I will never, ever forget my first time in a sprint car. This was 1988 and I actually was hired by a car owner who saw me run our midget at Winchester. That night at Winchester we had a good night and won the dash and then ran third behind Eddie Horne and Bruce Field. That next Friday we ran up at Gas City with this sprint car and after the push truck gets me going I checked the oil gauge and when it popped up I hit the switch... Oh my God! That sound was incredible. I had a smile from ear to ear and to this day... I love hot laps and hear those sprint car motors fire up. It still gives me goose bumps.

In hot laps I got passed by one of my heroes, Bob Kinser and he just covered me. So I had to go for a tear off, which I was use to with the midget. I followed Bob the best I could the rest of the session. The rest of the night was a blurr for me, my dream came true that night.

I will never forget when that motor fired up and as I recall now... I hit my head on the back of the cage... LOL! No high back seats back then. In fact, OT, the first midget I drove had a fiberglass seat and was dzus buttoned to the frame. In fact, three buttons did the trick. And as the holes got "Wallered" out we added a big washer. Good Grief.

George Wilkins

after the push truck gets me going I checked the oil gauge and when it popped up I hit the switch... Oh my God! That sound was incredible. I had a smile from ear to ear and to this day......nonwing

I don't think anybody forgets the first time they fire a sprint car. Whether you're idling around at 25 or gassin' it, you can just "feel" that you have a hold of something very powerful and violent!