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http://www.usacracing.com/index.php?id=3678
“Night Before the 500” Champ Looks to Defend Crown
Chuck Gurney, Jr. recently made a comment that he needed to be sure to grab his gear bag before he goes to Iowa Speedway this weekend, instead of his golf bag or diaper bag. The latter pair have been used much more than the former in the past year. But, with one of midget racing’s crown jewels looming just over a week ahead, Gurney is set to pull the belts tight again.
As the defending “Night Before the 500” winner at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, Gurney has solidified himself over the last few years as one of the guys to beat in pavement midget competition. That win last May came as no fluke – he was the winner the year before at ORP in the race leading up to the Brickyard.
The Livermore, California native returns to the seat in this weekend’s “Pride of Iowa” USAC Triple Crown event at the wheel of the DMS Racing #41 Beast/Esslinger midget.
“It’s great that Marc (DeBeaumont) gave me this chance to race at Iowa. I actually raced against Marc back when I got started in midgets, and he was winning the Western States championship. I’m really excited to try to put Marc’s car up front – I know it’s more than capable,” Gurney noted of the DMS stable, recently vacated by Bryan Clauson.
Chuck’s father made the Gurney name famous by winning races all over the country, all with the bravado that earned him “The Rim Rider” moniker. The 2004 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee earned countless winged sprint car victories in his home state, while also filling the USAC record books with wins dating back to the early 1970s.
Gurney also picked off the 1989 USAC Silver Crown championship, and has 14 Silver Crown wins. He was sensational on the dirt miles, winning seven times at Springfield, four times on the Indy Mile, and on three occasions at Du Quoin. In addition, he is a two-time “Turkey Night Grand Prix” winner at Ascot, a two-time Midget winner at Springfield, and has two “Copper World Classic” midget wins.
Gurney, Jr. started racing midgets in 1999 and eventually moved into racing winged sprint cars, as well, where he was becoming a consistent threat to win. After moving to Indiana in 2005, “Lil Rim,” as he has been known since childhood, was still flying back to pick up sprint car wins in his home state. Back in Indiana, though, he was just trying to scrape up a ride somewhere, while also working full-time at Indy Performance Composites.
“Like every young racer, I wanted to move out here and try to get a ride, and maybe turn it into something bigger. I did carbon fiber out in California, and my good friend Randy Hannagan told me to go talk to Jeff West at IPC. They needed an extra guy, and from there it just kinda took off. Jeff and I have become close ever since then,” Gurney said of his employer.
After he became West’s “right-hand man” at IPC, the two put a pavement midget together for the end of the 2006 season. That culminated with a strong run at Irwindale and a close runner-up finish in the “PRI Sprint & Midget Classic” event in Orlando, leading.
“Fontana Automotive always told me they would give me an engine to run if I had a midget together. Jeff and I put together a really nice car. He used to race super-modifieds back in New York, and he’s very knowledgeable on the pavement. He gave me a really good car every time out. I got more and more comfortable in the car and just drove the wheels off of it,” Gurney said of their growing success.
In 2007, Gurney and his family decided to run the whole series schedule. Their deal was on a shoestring budget, but the pavement portion of the operation showed promise. He also made starts for Bob East and Tony Stewart Racing, for whom he ran fifth at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.
He again took a one-off ride in 2008, this time for the “Night Before the 500” and decorated car owner Steve Lewis. Gurney’s father had found success in Lewis’ famous ‘9’ cars before. Unfortunately, that night was marked with two broken rear axles – a very strange occurrence. He came back in West’s car to win at ORP the week of the Brickyard and was in contention to win “Turkey Night.” He seemed a lock to win the lucrative “Toyota Challenge” that night at Irwindale, but mechanical problems sidelined him late in the race, costing him the mini-series win.
That disappointment was forgotten when he experienced the high of his second USAC National Midget win. After qualifying third, Gurney dominated the race and won the 2009 “Night Before the 500.”
“It’s the greatest racing highlight of my life. I told everybody when I moved out here, including myself, that if I had to win one race, I wanted to win the “Night Before the 500.” One, because it’s a race with so much history behind it, and two, because it’s one of the races my dad never won. We had the momentum going into that race from winning the last race there, so we were confident. And I just love Raceway Park,” Gurney said.
While not racing much in the past year, Gurney has still been plenty busy. He and his wife, Heather, recently welcomed their first child, a daughter named Ella. In addition, Chuck added quite a few races as crew chief to his résumé while working with Cole Whitt, 2008 Champion of the USAC Midget Series.
“Cole is just a natural talent. I started helping him when I first moved back here. When he went with Keith (Kunz) to run USAC, they wanted to still run some local stuff just to get the kid more laps. We had a lot of fun and spent a lot of time together, and I see big things out of him, for sure,” Gurney commented.
Whitt and Gurney were a formidable duo. Over two years, they combined to win 20 races and the 2009 Kokomo Speedway track championship. Their last two races together? They helped Johnny Vance return to USAC Silver Crown victory lane by capturing the “Copper World Classic” at Phoenix International Raceway, and just two weeks later claimed the “Turkey Night” USAC Western States Sprint Car race.
“Chuck and I always had a good time together – he’s a great guy to be around. We put a lot of time into working on those cars, but we always had fun. He’s just the type of guy that makes things easy. We won a lot of races together, and I think he’s one of the major reasons I had so much success the last couple years,” said Whitt, who now races in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, where he leads the points.
Between a few rounds of golf and lots of family time, Gurney got the call from DeBeaumont, who has fielded stout pavement midgets over the last few seasons. Gurney will be a teammate to DMS drivers Levi Roberts and Dan Bedford at Iowa this weekend.
“I’ve known Chuck for a long time, and he’s always been a really good kid. He’s won and run up front in a good percentage of his races the last couple years, and it seems like he only runs in the biggest and toughest ones. He’s been fast everywhere, and he’s a guy you enjoy being around, so it’s pretty easy to put him in the car and go racing,” DeBeaumont said of his new driver.
Gurney will take to the track on Saturday as the Midgets will kick off three main events that evening on the ?-mile paved oval. The USAC Midgets will be the first to hit the track, starting at 10:30am Central Time. Bobby Santos of Franklin, Massachusetts is the defending race winner.
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