| Subject: Re: What goes around . . . |
Author:
Boyd Percy
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Date Posted: 22:32:43 09/12/15 Sat
In reply to:
Wes
's message, "What goes around . . ." on 21:26:20 09/12/15 Sat
>I ought to be working on the current book right now,
>but instead I want to tell you a story -- and in this
>case, it's a true one.
>
>Back when I first started getting interested in short
>track auto racing, I happened to meet a young man by
>the name of Todd Metz, Jr. Todd was a nice kid, very
>friendly, and I learned a great deal about the sport
>at the time. He even let me hot-lap his current race
>car, which if I recall correctly was an older Dodge
>Spirit, running in the four-cylinder class popular at
>many tracks in the area.
>
>Now, Todd is the kind of guy who isn't satisfied with
>"good enough." Todd isn't rich; in fact, he's a welder
>who works in a factory, and the funds for his racing
>come mostly from out of his pocket. He wanted a faster
>car, so that winter he built one, a Dodge Neon, which
>is the fast car in the class in this neck of the
>woods. He kept working on it, improving it, going
>faster with it, until it ultimately became the fastest
>and most-tricked up Neon in the area.
>
>Along the way, Todd got his father interested in
>racing, then his mother. He and his father, Todd Metz
>Sr., (also known as Yogi, for what reason I know not)
>built a second race car for his dad to use, and it's
>just about as fast. The best short track race I ever
>saw featured the two Todd Metzs at a 3/8 mile track.
>They went 25 laps just absolutely door to door, nip
>and tuck all the way, and lapped the whole field in
>the process. Junior won by a nose, but that was just
>how it happened to work out. Todd's mother Glenda was
>later a season champion at the same track.
>
>Todd, (and from here on I will use that name to talk
>about Junior, and Yogi to describe his dad,) was more
>than just a racer. He is the kind of guy who is a
>friend to everyone. If someone needed help with
>something, he helped. If someone needed a part to make
>a race, he would provide it. If someone needed advice
>on how to get their car to go faster, Todd was always
>willing to help. He made a lot of friends along the
>way by doing that kind of thing, and just by being
>himself.
>
>We haven't seen Todd run much recently; he's been
>running in a different series that doesn't often come
>to the tracks we go to frequently. But three weeks ago
>we drove out of our normal area to watch Todd and Yogi
>run. There was a big accident the two of them got
>caught up in; Yogi's car was battered but could race.
>Todd's best car got smashed up beyond easy repair.
>
>The car that got smashed was a little too hot for some
>local tracks, so a couple years ago Todd built a
>second race car that was not quite as energetic --
>still very fast, but legal at some places where the
>first was not. A week ago last Friday night, Todd was
>in a race with it at Spartan Speedway in Mason, MI,
>and got shoved into the wall; the car was also smashed
>up well beyond easy repair.
>
>The next morning Todd was sitting around the house
>wondering how he was going to get either car to run in
>the biggest race of the season a week away. About that
>time, a couple of friends dropped by to see how bad
>the car was smashed up, and the talk started. Within
>an hour they were out in the garage, building a whole
>new race car from scratch. What goes around comes
>around -- all that friendship, all that help he'd
>given to others came back to him.
>
>Word got around, and racer friends that Todd had made
>over the years started to show up, a total of fourteen
>of them. They worked until 3:30 the next morning, got
>a few hours sleep, and started in again. It was going
>to be a rush job, but at least he could scrounge an
>engine and parts off of the older cars. Fortunately,
>it was Labor Day weekend so they had an extra day to
>work on it. Finally, with the car well along, Todd had
>to knock it off Monday night as he had to get up to go
>to work at 4:30 Tuesday morning, but after work he and
>his friends were right back at it.
>
>The one chance Todd had to give the car a test before
>the big Saturday show was Friday night at Spartan
>Speedway again, where they were having an "open"
>four-cylinder class in which none of the normal rules
>apply. The car wasn't even done yet, but it was as
>close to it as he could get in the time available when
>he loaded it on the trailer at 4:50 Friday night. An
>hour later he unloaded it, ran it through tech, and
>had enough time for a few hot laps before qualifying
>was under way. I was in the stands when he rolled it
>out on the track for the first time, and I could tell
>he had a pretty fast car although they didn't have the
>timer on so I couldn't tell how fast.
>
>It was fast all right. When qualifying got under way a
>few minutes later, he threw the new car around the
>quarter mile track in 15:21, which is darn fast for
>that track if not a class record, which I think he
>holds in one of his earlier cars. There are V-8
>modifieds that don't go that fast on that track. The
>only other car within a second of his qualifying time
>was, guess who? Yogi, of course.
>
>Todd won his heat easily. Between qualifying and the
>heat someone found a roll of tape and put a temporary
>number on the car -- that's how new it was. He went on
>to win the feature, with Yogi second. They had a
>pretty good battle toward the end of the feature, but
>Todd stayed in the lead. There was only one other car
>left on the lead lap, and if the race had gone on
>another lap or two they would have passed him as well.
>
>Needless to say, Todd was pretty happy in the winner's
>circle. It wasn't just his work, but the work of his
>friends and family that had taken him from two badly
>crashed cars and an aging, worn-out grocery getter to
>victory lane in a frantic week. "You know," I told
>him. "I think you're going to have a pretty good hot
>rod there when you get the bugs out." The car needed
>more work to get it ready for the Saturday night
>affair, but he had a whole day to get ready for that.
>
>I haven't heard the details, but Todd was at the big
>race on Saturday; I wasn't able to go. He didn't win,
>but he was there and gave it a good try, which under
>the circumstances is a victory in itself. Good going!
>
>One final thought: Todd and some of his friends have a
>loosely affiliated racing team the name of which I
>think says it all: Never Dead Racing. I think they got
>that one right.
>
>Photoposts the next two weeks will be from Friday
>night, but here's one:
>
>
>href="http://www.spearfishlaketales.com/photopost/pp426
>.jpg">Glenda, Todd and Yogi Metz in the winner's
>circle. A racing family!
The best way to have friends is to be one.
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