April 6, 2012 WWRA KICKS OFF THEIR RACING SEASON By T. Michael Adkins
Weather around the Pacific Northwest has been a bit unusual, even for our area. I left my house in the Mill Creek area with high hopes and the, oh so absent for so long, SUNshine in my face. As I entered highway 522, I thought I had encountered the normal Friday evening traffic escaping the big city and talked myself into relaxing. This time I took no car and it really didn’t matter when I got there. Soon we inched around the curve and found a huge dark cloud that had stopped the traffic. Hail, snow flakes as big as silver dollars, and rain all at the same time; yup, we’re goin’ racing tonight in the Great Northwest at a Rain or Shine speed plant. By the time I had made it to the track, there was once again Sun with the dark cloud only being able to make a feeble attempt to spit on us.
I was in attendance Friday night for research, not to race. I have been racing for 45 years and reflecting back I find most of it is a blur. When you have a race car your attention is focused on such a small part of racings big picture. I don’t want to say that as racers we are self centered, but in reality we have to concentrate on our immediate surroundings and goals. Now that I am in the autumn season of my life, I can slow down and take the time to look at the big picture and put a name and face with all the players. Hopefully I can come up with some articles to shine the light on some of the most diligent and devoted people who are infected with the racing disease and don’t even know it.
Going through the back gate has never been one of my favorite parts of racing. Actually it is the least favorable; I hate lines, I am impatient and I don’t like waiting. Show up early and you have to wait for the pit shack to open or show up later and there is a long line. In the 45 years of racing I have seen countless back gate workers and except a very few, don’t even know their name or anything about them. Tonight I was able to take the time to introduce myself and find out a little bit about who the behind the scenes people are and what motivates them to give the precious commodity of life (time) to racing. As a racer, one of the first people you meet at Evergreen Speedway on a Friday night and possible other nights as well, are Robin Propeck who works the back gate pit shack sign in and her brother Chris Propeck. Both are young kids that caught the disease from their racer Dad. Robin and has been doing volunteer race track work for 5 of her young years. Her response to my question says it all. I asked, “Why are you standing in the pit shack at a race track on a Friday night instead of hanging out with friends and singing Karaoke at a hot night spot?” Her answer was, “I love the club and everyone here.” Brother Chris was security watch on the back gate tonight, but has been assigned many tasks, even corner flagman. He helps out wherever he is needed. 5 years given freely with little or no recognition; at most companies you would get a 5 year pin or plaque.
One of the few people that I do have face-name recognition with is Shari Ball. She is the hard working behind the scenes race coordinator and past President of WWRA if I am not mistaken. That means she is the one who has to put out the fires that occur during the evening and try to make things run smoothly. Anyone around racing knows, that too can be a thankless job that sometimes comes with making tough decisions. From all I have witnessed and heard, she is well respected and does a great job.
In the pits itself are three guys who try to keep the drivers and cars flowing smoothly to put on a quick and entertaining program. There is Bill Fuller (President), who seems to act as a Race Director among all the other duties; Jon Taylor, who is the Pit Boss, and Cody Taylor who is the assistant Pit Boss under Jon. Truth be known, Cody is obligated to assist Jon if he wants a ride home. Like many race organizations, the personnel is spread thin with a lot of multi tasking such as Pit Boss/ Tech inspection/get the driver and sponsors names for the announcer/hold those guys up/ bring those guys on / etc-etc-etc. I saw a lot of activity and it all flowed nicely.
Also there were the guys that make up the push truck and incident recovery teams that have pushed my sprint car off; and I don’t even know their name. Tonight I got to meet Harold Jackson who drives a very beautiful Ford push truck with well layer out graphics. Harold is sponsored by Kooy’s Truck Parts, and G&L Body Shop.
“DW” Wheeler is the driver of another outstanding deep blue Dodge Hemi push truck. I think he has every radio devise in that truck including the old CONLRAD warning system in case the Soviets attack us.
John D Snook has his Red Chevy 2500 ready to jump in if needed and of course Crazy Wally is there with his White Chevy to help also. Wally has been around since before we started to celebrating Easter.
Should the Big One happen, Sam Mathews of Sam’s Towing and Recovery is there with the ramp truck ready to remove any pieces up to the size of a Caterpillar.
The whole intent of my visit was to get background info for a human interest story. WOW, I came away with several seeds for some very interesting human interest stories and hopefully will be able to convert them to print and be able to share at later dates.
There are several very important people that I have not covered and will do justice as time allows. All are important people to the night’s program; Flagmen, EMT’s, firefighters and of course the announcer who keeps the sounds of the evening filled with information and excitement.
Oh, who won? Everyone was a winner tonight; they got to race.