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latemodelfan
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« on: July 24, 2010, 07:36:25 PM » |
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Turns out, Dad's premonition was right on the money.
"He was named after Uncle Wayne," Shane Schlenk said. "But on the day he was born, I was listening to the radio when Eli Gold was hosting his ‘NASCAR Live' show. He was interviewing Rusty Wallace.
"Eli said in the interview, ‘It seems every race-car family has a kid named Rusty.' And it stuck. I knew I was going to get my son into racing from the day he was born."
So long, Wayne.
Hello, Rusty.
Rusty Schlenk, who turned 24 on Wednesday, has been driving race cars since he was 6. This year, the Jackson native and 2004 East Jackson High School graduate is in the midst of his best season.
He leads the national points chase in the United Midwestern Promoters' DIRTcar Late Models Series. He's the leader in the American Late Model Series points, and he's running away with the track points championship at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio.
Schlenk is already a 13-year veteran in the UMP series. He has never finished higher than third in the national points chase.
Issue of age
Earlier in his career, however, the victories were not just measured in simply how many checkered flags Schlenk collected. Sometimes, just getting into the field was a victory. After all, not every track promoter was anxious to let a 12- or 13-year-old driver mix it up with the veterans.
"The Michigan tracks were the ones that were a pain in the butt," Schlenk said of his early years. "I could go to just about any other state and race, but my own state wouldn't let me race. Most tracks in Michigan, you had to be 16.
"But once I started proving myself at other tracks in other states, just about every track would let me race. The word spreads pretty quickly in racing."
Schlenk's age issues are in the rearview mirror.
This month, Schlenk completed his most successful racing stretch with a feature win worth $5,000 at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway on July 14 and a $10,000 first-prize check for a win last Saturday against a field of 56 other drivers at Oakshade.
Schlenk has 16 feature wins this year. That's two more than his best season, 2006.
He said he's enjoying what his racing career has brought him. He's enjoying his time in the dirt.
No need for NASCAR
No longer are the bright lights of NASCAR his racing goal.
"When I was little, maybe up until five or six years ago, that was my goal," Schlenk said of his NASCAR aspirations. "I've raced against a lot of the NASCAR guys in late models, guys like Tony Stewart, Ken Schrader. They step down and race with us quite a bit every year."
He chats it up with Stewart, who owns Eldora Speedway in Ohio, a few times a year. Schlenk said Stewart has told him that while NASCAR is where the paychecks come from, the racing at the dirt tracks is where the fun is.
The UMP series allows Schlenk to match his skills against drivers from around the country. The series links tracks from 19 states. Drivers earn series points at each track, and points are compiled and compared with other drivers at other tracks.
Schlenk said that even though the top drivers don't run against each other every time out, they have a way of settling most points battles on the dirt tracks.
"We usually end up racing with just about everybody that competes for the championship," Schlenk said. "This year, we've raced in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri. We will race at Tennessee and Canada before the end of the year."
The UMP series, World of Outlaws and the Lucas Oil Series are the top circuits for late models in the country, said Schlenk, who would not mind seeing himself in either of the latter two over the next five years.
"If I can make money doing what I'm doing now and support my family, I would love to stay in this series," said Schlenk, who is married to Danielle and has a 5-year-old stepson. The couple are expecting a child in late August.
Chasing funding
In addition to racing, there's also the nearly constant chase for funds to keep the team going forward. A little more help on the sponsorship side would make things easier for a team that includes his father and one other full-time employee, Dusty Knapp.
The rest of the crew is made up of volunteers who put in time at the Seymour Road race shop and take turns making weekend trips to the racetracks.
"I would definitely like to have some bigger sponsors or corporate backing, like a lot of the guys I race against," Schlenk said. "I'd like to pick up a sponsor where I can pay my help more than a couple cans of chew and some pit passes every week."
A little extra cash also would be nice when it comes to keeping up with the competition on the equipment end.
And a few more big paydays might even alter Schlenk's approach to race weekends.
"My guys all think I'm a tightwad," Schlenk said. "I stretch my tires until I can't possibly run them anymore."
Added his dad, "He'll run them until they're a big ball of yarn."
Schlenk said his approach is just the result of nearly two decades of racing experience.
"I've learned what we can stretch and what we have to have," Schlenk said. "If we run a local show where I'm pretty sure I'm the fastest there, I'll run more of my used stuff. I know where to draw the line as far as when to use the new stuff.
"I'm kind of past the point of no return with my career. This is what I know how to do."
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