LAYIN’ THEDOWN AT VCS

By Jack Taylor

(8/14/01) Danville, IL. What was that roar coming from the Vermilion County Speedway on Tuesday evening this week? Did we miss something? Sounded as if there were some high-powered machines running laps and it’s only Tuesday. Not the regular Sunday noise that fills the air when fans and drivers meet to get their weekly adrenaline shot of dirt racing in Danville.

Well folks, Tader and Keith came to town. Who?? I said Tader and Keith Masters of MasterSbilt Race Cars. They just happen to be one of the premier dirt late model race car builders in the country. Well, what are they doing in Danville at VCS on a Tuesday night?

It seems they wanted to do some testing of a new house car and three of their drivers who chauffeur MasterSbilt Late Models on the weekends at various tracks live close enough to Danville to merit a meeting place convenient for all. The MasterSbilt facility is located in Crothersville, IN and the three drivers are located in Decatur, Bloomington, and Sadorus, IL. VCS is about mid-point for all concerned.

Any clues on the three drivers, yet? Decatur sent Shannon Babb, Bloomington sent Billy Drake, and Sadorus contributed Steve Hillard. I personally would have paid to watch these three drivers test cars at a shopping mall, but on a high-banked oval, it was great. And I got to freeload, also.

Babb made his visit Tuesday with his #18 MasterSbilt firmly enclosed in the Moyer Enterprises hauler, unloaded, and preceded to run about 20 lap jaunts for the Masters to make notes. His #18 car is already topless in preparation for the Topless 100 this weekend.

Hillard unloaded his #47 and followed the same guidelines as Babb, running hot laps and letting the powers to be take notes. All technical stuff- tires, shocks, etc. Hillard looked smooth and has a pretty good knowledge of the VCS track, which was still dry-slick from Sunday night racing.

Drake entered on foot and was immediately belted into the #1 house car and drew the attention of the few infield observers by turning some awesome laps in the newly built racecar.

More notes were taken, information was passed around between the drivers, Hillard got his turn in the house car, including a fresh set of American Race Tires, which he uses on his #47 car in his weekly NALMS competition, where he is the National points leader. Drake gave Hillard’s #47 a test drive also.

Sometime after things were in full swing, a vehicle with Wisconsin plates pulled in and a surprise visitor, for most everyone there, donned a helmet and suit and strapped into the house car. A UDTRA driver with an uncontrollable desire for action and speed said he heard all that noise from the Interstate and just had to check it out. Yeah, right!

Knowing the guys who were testing, Dan Schlieper just had to stop in and say hello to his friends and even though he pilots a Rayburn on the weekends, he also wanted to have some fun.

The MasterSbilt house car looked awesome with these four behind the wheel and unofficial lap times were clocking near the 14 second mark, close to the track record for one lap and this was on dryslick, as compared to a qualifying run usually on a tacky track before a track turns black.

Besides the MasterSbilt people, several other manufacturers were there to witness the action, including Dewayne Ragland of Hyperco Springs, Bob McDowell of Penske Shocks, Tony Rose of American Race Tires, and some others I failed to meet.

It took three people to persuade Steve Hillard to get out of the house car after his turn on the track, but he has a new one ordered, which should be ready soon.

Vermilion County Speedway and promoter Bill Marietta extends a thank you to Tader and Keith Masters of MasterSbilt for the testing visit and to the four great drivers who tested.