Brent Marks is in his second year with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series, and like last year, it’s been a little bit of a struggle.
Those difficulties continued during the LetsRaceTwo! weekend at Eldora Speedway. SprintCarunlimited.com caught up with Marks at “The Big E” and discussed the season and other issues facing the Pennsylvania driver in his pursuit of World of Outlaws success.
It’s not easy being on the road, and it’s even more difficult when it’s you and one other crew person. How difficult has that been on you this year?
BM: Some nights are worse than others. For example, at Lake Ozark, we got in a heat-race wreck, and I had a lot of suspension damage. We had to repair all of that with just us two, and we had to get out for the B-Main. There are other people from teams who help us, but it all depends on the severity of the damage. I’ll say, ‘Yes, or, it’s not that bad, we got it.’ That was the deal at Lake Ozark, but it’s still tough. We repaired everything, got out for the B-Main, and there is a quick turnaround and ready to go out for the feature. There are some adjustments to do on the car, I have to get my helmet ready, fuel in it, change tires … it just gets tough on nights like that. Then there are other nights, we are half decent, and things go pretty smooth. But, it’s up and down depending on circumstances during the night.
You make all of the calls on the car and really run the show start to finish. Are you looking for another crew member or even a crew chief to take the pressure off you?
BM: I would be OK with doing that, as long as I trust the person who would come in. But, I felt like it was easier at home, because I always had my family around. I always had people at the racetrack, and out on the road, you don’t always have that. It gets hard. There are a lot of times that we get so busy that neither of us can go up and see what’s going on with the racetrack. If I had somebody who has experience out here or experience with the racecar who can give me a car I feel comfortable in, it would take a lot of pressure off me, and I could spend more time focusing on where I should be running on the racetrack. Also, a lot of times I’m so busy on the racetrack — just hard racing, sometimes — I come in, and it felt one way one lap and different another. It would be different outside looking in, but I don’t have that capability, so having that person behind me who knows the changes that need to be done would mean a lot. I’m Looking. I made an offer to a few guys, but it’s hard to get anyone who wants to come out here and do this full time on the road. It takes a lot to leave your family and sacrifice being at home and a normal lifestyle. Sometimes, it gets a little lonely out here and some guys like it, and some guys don’t. That’s why we say it takes a special breed to do this.
It’s been a little bit of a struggle this year. Is it only having one crew member out here or have there been other issues?
BM: We’ve had a lot of rainouts, but the tracks we’ve raced at this year that I struggled at last year, we’ve improved a lot. I’m happy about that, but we’ve had a lot of issues with our stuff this year. Nothing has really changed, we are just having bad luck. Last night [At Eldora Speedway], we lost two motors. I feel like it’s not my motor builder’s fault, it’s just something in the fuel system of the racecar that we have to pinpoint. That’s hard to do when you just built a brand-new racecar. Where do you start? It’s not like we have a tail tank on from two years ago, so that makes it difficult to pinpoint. It drains you mentally and kind of gets you down, so I’m not thrilled with this year, but we’ve passed a lot of racecars and come from the back. We’ve had to use our provisionals, but we’re making head way.
You’ve passed a lot of cars during feature events, but you are still struggling with qualifying, which puts you behind for the night. What has been the issue early on in the night?
BM: It goes back to the crew chief thing. We changed our motor program last year, and it helped, but then I started noticing some handling issues that I was having because we had better motors. This is the first year that I have really run with good motors, so it’s been a struggle to find a happy medium with my racecar. So, we go to these racetracks that I ran last year when our motor program wasn’t good, and we were good early in the night. Now, our motor program is good, but my car isn’t good. It’s weird how much it changes a car when you have a motor that runs. I’m just trying to figure that out, learning what I started out with at some of these places last year isn’t working for me. That’s where I’m starting behind and figure it out through the night. So, I’m pretty much building a new notebook, and that’s an issue. We haven’t been able to work on the weight of our car yet, and we’re like 50 pounds too heavy, so there is weight we can cut out. That will help on nights, like Devil’s Bowl for example. I was 12th or 13th and a tenth out of fifth. A tenth is nothing. It’s crazy how close times are out here, but it comes down to last year our motors weren’t running, and now our car isn’t good. But, we will figure it out.
Considering the struggles you’ve had this year, the rainouts, and only having one guy out here, are you still confident that this is what you want to do?
BM: It is. As a driver, it’s hard to come into this deal knowing you don’t have a top-five car. There are days that is hard to grasp, because I know I can go back home, race locally, and know I’m a top-five car. But this is what I want to do, and I know it’s going to take time. Everybody out here has been supportive of that. They know how long it takes to become a driver who is going to be in the top five of World of Outlaws races every night and also build a team that is like that. We came in as a bunch of newbies, and it’s a tough learning curve. We’re figuring it out, and I think as the year progresses and we figure out the issues that have cost us, it will turn around. We just need to keep plugging away until that happens.