Written By: Bruce Yentes byentes@pantagraph.com
AUGUST 31ST, 2010 (ST. LOUIS, MO) As a skilled carpenter, Chatsworth’s Lance Dehm may have to start thinking about building himself a bigger trophy case.
This season for the second straight year, Dehm, 40, captured the track championship in the modified class at Fairbury’s American Legion Speedway. He’ll pick up the hardware for that feat in the regular season finale at Fairbury Saturday night and has every intention of returning next season for a shot at three in a row.
“I’ve got a new car at home,” he said last week, already making plans for another go-round in a local short track racing career that’s now in its third decade.
Dehm has spent his entire career in the modified class.
“Everybody asks me why I don’t move up (into late models),” he said. “(The late models) are nice, they’re a little more forgiving sometimes because of the bigger tires, but it’s so much more expensive to go late model racing. When you can just afford to be on top of your game in the modifieds, you’ll go to late models and be down and I don’t have the time to be down at the bottom again.”
Dehm says it’s hard enough to stay ahead of an increasingly competitive modified field.
“I’ve been doing this for 21 or 22 years now and with the competition we run with every week this championship means quite a bit,” he said. “Everybody’s getting better motors, everybody’s getting better cars and everybody’s figuring out how the cars work and that makes a big difference.”
That competition, along with some difficulty in sorting out the vagaries of his own car, combined to make this somewhat of a trying championship season for Dehm.
“It was a new chassis,” he said. “All the components I put on it were last year’s components, but it’s a new frame and a lot of times one frame’s different from another. They’re supposed to be the same, but it’s all different steel and tubing and it depends on how it’s welded. The car doesn’t react like last year’s car did. We’ve been fighting it, but it’s a heckuva thing to fight it and still win a championship.”
The difficulties added up to some longer hours in the shop this year.
“When everything’s going good your time in the shop is less,” he said. “Last year we’d just go out and do maintenance on it. This year we were working a lot of hours.”
The work did pay off in four feature wins this season, half of them coming back-to-back on June 26 and July 3. After that, he compiled a string top-five finishes to hold off Jim Farris, his closest pursuer for the track title. Fairbury’s McKay Wenger finished third in the final standings.
“We’ve been consistent all year and that’s what it takes to win championships,” Dehm said. “You’re never happy to just be in the top five, but when you look at the grand scheme of things the top five is pretty good. I’m not complaining by any means.”
Lug Nuts
- The champions in all four weekly divisions at Fairbury will be recognized tomorrow (Saturday) night. Eric Smith of Shirley (late model), Dehm (modified) and Joel Funk (sportsman and street stock) will all pick up their trophies. Smith won the late model crown over Fairbury’s Scott Bull and 2009 champ Joe Harlan of El Paso. A perennial track champ at Farmer City, Smith says the Fairbury title is special.
“The competition up here, the atmosphere, the guys you race with every week; you don’t get any better group of guys to race with,” he said.
Funk won both the sportsman and street stock titles for the second straight year. It was a family affair in both divisions. He edged brother Andrew for the sportsman title. While Jeff Semmens finished second in street stocks, Funk’s stepfather, Rick Thomas, was third in that division’s final tally.
-Hot laps are slated for 5:50 p.m. for “Champions Night” on Saturday at Fairbury with time trials at 6:30 and racing to follow.
- The main (Third Street) gate at the American Legion Speedway will be open at noon this Thursday for campers arriving for the Sept. 3-4 Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury. The bleacher/grandstand gates will open at 9 a.m. the following day. Tickets for the Sept. 3 Prairie Dirt Shootout preliminary are $15. Tickets for the Sept. 4 Prairie Dirt Classic are $20.
- Reserved seats for both nights are no longer available on line, but can be purchased at the track for an additional $5 per ticket.
Lance Dehm Racing would like to thank all of their team partners for their support during the 2010 racing season. These include; Pride Packaging, Morris Packaging, Pontiac RV, Livingston Stone Company, Golden Harvest, Hagaman & Company Inc., Printing Craftsmen, Full Throttle Towing, Schahrer Farms & Trucking, Yoder Woodworking & Construction, AXA Advisors (Danny Snodgrass), Coastal Wipers, HartyAuction.com, Wessels Carpentry, Debbie Kaye's Salon, Bob Pierce Race Cars, Ultra-Shield Race Products, Gaerte Fuel Systems, Fusion Graphics & Sign Company, VP Race Fuels, Jaz Products, Kwik Change Products, Bull Power Racing Engines, 1-800-Top-Rods, Landrum Springs, Bilstein, 1-800-Top-Rods, and WaltersWebDesign.com.
To learn more about Lance Dehm Racing, please visit their marketing page and/or contact page. Lance Dehm Racing would be happy to go in to detail with you about how motorsports marketing can help your company grow!
For more information on Lance Dehm Racing please visit www.LanceDehmRacing.com.
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