Time flies when you are having fun. At the Talladega Short Track one year ago, the two-man crew of Mark Sims Racing, driver/son Mark and father/sponsor Charlie, had been within a couple of months of making their Crate Late Model debut. A lack of experience and funding, combined with the presence of NASCAR-affiliated race teams left the team luck to even make their feature race, much less finish well. Placing well in the consolation race [known as a consy] was a victory itself and the highlight of the evening for the team. The long, rainy night ended with Mark guiding the No. 22M Ford to 24th place finish and a paltry $25 pay off for the effort. Times change.
The Sims team returns to Talladega with higher hopes…well, sort of. After running a full Crate Late Model season at Dixie Speedway last season, Mark’s employer, Client’s Choice Recovery, began to see promise in the team and became its primary sponsor. With this sponsorship, not only could Charlie, who had paid all the bills up until that point, get a break on tires, fuel, and entry fee costs, but the team could afford to upgrade from a Crate motor to a Super Late Model engine. This allowed the team to skip the Limited Late Model class and graduate to the elite Super Late Model division.
The 2009 season starts well for the team. Mark guides the car to solid top 10 finishes in the year’s first two races and is running 3rd in race number three, when racing luck hits hard. The brand new Super Late Model motor breaks with less than 150 laps run on it – far premature to the team’s expectations. One step back.
Left scrambling and disgusted after the turn of events, Charlie and Mark have only one choice to make, if they want to race in the coming weekends – a return to the Crate Late Model division.
“We put the Crate motor in, so we wouldn’t have to sit at home and watch the NASCAR race on T.V.,” says Mark, who retains optimism and determination through most of the setbacks the team experiences. “We got to come race this weekend [in Talladega] and it allows me to focus more on being smooth and staying in a good line, as opposed to being erratic, like I did last year.”
This maturity and consistency is something that Charlie says was lacking last season.
“He’s really in more control now,” Charlie says from the stands, watching Mark’s class line up for hot laps (practice laps) around the track. “Last year, he was little bit more intimidated by the whole thing. But this year, he has more car control and understands how the car works and what to do.”
As soon as he says this, ironically, Mark’s No. 22 dives low in turn four and spins out. Mark quickly throws the car in the right direction and drives away. To Charlie’s surprise, Mark does not finish the session and pulls immediately off the track to return to the pits. The decision by the young driver turns out to be wise.
Upon returning to the team’s pit, located just outside the track, a couple of hundred yards outside where the cars pull up a hill to enter the ‘Dega dirt bowl, Mark takes off the left rear tire. A bolt in the brake caliper broke off, rendering the left rear brake useless and prompting the spinout. When Mark had pulled up the hill to exit the track, after the spin, his brakes failed completely for a second.
With Mark’s qualifying heat race looming, he goes immediately to work without much help from Charlie. Despite his father’s mechanical knowledge and insistence to assist, Mark makes his feelings imperative that he wants to work on the car himself. Asked why, he offers a practical response.
“[Working on my car myself] lets me know that everything is done right. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have crew members that do it. I’d rather be hands-on and know what’s going on, because if something goes wrong, if the car wasn’t working good, it wouldn’t be on anybody else – it would be on me. I’d know how to fix it from what I did.”
Mark does just that. After detaching the caliper and capping the brake line to keep fluid from leaking out of the car, he adds brake fluid to the reservoir and then gets in another debate with his dad that Mark will win.
Inside the racecar, there is a knob that adjusts how much rear brake and how much front braking power the car has. Charlie argues that, despite missing a left rear brake, Mark should give the car more rear brake bias, because doing so will tighten the car up on the extremely loose track. On paper, Charlie’s argument makes sense. If the right rear brake has much more power to stop the right rear, the back end of the car should move more to the left, correcting the natural skid in each turn, where the rear end of the car wants to turn far to the left and loop the car around. Despite this knowledge, Mark uses his experience and that of others he talks to in the pits to guide his decision; he makes a change opposite to his dad’s suggestion.
Knowledge versus experience is a debate that Charlie says he has been having with many he has encountered over the years. He believes vehemently that knowledge means nothing, unless one has the experience that they can use to apply it to situations. The progress of Mark Sims Racing, Charlie says, has happened because they have been able mix the seasoning of experience into the stew of knowledge they bring to their races.
After addressing the brake problem, Mark spends his time going from pit to pit, seeing what other teams are doing to their cars and discussing them. He then returns to the car and begins adjusting the setup, by himself, of course. Mark gets on a mat under the No. 22 and loosens bolts to change the height of the rear-end housing of the car. Mark also grabs a setup sheet that came with his chassis that suggests what adjustment to make, depending on how the car is behaving on the race track. The qualifying heat races soon begin after Mark finishes his setup changes.
Mark starts fourth in the second of three heat races held for the Crate Late Model class. The top six finishers in each heat race make the main feature race, meaning the final six spots for the feature are up for grabs. The drivers who do not qualify for the main event in the heat race can qualify for the feature, if they finish in the top six in the consy race, which is held soon after the group of heat races.
Since Mark drew fourth for his heat race earlier in the night, he simply has to hold his position in the race and he will be assured a starting spot in the main event. Last year at the Talladega Short Track, Mark sustained body damage in a heat race crash and barely fixed it in time for the consy race. This year, Charlie did not know what to expect, since the car had not run a single, full practice lap and was missing a left rear brake.
Mark takes the green flag and appears slower than some of the more well-funded teams. Mark’s speed does not suit one competitor, who decides to make a bonsai move inside of him and slam his left side. The interruption in his racing line causes the No. 22 to slide up into another competitor, nearly spinning them both out. Another car spins on the first lap, which means the race starts over and each car returns to their starting spot. A second chance is just what Mark needs. He holds the low line in the turns and then swoops just high enough on the exits to keep cars trying to get a run with him from passing him on the outside. His racing line keeps faster cars behind him, thus meaning that he held the fourth position at the checkered flag. Mark makes the main event.
With body damage to contend with and a keener understanding of what to change on the racecar, having driven more laps on the slick track, Mark and Charlie immediately go to work. Charlie starts passing tools to Mark and Mark begins jacking the car up and moving sheet metal. Fortunately, the damage is only cosmetic and the setup is not too far from perfect. With an 11th place starting spot out of 24 cars in the feature, Mark knows that his improved, smooth driving style is necessary for him to stay out of trouble. His own plight, though, is not his only concern.
The racing community is a big family. Though each team is in competition with one another, many are willing to help each other out. Parked next to the No. 22 team is Haley Pitts’ No. 5 car. Her family has been fielding her Crate Late Model entry for approximately the same amount of time as Mark and the two teams have been to many races together. Haley’s heat race does not go as well as Mark’s. The motor of the No. 5 stops running for an unknown reason and Haley finishes poorly. Not only does she have to race into the main event via the consy, but her team also has to diagnose and fix the problem with the car’s power plant. Despite being in midst of fixing his own problems, Mark and Charlie grab the flood lights used in their pits, since the sun had long set, and ran to Haley’s car to help her out. Though Mark does not offer much mechanical help, his providing of the lights and offering of encouragement drove miles in showing his budding maturity and character.
Haley’s team, based out of Heflin, Alabama, finally fixes the issue on the car, but Haley ends up missing the main event, barely finishing below the cutoff in the consy race.
Charlie explains his nervousness at staring 11th in the main event. Being in the very middle of the pack, Mark is in prime position to get caught up in a problem, if somebody spins. As Mark begins driving his pace laps, Charlie leaves his seat in the stands, runs to the fence, and motions to Mark one last time to keep the car low around the track. Mark heeds his advice.
As soon as the green flag flies, the caution comes out, because Jonathan Lambert, the driver on the other side of Mark in the pits from Haley, gets spun out. With no damage done to either him or Mark in the melee, everyone returns to their starting spot and lap one is run again. With the margin of error so small in these brief short track races, a do-over is welcome reprieve to any team.
After the race resumes, Mark gains a couple of positions, but does not sacrifice his low line to pick them up. Knowing he does not have the pull on the exit of the turns to overpower those around him, Mark continues to employ his low entry and mid-high exit of the turns, to keep encroaching cars at bay. In doing so, Mark does not gain much track position on Lambert in front of him, but holds on for an eighth place finish by the lap 20 checkered flag.
Charlie is elated. Mark’s race for eighth and his ability to hold off several advancing racecars behind him captures more of his dad’s attention than the constant three-wide battle for the race lead. With just over a full year under their belts, the team’s perspective has changed.
“We used to come here and wanted to win. But if you’re not here to enjoy the time with your 21 year-old son [you are missing the point].”
And Mark spends a rare moment in accord with his father’s opinion.
“We were able to stay smooth and finish 8th out of about 30 cars [24 made the feature race, but 30 showed up to qualify] that were here tonight. We did really good. We’re just gonna work on getting that motor put back together and hopefully we’ll be in Supers again starting next weekend at Dixie [Speedway in Woodstock, GA].”
Mark’s time in the extra-powerful Super Late Models has sharpened his skills enough to drastically improve his Crate race finishes. The slower pace of the Crate cars has given Mark extra time to soak up the nuances of each turn and apply that knowledge – and experience – to the looming Super Late Model race season at Dixie Speedway.
After the race, Mark discusses the results and actually offers driving tips to Lambert, who is many years his senior, but had ten year-break from racing before this season. Mark’s confidence is high, but not too high. Charlie’s expectations are satiated.
With a full season ahead, sponsorship from Tracy and Eric Argo of Clients Choice Recovery, Joe Shay of Matco Tools, Pete Goodwin of Southern Insurance Services, www.captainherb.net and the skills gained at each race over time leave this team with a large upswing. Charlie says a new body will be on the No. 22 Ford and the new sponsor decals will be in place for the coming race weekend, along with, of course, the repaired Super Late Model motor. Despite some setbacks, Mark Sims Racing is ready to tackle 2009 – and they are doing it with their best foot forward.
Pontiac Trans am
