2 weeks til Nationals -Interview with Adam Gullion
It’s Thursday again, and that means that we are just 2 weeks away from the 2016 Racesaver IMCA Sprint Nationals. It also means that we are going to get a little closer look at one of the pilots who will hustle his sprinter around the high banks of Eagle Raceway against a really huge field of others who are planning on taking home the winner’s share of the nearly $135,000 in purse money up for grabs.
This week we speak with an Eagle Raceway regular; 30 year-old Adam Gullion from Lincoln, Nebraska. Adam was the 2015 Champion of the Sprint Series of Nebraska.
Q:This is your fourth year in the Racesaver class. What do you think of the class overall?
Adam: The class is one that is extremely challenging. It brings challenges every night, no matter what track you go to to run them, and no matter what the conditions are. Everyone is on, for the most part, a pretty level playing field. It seems like over the last 4 years that the competition has gotten exponentially harder. The class has really grown in those 4 years. The competition is just ridiculous. Honestly; in my opinion, I think that the competition is harder now that it ever was in the 360 based sprints. It’s just SO tough to gain something on a guy or girl. You can’t just check out on the field. You can’t get your car too tight, you can’t get it too locked down. Everything is a real fine line.
Q:Do you think the tech measures are a good deal?
Adam:I think it is, and I think that it has to be strict; because as soon as there is going to be some grey areas, we are going to take every advantage and every opportunity that we can to get that advantage. I do wish they would change a few things. I think they should allow wing sliders, just for a safety measure and especially when the track gets really slick late at night. You have problems with new drivers who struggle to get their cars tight enough and keep the car underneath them. It ends up playing havoc on a lot of cars. They end up tearing up a lot of equipment just because of inexperience. Wing sliders aren’t that expensive, and it would add a lot of safety. But; as far as how strict they are with the engines, I think they have to be. It’s just like the 360’s. As soon as you start giving someone a little bit of leeway as far as what they can do, that’s when the costs, and the rules, and the grey areas just go out of control. And that’s when you lose the handle on the class. We’re racers. We’re competitive, and if we think we can get an advantage, we’re going to do whatever it takes to play that grey area and get that advantage. To keep the integrity of the class and maintain the direction of the class where it was intended to go, we have to keep the rules strict.
Q:This will be your fourth Nationals. What do you think of having the event at Eagle?
Adam:I think it’s great. I think that between the race track and the competition that we have every single week, we rival most race tracks in the country; no matter what class or what motor size they run. I was telling someone the other day that I used to be able to miss the set-up on my 360 and still run top 3 and maybe even dice for the lead in lapped traffic. But, in the Racesavers if you do that you’re a 10th or 12th place car. And that goes back to the fact that the competition level has gotten so high in the Racesavers so quick that you have to be just that much better in a class that was already difficult to be fast in because we’re down on horsepower. It’s going to be hard running 135 cars this year. Hard on the cars, hard on the track. Maybe we need to rethink the format for next year.
Q:Did you ever think this race could end up being this big?
Adam:I remember at a pit meeting, I think it was the second year of the Nationals at Eagle that Roger said he told someone from the Knoxville Fair Board that within a few years that the Racesaver IMCA Sprint Nationals would be bigger than the Knoxville Nationals, as far as car count. And, when he said that I believed that it would. I think that we had 100 cars pre-registered last year and this year we’re already almost to 150. It wouldn’t shock me that by the time of the race that it would hit 160 or 170. I doubt that all of those cars will show up, but I do believe that the ones that do show up will be in the 120’s.
Q:What do you think of the 3-wide start on Sunday?
Adam:I’ve been a part of it. The first year I thought for SURE that it was going to be a parking lot. But, I think that everyone in that start understands that we are 3-wide, and it is a long race. We cannot win it on the first lap, so the drivers so far have given each other the respect and room that they’ve needed on the race track. With the recent loss of Bryan Clauson, and that it happened so close to here, we all recognize that racing is dangerous. Doing a 3-wide start ups the level just a little bit.
Q:Any other thoughts that you want to pass along?
Adam:Every year we start out, we look at what we did the year before; the good things and the bad things. We try to not focus on the bad things and concentrate on the good things. We try to improve on those things. Of course, we try to win races. We started out great with 3 in a row early in the year. But then my crew chief was out for quite a while, and in the hospital. But, we have him back now. I think he came back at a good time for us. We have a few races left before the Nationals that we can sort through things. I made the A for every Nationals so far, and I have no intention of changing that any time soon. The competition has gotten harder, but we’ve been fast; maybe not consistently fast, but still fast. I’ve finished top 10 in 2 out of the last 3 Nationals; the other time I hit the wall and flattened a front tire. We’re going to buckle down; try to get through everything that everyone else has to get through. It takes a lot of luck, but we should be good. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a challenge, but we’ll do our best to rise to the occasion.