Randy Weaver proud to finish second to his son in Kerr Memorial

Any thoughtful parent hopes that his/her children will grow up to be successful and happy. On Saturday night at 411 Motor Speedway, Randy Weaver saw his son achieve success and happiness within the space of a 71-lap feature race. As a matter of fact, the elder Weaver had the best seat in the house as his son Cameron crossed the finish line just ahead of him in the J.T. Kerr Memorial giving the father-son tandem a 1-2 finish.

For Cameron Weaver, it was the biggest win of his career as the 23-year-old driver took $10,000 from the Seymour, Tennessee track following the 604 Crate Late Model main event. Prior to Saturday’s race, the most valuable payout the Crossville, Tennessee driver had earned came from the Smoky Mountain Speedway back on March 6th of this year and was worth $1,500.

While parents want to see their kids succeed, no racer wants to finish second. So make no mistake, Randy Weaver cut his son no slack as he rode right on the rear spoiler of the No. 16 CVR Race Car during the latter stages of the race. At the same time, the veteran whose feature wins number in the hundreds enjoyed watching his son execute the lessons he had been taught.

“It was really cool just watching him the way he was picking through lapped traffic, doing the stuff he’s watched me do for a long time,” Randy Weaver told InsideDirtRacing.com following the Kerr Memorial. “Of course, since he’s been racing we talk about it a lot, different scenarios and what goes on and what other racers are thinking as you’re lapping them. To sit there and watch him do what he did, I mean I was running hard and I thought when he would get pinched up under the lapped cars I might get a run on the outside. I don’t know, I think it just got too dirty up there and I just couldn’t get the run I thought I could. If I ran his line I was about as good as him but you can’t pass ’em. I was moving around and I was trying.”

While Cameron Weaver knew who it was following him, he was never fully aware of just how tight the race for the lead actually was.

“I never really knew how close he was,” the younger Weaver explained. “I never found my crew guy, they let you signal with hands here, and I never saw him so I never knew how much of a lead I had or didn’t have. I just tried to listen. I saw him a couple of times down there and I moved down and that felt all right. Finally I just committed and done what I had to in traffic to stay ahead of him. But I did know it was him because I was watching the scoreboard. I saw him once but I had the momentum and pulled him back on the straightaway.”

Both Weavers had to overcome the early lead held by Greg ‘Skinny’ Martin with Cameron taking the top spot on the leaderboard on the 21st circuit of the 71-lap race. During their skirmish with Martin, the Weavers were engaged in some close quarters racing of their own.

“That’s the first time I seen him and after I got by Skinny and we had that caution(lap 22) I seen him again,” the eventual winner pointed out. “I knew I was pretty good, I just kind of got jumped on the start a little bit but it didn’t matter because I had a pretty good car and I just kept showing him my nose and showing him my door to make him drive hard. I just wanted to keep my tires under me and stay straight and not abuse my stuff too much because this was a long race, the longest race I’ve ever ran. He(Martin) finally started pushing a little too hard and I think his right rear tire started to go away pretty early because he was trying to drive to stay out front. It was a lot of fun, especially to beat my old man with the history that he has and everything. It’s just awesome, its surreal.”

Cameron Weaver had always felt like the day would come when he would win a big race and he hoped it would come against his highly accomplished father.

“I knew this day was coming to get a big race win like this but I didn’t know when,” he said. “He’s really, really good and he’s been really good. I didn’t think it would be this soon. I’m just happy I done it while he was still good. He went to Dixie a couple of weeks ago and won a race, a super race. I’m glad I done it now instead of when he got older than this and tries to play around.”

Please consider also reading “Cameron Weaver holds off dad in J.T. Kerr Memorial at 411“

The pride of the father for his son’s accomplishment after a relatively short period of time in Late Model racing was evident as the drivers and teams awaited the results of post-race inspections.

“I’m telling you, it’s amazing to see him do that,” the elder Weaver stated. “I mean, honestly, people don’t understand that this probably ain’t but about his seventieth race ever. I started him in crates and we just picked and chose and raced here and there getting his feet wet. Now here he is winning $10,000 and outrunning me. It’s about time for me to quit, I guess.”

In 2016, Randy Weaver experienced a serious crash while racing as East Alabama Motor Speedway that resulted in a severe concussion. The road to recovery from that injury proved to be a long one as the driver withdrew from racing for quite some time. There was even the thought that he might never race again which made the joy of Saturday night even sweeter.

“People don’t know what a struggle that was for a year and a half,” Randy Weaver recounted. “I don’t wish that on anybody but just to get me back to this point, and I’ve been fortunate enough to win a handful of races here and there over the last couple of years, but to get back to this point and be a part of this, I’d go back through that year and a half again. This was really good.”

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