Southern Ontario Sprints :::: Official Web Site

SOS Q&A with: Gary Evans

1. Did your rookie season with the SOS meet all of your expectations?

Our rookie season exceeded all of our expectations except one - that the car we started the season with would be the car we finished the season with. OOPS! We went into the season hoping for two things: that we wouldn’t be so slow that we were a menace to other drivers, and that we would learn and improve as the season progressed. Thanks to some good advice we received from Brian at Kear’s Speed Shop, Bob at Hampshire Engines, Al Patrick who assembled our engine, and Bill Robinson and Mike Galadja who have run with the SOS, our car was pretty competitive right from the start. I had expected that a sprint car would be a blast to drive and the truth is; it’s wild, crazy, fast, scary, loud, AND a blast to drive! Absolute funnest toy ever. We were happy that when everything was going right we could be competitive with a enough cars that we had fun and didn’t look too out of place. The first half of our season was pretty smooth sailing, however, we learned a lot about perseverance in the second half. When we started the season, we would have been pretty happy to finish the season in twentieth place, so managing to sneak into the top ten was a bonus.

2. What were some of the highlights that you remember most about 2004?

Our first season was full of highlights; here are some highlights of our highlights...

Highlight number 1 - Getting pushed off and firing the engine for the first time at South Buxton during their media day. That was my first time in a sprint car, and the first time we’d had the motor running. Just starting the car was pretty cool; get strapped in, put on helmet and gloves, put the car in gear, thumbs up to the push truck driver, get pushed to turn the engine over, oil pressure up, turn on fuel, turn on ignition and feel the engine rumble to life. Unfortunately, we only managed to get in four warm up laps. Before we got out for our second session a mini stock took out a light pole and ended the day. Highlight number 2 - Media day at Ohsweken, the first time I was able to get the car to turn left. That’s kind of a handy thing to be able to do in a sprint car. Thanks to Mike Galajda for giving me driving tips over the telephone after my initial outing at South Buxton. Highlight number 3 - My first feature at Ohsweken, being out there with twenty other cars was quite the buzz. (Still is.) A top 10 finish first time out really helped my confidence. Highlights number 4 and 5 - Finishing second in first rookie dash at Ohsweken; finishing first in the second rookie dash at Ohsweken. Getting my picture taken with the car and the checkered flag on the front straight away and being interviewed was pretty fun, I’m pretty sure that was my 15 minutes of fame. (Sorry for holding up the show while I got pushed back out from the pits, I never expected to win and it didn’t occur to me that I should be stopping on the track.) Getting a mention on the web site was pretty cool. Highlight number 6 - Winning my heat on August 13th. That was pretty exciting for us because we know that with all the talented drivers in SOS, checkered flags won’t be happening too often. We’re a small budget team that got lucky on that one. That was also kind of special because Ken and Cheryl of Kenetic’s Photography were at the race. I’ve been running into them at racing events over the last couple of years and I was glad that when they made it to the Ohsweken race that I didn’t do anything too embarrassing. Ken got a great shot of the car that’s ended up on a calendar that I received at the year-end banquet! Highlight number 7 - Getting to race a sprint car with a great bunch of racers. No matter whether it’s a good night or a bad night for me, the other racers, the officials, and all of the people that help out at that track are a great group of people to be around. As close as I can tell, a bad night at the track is more fun than a good night just about anywhere else!

3. What were some of your disappointments from 2004?

The major disappointment was destroying my car at Ohsweken on August 27th. I somehow got over the right rear tire of the car in front of me going into turn one and it just launched my car. One second I’m in the bright lights looking at the track and the next second I’m flying into the black of the night. Right after that I closed my eyes - I never could handle those spinning rides. Unfortunately the landing wasn’t too gentle. The front end of the car was pushed over about 6 inches and the frame was cracked or broken in about 8 different places. It was pretty sad. (On the other hand, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be flying through the air in a sprint car - now I know. Just don’t tell my Mom.) They say bad things happen in threes, I think it might be true. We got a car together for the Labour Day weekend shows in Brighton and I managed to crash into the wall on both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday’s crash was pretty embarrassing, we spent all day putting the car together and when I went out for hot laps I caught the wall coming out of turn four in the same place as Saturday night, the only difference was the car flipped instead of sliding along the top of the wall. With a lot of help we actually scraped together enough pieces to make it back out for the feature. I owe a lot of people for the help they gave me that weekend!

4. As a rookie, how do you feel you were received by your fellow competitors?

I feel we were very well received by our fellow competitors. I can’t imagine a better group of competitors to be racing with. Mike Lauterborn gave me some excellent advice first night out at Ohsweken and I think it helped me fit in when I was out on the track. Glen offered some very tactful, constructive, driving feedback part way through the year that was very much appreciated. Sometimes when you are out racing there’s a bit of a difference between what you think you are doing and what you’re actually doing. Unless someone is kind enough to point you in the right direction it’s pretty easy to pick up bad habits. The West’s gave us helpful set up advice, as did Glen. Without Warren Mahoney’s help we wouldn’t have made the second show on the Labour Day weekend. Without Charlie McCann’s help we wouldn’t have had a car ready for the first show of the weekend, or been able to make it out for the feature. Without Kyle and Bill Patrick’s assistance we wouldn’t have had a car to finish the season with. Tim Phillips, Darkly Turford, Ray Ballantyne, Pete Turford, Keith Dempster, Willy Northcott and the Christiano’s (Mark and Stephanie), all willingly helped us out when we needed it the most. Wray and I really appreciate the way we’ve been treated by the other racers. And thanks to Les McMillan for the cool sprint car decal (adds a little class to our operation).

5. What was the biggest thing you learned in 2004?

Two biggest things I’ve learned in 2004: First, chase your dreams, it’s worth the effort to make them happen! Second, driving a sprint car is even more fun than it looks! The thing I hope I learned: Hitting the wall at Brighton is bad, don’t do it again.

6. What are your plans for 2005?

The main plan is to come back and have fun. I’d like to finish in the top ten again, but I think it’s going to be pretty tough, we barely made it this year and I think the racing next year will be even more competitive. The secret plan is to pass Daryl Turford and Willy Northcott more than they pass me. Ha! Ha!

7. What areas do you wish to improve on for the new season?

I need to become more consistent, I need to improve my passing and I need to keep the car in one piece.

8. Who helped you the most in racing to get you to where you are now?

When I use “we” or “our” in my answers I am referring to myself and Wray Ramsay - my stepdad/crew chief who has supported me since the day I convinced him to come out to watch his first microsprint race. Once I saw he seemed to find it interesting, I pointed out the microsprint I bought just before he got arrived. Surprise number one for the surprised new crew chief! (I have to give Wray a good job title because the work isn’t always too exciting and the pay is definitely in the negative salary range.) Surprise number two for the crew chief was when I somehow got it into my mind that I could put together a sprint car and run with the SOS. Being as I could barely afford to run the microsprint it’s lucky for me Wray is a good sport and has a sense of humour about these things. Definitely, without Wray I wouldn’t be out here with the SOS. Thanks Wray! Also, I have to thank my dad, another Gary Evans and no, no relation to Garry Evans, (Big Garry), that you all know and love. My Dad took me to my first sprint car race at Skaggitt Speedway in Washington in the early eighties. I was hooked from the moment I took that first piece of flying clay in the head! No comments please as to what that may or may not explain! Those guys, (and Cheryl Glass), were wild, it seemed like they pitched the cars sideways for the corners about half way down the straight-aways! And they had this great big high fence on the outside of the corners - I remember cars flipping through the air to the very top of the fence, it was unbelievable! Thanks Dad! I’d like to also thank some people that helped make our first year with the SOS such a success: Jamie at J&S Collision in Tillsonburg - his shop took a bunch of 10 year old sprint car panels and wings and turned them into a great looking sprint car, PARsigns in Tillsonburg did our Canadian Maple Leaf graphics, and Kirby at Kirby Electric in St. Pauls was kind enough to lend us a generator for the season. They are all great people who do great work and are a pleasure to deal with Please support the folks that support sprint car racing, you won’t be disappointed with the results! We also had some great volunteer help in the pits, Mike and Mike, Ron, Ruth, Whitey and Derrick to name a few. Also thanks to the people that helped us out when we raced our microsprint, especially Wayne, Scott, Steve and Frank.

9. Which track do you look forward to getting back to in 2005 and why?

I can’t wait to get back to Ohsweken. It’s one of the premier sprint car tracks in North America, smooth, fast and brightly lit. There are almost always at least two fast lines around the track. I want to go back and learn to drive them! Did I mention they have THE best french fries!

10. Why do you enjoy competing on the SOS tour?

The racers are great and the racing is fast and clean. I enjoy competing on different tracks, it’s totally different driving at Ohsweken, than Brighton, and different again at South Buxton. The people that keep the shows running, (flags, scoring, tech, safety/fire, 50/50, PR, competition director, finance, board of directors and more), are all fun people to be around and Greg does spectacular job on the web site. I’m pretty sure that life doesn’t get much better than racing a sprint car in the summertime!