Randy Weaver being interviewed following his Smoky Mountain win
In 2016, Dirt Late Model racer Randy Weaver experienced a devastating crash that left him suffering from post-concussion syndrome for months. As a result, Weaver had only raced sporadically until the start of this season. During his time out of the driver’s seat, he has worked on race cars for others and has fostered his son’s racing efforts.
But following a call from Seymour, Tenn. businessman Scott Romines, the 50-year-old racer has returned to the track as a driver on a more regular basis. This past weekend the racer who has earned hundreds of feature race wins looked like his old self when he scored victories on consecutive nights while competing with the American Crate All-Star Series at Smoky Mountain Speedway and his home track Crossville(TN) Speedway.
“I had my head injury and it took me a year-and-a-half to get over that and I just always prayed that if God would let me I wanted to see if I could do it and prove to myself that I was okay,” Weaver explained in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “Now with Cameron racing and us running the same type cars, I can give him some feedback. Scott Romines called me and had an opening. I told him that as long as we’re having fun I’ll do it, and as soon as we ain’t having fun, I’ll stay at home or go watch Cameron.”
The veteran driver has found one significant benefit to driving for a team that allows him to just show up and race on the weekends without having to do all of the maintenance work on the car during the week.
The Scott Romines-owned Crate Late Model driven by Randy Weaver
“I’m fortunate enough that they let me do that,” he pointed out. “Driving a race car is the funnest thing in the world, but everything that leads up to that is the worst thing in the world. They’re taking care of the bad stuff and letting me do the fun stuff.”
One significant difference for Weaver this time around in a Late Model is that he is driving a car powered by a crate engine rather than the open-motored Super Late Models he used to win feature races and championships with earlier in his career. And there is a very different driving style for each type of car.
“It’s basically the same race car but it’s only got half the motor,” Weaver said. “Everything you used to do to get it tighter because you had more horsepower you have to all night free it up and free it up. To do that you’ve got to hustle them because it’s like running on four cylinders. You can’t push because you ain’t got the big motor to get back by them. You have to work a little harder and be on the edge more.”
Weaver won the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at Smoky Mountain in 2015
Weaver’s win on Saturday night at Smoky Mountain was particularly impressive because he had to beat one of the top drivers in the region to get it. The No. 116 car made an impressive slide job pass to get by race leader Cory Hedgecock on lap 19 before driving on to collect the $3,000 winner’s payout.
The veteran star had to rely on all his experience to pull of the move. By using a higher groove on the track, he hoped to lure Hedgecock off of the bottom lane then make his move.
“Cory is about the best in the business in this crate deal,” Weaver asserted. “It’s harder than you think, then I got moving around and got him in traffic. I knew his guys were going to tell him to move up so a lot of times you just try to make it look good so they’ll start moving. I knew that bottom was still the best so once I got him moved up off of there I just had to get the right kind of run to try to slide him and get gone.”
Weaver credited his team for their work on the car and for his revived enjoyment for the sport.
“It worked out good for us this time and it felt good,” he said. “These guys are just letting me show up and drive when I supposedly have been retired. I have a good time and it worked out good. Man, I’m telling you, you have to hustle these cars. You work twice as hard as you do in those big motor cars but it’s fun and I’m enjoying it.”
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