Friday, July 24, 2009 11:07 PM CDT
Former USAC driver gunning for 2nd straight win
By RICK DAWSON, Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- Stephanie Mockler was edging her way through the ranks of the USAC Midget’s driver development program when Ford Racing Technology brought in a new director and abruptly cut funding for several of its prospects.
Now, driving an independently owned sprint car, she has her eyes set on the Coles County Speedway for a second straight week. Her trip here last week – and subsequent feature win – was her first at Charleston, and the girl who was once featured on the CNN.com blog “Young People Who Rock” quickly established herself as one of the favorites at today’s Non-Wing Summer Nationals.
In the past, Mockler was the youngest female ever to win a USAC main event. Presently, she’s working toward a mechanical engineering degree at Indiana University-Purdue University and driving both winged and non-winged micro sprint cars. Her mechanical skills are advanced, too. She and other engineering students are currently publishing an instruction manual on how to alter a motor for a Spec racing car.
“It’s not like we’re racing for any kind of record,” said father Warren, a one-time Thanksgiving Turkey Night winner, USAC and sprint car racer who currently counts himself as Mockler’s pit boss. “It’s just that we enjoy this. I’m an old racer myself and I’ve afflicted this disease on her.”
Mockler’s sister, Shannon, began racing quarter midgets and started with a car that her father bought that was modified to support a 600 engine. When Shannon lost interest, Stephanie, who had also competed in quarter midgets, switched to micros at 12 and showed promise quickly. Eventually, she would become the first female to win a USAC Ford Focus Midget Series race.
“She eventually came around and continued to get better and better and better,” Warren said. “It’s an older design. Bottom line: I could see the writing on the wall. We were competitive for a while but we could only be so competitive with that setup.
“I have two daughters and they both went through quarter midgets and I tried to teach them mechanical skills. She has done very well with it. They both have, but she has taken it to another level.”
The latest step was to buy a year-old Concept chassis from sprint car designer Rodney Staley. Over the winter, they took it apart and remodeled it into a more efficient design. One of her pit crew members is her boyfriend, Seth Wooten, a former racer who travels with her between the US 24 Speedway in Logansport, Ind., and Miami County in Peru. Thus far, they have four feature wins.
The one at Coles County Speedway was unexpected.
“I was shocked, trust me,” Warren said. “We hot lapped and I didn’t think we were that good. Then we went through the heat race and it was a whole other driver behind the wheel. I could see every time on the race track she was getting better and better.
“It’s a Late Model car and it works very nice,” Warren said. “I really expected her to struggle for half a season, but she’s really come along very quickly with the car. Rodney has been very wonderful to work with.”
If Mockler is catching on fast, Richard Kreisel has never been caught at the Coles County Speedway. During his last appearance in Charleston in 2006 he won an NMMA title, and the Warsaw, Mo., driver also triumphed here in a regional event several years prior to the nationals.
“Last I knew I was the track record holder in the non-wing class,” he said. “Let’s not expect too much. This is going to be a big race. I’m pretty sure there’s a time to get knocked down. But we’re going to try. I guarantee that.”
Kreisel’s brother, Stanley, is the winged class points leader at Sweet Springs (Mo.) Raceway and his son Riley is driving in the junior sprint class. Both are on today’s registration list. Stanley took third in the nation in 2006 and was in solid qualifying position at Charleston then when he broke a chain.
Kreisel has spent more time concentrating on his son’s success – Riley is also leading the junior sprint points at Sweet Springs – but Charleston could be a good test for his Factor I, a different chassis than the one he raced here before. It’s also an oval that’s much smaller than his home track.
“It’s a great track,” he said. “I know they’ve changed it a little bit over the past couple of seasons. There’ll be some nuances that we’ll have to figure out.
“We started doing the non-wing deal back in 2004. I haven’t raced with a wing on since. It’s so much fun. We’ve been fortunate enough in our area to have a big group of non-wing racers. There’s a lot of high quality racers in this deal and I’m hoping it takes them a lot longer to adapt to the non-wing than it does me to adapt to the new race track.”
Racing begins at 7:30 p.m. today. The $1,500 payout in the non-wing class is drawing several drivers from out of state, including Hoosiers Todd Kirkman and A.J. Hopkins. Carson Short is running in the top three in the Southern Illinois Raceway Outlaw standings and one Kentucky driver, Darrell Lovett, has committed.
“We’ve never had (a none-wing event) as big as this one is going to be,” track secretary Mary Ellen Harris said. “Hopefully it’ll be something we can build on in the future.”
Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
|
|
