Racing, life, Hollywood's summer blockbusters-they're never really quite what they seem. Expectations rarely meet reality, and no matter how much you think you know, there are always surprises along the way.
This was certainly true of Rip Michels' 2001 racing season. Back in the May 2001 issue of Stock Car Racing, we profiled the first part of this story, a local racer trying to move up in class from Grand American Modified to Super Late Model-and do so with a chassis he built from the ground up.
Expectations? Michels' were probably high even for a rookie, after all he was the Modified track champion at Irwindale (California) Speedway, coming off a dominating season of 10 wins in 12 starts.
But ask people around Irwindale Speedway, as we did, what they thought of Michels' chances prior to opening night and they weren't as optimistic. In fact, one veteran journalist said after qualifying in week one, "It's a nice story, but it's going to end badly."
Michels served as Stock Car Racing's case study of a fundamental racing experience-moving up in class. Now, it's time to see exactly what happened.
Breaks, Flats And "Incidents"
When we last left Michels (July '01), he had scrambled to get the race car ready for opening night and was taking it to the track for the first time to test his rebuilt engine and custom-built chassis. His results that night showed the lack of quality prep time. He qualified 11th, ran fast and was up to the eighth spot before a distributor cap broke and led to his first DNF of the year, finishing 24th.
In the next five races Michels qualified well, got spun twice and even won a Trophy Dash. It was the typical growing pains you'd expect from breaking in a new race car in a new class. Then, in the seventh race, Michels grabbed his first fastest time. He was clearly beginning to run at the front. Unfortunately, the main event was rained out in what turned out to be a foreboding storm.
The next week Michels' season was dealt a gale-force blow when the motor broke 15 laps into the main event. The heads and intake were the only parts salvageable. "At that point we were pretty much done," Michels said. "It blew everything out the bottom end: cranks, rods, pistons, block."
Up until that point Michels was relatively pleased with the campaign despite his pre-season concerns about budget. "Money-wise we were looking pretty good; things were going OK," he said. "We were simply changing some parts and making the car better to where we were running the dash each week. Then about halfway into the season, we blew the engine. And that was our only engine!
"Fortunately, Ladco (car sponsor/engine owner) stepped up and bought us a new motor. We were able to pick up this used one for $12,500." In a matter of days, Michels and crew tore up the car, dropped in the new engine and started the very next race two weeks later.
Behind the new motor, Michels qualified fifth fastest and finished second. Despite qualifying and running in front the next few races, Michels went out with a flat and a broken rearend. Then, in the 12th race of the series, Michels was again fastest qualifier, but a failed tech inspection forced him to start from dead last at 24th. Still, he won the race. The next two races ended in mechanical failure with a broken valvetrain and bearing/steering failure.
Stock Car Racing connected with Michels for the 15th and final series race of the year, and could tell from the outset he was a legitimate contender in the Super Late Model class. Michels qualified third, won the Trophy Dash and led 61 of the first 63 laps. By then he had a full stretch lead on second place and appeared to be challenging to write a happy ending for his story.
However, two flat outside tires put him out of the race for good. He finished 20th in a surreal ending that felt much like that of opening night. After charging hard to the front, suddenly, the night was over and Michels had another DNF.