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This Week: Tom Wieringa Juggles Life, Work to Feed the "Need for Speed"
April 19th
The time between races in the Indy Pro Series can be quite long during the first part of the year, with almost two months between our last event in St. Pete and the next race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the end of May.
We have an open test scheduled at IMS next week, and I’m really excited to get back in my race car again in preparation for the upcoming "Freedom 100" Indy Pro Series race on Indy’s huge oval. I also have several businesses outside of racing that keep me really busy, along with some other hobbies that involve speed as well, like snowboarding and practicing giant slalom racing, which is what I did directly after leaving St. Pete. I spent some time on the ski slopes in beautiful Park City, Deer Valley and Snowbird, Colo., which was a great way to work off the stress from a racing weekend.
Like all race car drivers, I am also constantly searching for good corporate partners to bring into our Guthrie Racing organization. Meetings, phone calls and making arrangements for our guests to visit us in May take up an enormous amount of time, but that’s how good racing careers are built. The financial foundation has to come first.
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Tom Wieringa in 2006 Star Mazda
Photo: TomWieringa |
But it’s not all work, either. Last week I got the opportunity to travel to the home base of Guthrie Racing, in Albuquerque, NM, for some fun on the Route 66 Raceway kart track with Sean and Jim Guthrie. We had a blast! I just bought a new 125 cc kart (non-shifter) and will be practicing locally around the Chicago area when I have time, and this Albuquerque trip was just the thing I needed to get motivated to keep using it.
Although it was only for a few hours, that time really got me back in "racing mode." That was great practice for last weekend, where I got the opportunity to race in a SCCA Star Mazda two-day (April 14 & 15) event at Pueblo Motorsports Park in Pueblo, Colo., a 2.2-mile road course. I raced there last year as well, and ended up taking home a 2nd and 4th.
This year we had the honor of having two Wieringa’s compete in Star Mazda Pro cars. My 26-year-old son, David, also ran with me the entire weekend with the Eurosport Racing Group out of Brighton, Colo. In his formative years, Dave competed successfully in the Skip Barber Series, the Barber Dodge Pro Series and CART’s Toyota Atlantic Series. Dave won many events and held track records at several venues he competed in. Later on, he ended up testing an Indy Pro Series car, and also received his license to drive in the Indy Racing League during a test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, achieving a 208 mph average and a top speed of 218 mph. The ironic part is that Dave has since got married, has a second child on the way, and works full time. After a five-year hiatus, he jumped into the Star Mazda car and ended up beating his old man with a 2nd- and 3rd-place finish. Grandpa achieved a 4th and 6th in the double-header races – not too bad considering there were 35 cars competing.
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Dave Wieringa
Photo: TomWieringa |
Dave plans on racing in the Nationals at the SCCA June Sprints held at Road America again this year, as well as also racing in a 12-hour enduro with me at Florida’s Moroso Motorsports Park in the Fall.
My other son, Dan, 27, and I will be racing 125cc karts together in the Chicago area throughout the year, too. Dan is a full-time information technology director at a large school system in Chicago, and has also recently taken on the management of my racing website, www.tommybobby.com .
I also plan on doing about three or four more SCCA races this year, when I can fit them in my extremely busy schedule and in between Indy Pro Series events. You may even see me compete in the prestigious and grueling "Baja 1000" race in a Baja Challenge car (like a dune buggy) during the Fall, too.
Looking good, Tom! Looking good!
Posted by: Allan Brewer | April 19, 2007 at 02:26 PM
Amazing how Wieringa's got the money to race now when he claimed he didn't have a dime to his name to pay us at Sigman Autosport.
Posted by: Sauce | February 25, 2008 at 10:57 AM