SPRINT CAR DRIVER ADDS TO FAMILY HISTORY AT ELDORA
ROSSBURG— Ryan Barr pulled his yellow 21B nonwing sprint car into the pits following his feature race at Eldora Speedway. His hauler, half the size of those pulled by the USAC stars, was parked along the backstretch. It was about as far away from Tyler Courtney’s victory celebration on the front stretch as you could get.
Barr started 22nd in his feature race. He finished in the same place. But for Ryan Barr Racing, finishing last never felt so good.
“We have never been so freakin’ happy to finish dead last in our lives,” said a post on RBR’s Facebook page.
The 19 year old from Piqua rolled into Eldora Speedway on Saturday morning for the Let’s Race Two event. The doubleheader featured the USAC non-wing sprint cars and World of Outlaws winged sprint cars. Barr tested his skills against the best drivers USAC had to offer. He left with his first USAC feature start. And he did it on an intimidating Eldora track he’d never raced on before Saturday.
“That was the dream. Not necessarily a goal,” Barr said. “The goal was to survive. What we did here today, just huge for this team. A lot of people don’t understand that. We were down 100some horsepower in our motor. To go out there with these guys is incredible.”
Their hauler was dwarfed by the comparative palaces used by USAC and World of Outlaws regulars. Their motor, an aluminum block 410, keeps them competitive on bullring tracks but strains on Eldora’s wide open highbanked, half-mile oval.
Still, Barr found himself in contention for the A-Main feature during his last-chance transfer race. The top seven moved to the feature. That’s where Barr found himself, battling Minster’s Paul Dues for that coveted final spot. Barr rode the bottom of the track to hold off Dues and a few others for a few tense final laps.
Barr joined several other Miami County drivers in the feature. Pleasant Hill’s Matt Westfall finished ninth and 14th. Troy’s Dallas Hewitt placed 15th in both features and Korbyn Hayslett was 21st and 20th.
Minster’s Dues qualified for the second feature and finished 13th.
Barr added to his family’s history at Eldora, following in the tire racks made by his grandfather Mike Barr, father Chad Barr and uncle Casey Barr. All three raced sport stocks at Eldora. Ryan Barr elected to go the openwheel route.
“This is third generation so it was something special tonight,” said Barr, whose great-grandmother Mary Lou McGinnis was voted the track’s Fan of the Year in 2010. “When you roll out on it, it’s like no other. Just the history of this place hits you in the face. I was thinking about the people in my family.”
Rain postponed Friday’s session and pushed it back to Saturday afternoon. Saturday’s regularly scheduled event followed. With a motor that was spitting oil and not wanting to push it past its limits, the racing team elected to protect the motor and pull out of Saturday night’s action.
“Once you get more to the top of the track you can really feel the speed. It’s pretty fun,” Barr said. “We’ll have to come back at some point, maybe when we have a bigger motor when we can be more competitive.”
To be fair, Barr technically did have some track time at Eldora prior to Saturday. When he was about eight he participated in a Quarter Midget exhibition to promote a USAC race on Eldora’s Little E kart track.
“I claim I won but really it was just a hot lap session,” Barr said, smiling. “At that point we were pretty low budget. We never knew if we’d get to a class that would hit the track here at Eldora. It was always a dream. It was always a passion. Eight years old I wasn’t even sure I wanted to race quarter-midgets. It was more just up just for the friends. But I’m glad we stuck with it. It’s a dream come true.”
Barr, who Quarter Midgets and min sprints prior to moving into the big-body sprint cars, mostly competes at Lawrenceburg Speedway and Gas City Speedway in Indiana. He won a feature race at Waynesfield Raceway Park in April. He also plans to run with USAC again during Speedweeks.
But he recently bought a house in Piqua, so the bills are getting bigger. He continues to pay them as a tool maker at Medway Tool, which also helps sponsor his car. His boss, Mark Rice, raced QM’s with his father, Chad.
“The bills are getting a little bit more expensive. We’re living the dream for as long as we can,” Barr said. “When that has to stop I’ll put a wrench in my hand and go help somebody else. Once it’s in our blood you don’t want to stop.”
■ Indiana’s Tyler Courtney won Saturday’s early USAC feature by 5.477 seconds, lapping all but six cars, to win his fifth straight race at Eldora. Robert Ballou won the late feature by holding off Courtney’s furious charge at the end, winning in 0.085 seconds.
■ In the WoO sprints, Pennsylvania’s Brent Marks won the early feature and Wooster’s Sheldon Haudenschild captured the nightcap.