Now it's all just a 'Dream'
(Elk Mound, WI - June 8, 2000) Three years ago this weekend, a ‘Dream’ came true for a young racer from the Midwest. As one of America’s rising stars in motorsports, Jimmy Mars took home the biggest prize of his career when in June, 1997 the young gun piloted his 750-horsepower dirt late model to a win worth over $100,000 in Eldora Speedway’s "Dream Race".
The win came on the heels of Jimmy’s 1996 win at the "USA Outlaw Nationals", which combined with the more recent "Dream" triumph provide Jimmy with two prizes which many racers would consider a fantastic overall career. Mars looks at this weekend’s "Dream" as a possible turn-around for his return to dirt racing in the year 2000, which, by the way, has already seen Mars take his ParkerStore sponsored Chevrolet Monte Carlo to the winner’s circle in front of the Daytona crowd at Speedweeks 2000.
The team currently is involved in the Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series national
championship chase, which roars across America from February through October. Mars is
presently in the 16th position as one of a handful of drivers trying to race their way
into the top-ten of the ultra-competitive touring series standings.
"These are the best racers that I have ever competed against, the competition is an all-star field each week," exclaims Mars as the team prepares for this weekend’s big money event at Eldora Speedway. "We’d like to be higher in the points and closer to the front for the title, but when you look at the number and quality of drivers trying to make each show, we haven't done too bad." Mars notes the team’s achievements so far in the new season, "We had a big win in February down in Florida and have been able to grab a couple of pole awards on the Hav-A-Tampa series. I think that shows how competitive we can be on any given weekend. This would be a really nice weekend to get on a roll."
The lucrative event, held at the historic half-mile dirt mecca in Rossburg,
OH is still the richest winner’s purse, but all that will change when autumn
approaches as legendary Eldora Speedway promoter Earl Baltes will host the "The
Million". The much anticipated race will pay the race winner $1,000,000 in cold hard
cash and is scheduled for October 6-7 at the hallowed dirt arena near Dayton, Ohio.
Mars kept pace in the race for the ‘Big Cigar’ on the tough Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series this past weekend by making the field for the high-profiled event at Bristol Motor Speedway. The special event, which saw the famed half-mile surface covered with clay for a week of dirt racing, set a new standard for attendance of dirt late model events with an estimated 50,000 race fans gathered for the history making weekend. In fact, Bristol Motor Speedway officials noted that the crowd for the overall weekend exceeded 70,000 total.
The extreme speed of the track, which normally plays host to NASCAR Winston
Cup and Busch Grand National action, took its toll on the teams over the weekend. Jimmy
Mars Racing experienced a pair of separate incidents, including a blown tire in a
qualifying heat race and a broken wheel later in the evening. Jimmy still managed to earn
a spot in the prestigious 30-car field that paraded at full tilt in front of the
record-breaking dirt-racing crowd.
"It’s very fast out there," said Jimmy on Bristol Motor Speedway’s clay covered surface. "A lot of us were literally running the wheels off of the car due to the speeds. It was pretty wild when the right rear came off. We were lucky not to tear anything up too bad," concluded Mars.
Numerous other drivers suffered blown and flat tires as attrition played a
major role in the outcome of the race. "It might have not been the best night for us
on the track, but the crowd here says a lot about the strength of this type of auto racing
and its appeal to the public," said Mars of the huge turnout of dirt racing fans.
"We race at a dozen or so events that have twenty thousand or more, but this is
really impressive," concluded Mars on the packed frontstretch grandstands.
As Jimmy Mars Racing heads to Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, his thoughts are concentrated on the chain of events which occurred just three years ago at the famed half-mile track. The trip to the annual "Dream" race and its $100,000 winner’s share stands as Jimmy Mars biggest career win. In Mars’ mind, he would like to fall back into the REM zone, which awakened the team with a huge payday and major boost to the team’s growth and efforts.
Appropriately, rapid eye movement is a prerequisite at the Eldora Speedway half-mile where drivers hurl their twenty-four hundred pound stock cars into the turns at speeds nearing 150 mph. The achievement of defeating such a stellar field in the 1997 Dream, which included perennial Eldora favorites like Donnie Moran and Billy Moyer was in itself a satisfying feat, but Jimmy Mars is like most competitive racers – once the thrill of victory has been savored, it’s time to try and win it again. Such is the case with Jimmy’s aims to bring another "Dream" home for the team with this week’s Eldora Speedway special.
"We’ll still be conservative with our money," said Mars when he won the huge event in 1997, "It will allow us to be a little more relaxed now. When we go to the track and have to decide on how many tires to buy or things like that, it definitely helps the program out. You don’t have to be quite so tight with the money."
Three years later Jimmy and Chris Mars, crew chief and brother to the driver, have shown that they have parlayed their racing interests into a sound investment. Last season the pair stepped away from the dirt tracks of America and made a run at NASCAR’s RE/MAX Challenge series for short-track asphalt late models. Mars’ star shone brightly with a claim to the Rookie of the Year award on the NASCAR tour. The continued growth of the team and their successes continues to show into the 2000 season.
Following this weekend’s high-profile run at Eldora Speedway, Jimmy and the team will head back into Hav-A-Tampa action with a heavy racing schedule on tap. The cigar sponsored circuit will be in action at Davenport, IA (June 14); a two-day stop at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, WI near Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (June 23-24) and then on to Knoxville, IA (June 27). Following the barnstorming tour through Iowa and Wisconsin Jimmy will head to Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC (July 2-3).
(Courtesy of Ozzie Altman/Victory Lane Communications)
