical issues and never got to finish a race at Knoxville. Then Sunday Don Maxwell showed up at Sunset and gave us some advice because the track was really, really dry-slick. It had rained, so they bladed off the top layer of mud. There was a 4 to 5-inch-tall cushion up top in 1 and 2 and it was super heavy up there, but the rest of the track was bone dry. We came out of the B Feature and started dead last in the A. At the drop of the green flag everybody dove for the bottom of the track and wherever you were in that line was where you were stuck. Everybody except for Rager that is, because he was CRAZY!! He was running the outside of the race track the whole way and nobody else dared to go out there. I don’t know how he did it, other than he was a great driver. He would come out of 2, and there was no wall back there; just a dirt bank. If you went over that bank it was a 20-foot drop! He was going down the back stretch with 2 tires off the track and all we could see from the infield was the top wing. He was passing cars down the back stretch like that and all the color drained out of Gessford’s face because he was thinking “My second brand new race car is going to be destroyed the second time it’s on the track!!”. Rager ended up going from last to fourth and he probably would have won that feature if he had a couple more laps. One other time there was a bounty on Doug Wolfgang up at Knoxville and we dug out an old 1969 Grant King car that had won the Nationals. Gessford called up Lloyd Beckman and asked if he would be willing to drive it. Lloyd hadn’t driven a sprinter in over a year and hadn’t been to Knoxville in quite a while, but he said “Sure! Let’s go get that bounty”. So, Jim called my Dad and I, picked us up and we ended up taking home the $500 bounty using a 10-year-old car!!”.
His first solo job working on a sprint came when Ron Towle, a local who raced at Eagle Raceway, called him and asked for help setting up his #351 that had just a stock 351 Ford motor in it. Now, he works on several different cars; both a 360 and two Racesaver sprints. “I really enjoy working on both kinds of cars. I can’t say I like one more than the other. Right now, we’re having motor issues with the 360 that Tadd Holliman runs. We’re getting out-motored really badly! That’s just a money deal to a certain extent. But I’ve gone racing with Tadd for so many years that I always have a good time racing. I enjoy being around Terry and Dan so much. Tadd and I are buddies, and it seems like we’ve been racing together for decades, but it’s only 12 or 15 years. Whether it’s racing the 360 or going to the Chili Bowl and working on his midget; I’m a big Tadd Holliman fan and it’s just lots of fun. With the Racesavers I’m doing the set-ups and everything and just having a great time. With Jeremy Schultz, he’s not very experienced yet. It’s fun to work with him and watch him get better. Since he’s up in Minnesota I only get to actually work with him in person 3 or 4 times a year at the Racesaver IMCA Nationals. To see how he’s progressed is a great time. Working with Bill and Rick Garrow has been fun too. They own the car and Bill drives it. I went to high school with Rick actually, so I’ve known him forever. To show you what good people they are, they let us borrow their whole race car one night when the 360’s were still running weekly at Eagle Raceway. Terry Holliman was in the points battle and we had trouble with his car one week. They let Terry drive their car in the A Feature so that he could save as many points as possible. They never asked anyone for help with set-ups or anything; they were just learning as they went along. It was almost like they didn’t want to bother anybody by asking questions. So, since we weren’t running the 360 weekly, I got bored. I would watch them run and then tell them “Hey! I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or anything, but your car is doing such and such and you might want to try this. They knew that I’d been around racing a long time, and had some success in the business, even running second in the Racesaver IMCA Nationals with Tadd driving. They took some of my suggestions and kept progressing. Bill never really had a consistent race car, so even if he was supposed to start on the pole he wouldn’t because he wasn’t sure what the car would do. But now, he’s gotten used to having a good car and he’s gotten good enough that he will run up on the cushion with the best of them. I think I may have created a monster, but it’s sure been fun watching him get better. I could probably have worked on a car that was faster, but letting Bill figure out how good a driver he can be is lots more satisfying”.
When I asked what his greatest thrill was out of his entire career was, he said “There are probably two that are all really close to being the biggest. The first feature that Tadd won was the first feature that I’d won setting up the car by myself. We were leading the feature with Tadd running the bottom of the track. This was the first time that Tadd was leading that late in the race and I think he just overdrove the car in the corners 2 laps in a row on a night when you had to be patient and hug the bottom. Four cars got by us on the outside. Tadd got back to fourth and then two laps later going into turn three the top three cars crashed each other out. They had an open red flag so they could check on the drivers and clear the track. I went down and talked to Tadd a little bit, and I told him that what he had been doing was going to win the race if he kept it up. I also told him that I tightened the car up a little bit to make it drive better for him. All I really did was walk to the back of the car and stand there for a few minutes. That gave him the time to settle down and have the confidence that he was going to be fine. I went back and told him that I changed the set-up and that he was going to be good from there on. Basically, I just adjusted the nut behind the wheel instead of actually doing anything to the race car. The other best night was the first time that Tadd ran the Racesaver IMCA Nationals. Friday night was the first qualifying night and we went out and won our heat race. We led every lap of the A Feature and just annihilated the field that night. We ran several laps just off the track record and there was only one other car that ran even one lap close to that. We ended up winning by over a straightaway against the best Racesaver drivers in the country on a really heavy track! Then on Sunday we ended up running second to Jack Dover on a dry-slick track. It was so nice to show what we could do two different nights on two completely different types of tracks”.
Darren’s plans for next year are to keep doing what he enjoys so much. “I’ll be helping Tadd run his 360. Hopefully we’ve got a little motor upgrade coming so that we can be a little more competitive. I’ll be assisting Jeremy as much as possible. Most of what I do with him is over the phone until the Racesaver Nationals which is a weird way to set-up a race car. I have gone up to Minnesota to some of the tracks that he runs so I’m a little bit familiar with them. I’m familiar enough with Jeremy and what he does and doesn’t like that I can give him advice on shocks and stuff once he tells me what the track is like. Then I’ll help him out at the Nationals of course. Plus, I’ll be working with the Garrows as much as possible. Depending on what night Tadd qualifies at the Chili Bowl I might run down to Tulsa and work on his midget. I will be plenty busy but loving every minute of it!!”.
