There have been times this season when Brent Marks looked like he went a couple of rounds in a heavyweight fight.
And lost.
That’s the way it is when you spend nine months traveling up-and-down the road with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series. It’s a day-to-day grind facing the best drivers in the world on unfamiliar tracks.
It can take a toll on a driver and team. Competing against the likes of Donny Schatz, David Gravel, and the rest of the travelers — especially as a rookie — can be enough to bring down any newbie, regardless of talent.
But not Marks. He was kicked around a bit on tour in the 2017, but he vows to return next year with a better understanding of the road and ready to take the next step in his Sprint Car career.
“It went into this year, thinking we could be a 10th-place car, but then realized that I’m like 15th or 16th-place, especially early in the night,” Marks, 27, said. “Once race time came around, we could run through the field and were better. But starting that far back, I mean, the car has been better than we finished.
“It’s been tough, but we sat down and figured out what changes we needed, and actually, made those changes. Things have started to turn around.
“I came into this deal trying to make it a long-term deal. I didn’t want to make it just one or two years and be done with it. I wanted to make a career out of it.”
Continued Marks, “I sat down with sponsors and everybody involved and told them my plans. I’m going to keep doing it until I can do it no more.”
Marks faced his share of challenges this season. Everything from new tracks to long hours on the road, and the biggest one of all … equipment issues.
When Marks first decided to embark on a World of Outlaws career, he thought he was prepared. He thought he had what he needed in the trailer and on his car, but he quickly found out he didn’t have the right program.
At least not for him.
“Racing our schedule before with a lot of local shows, it’s so much different than racing here with the World of Outlaws,” Marks said. “I felt like we were prepared, but then I went out against these guys, and we weren’t.
“I had to make a lot of changes this year, especially in our motor department, and that seems to have made a difference. Things have been going better since making that change [to Kistler], but we are still working on it.”
Marks struggled a bit out of the gate before ripping off three top-five finishes in April. More struggles followed in May, June, and most of July, before he landed his lone top-five finish, a fourth place in the A-Main at Michigan’s Hartford Speedway.
The success in late July didn’t carry over to August. Marks had one top 10 during the stint, an eighth-place finish South Dakota’s Black Hills Speedway.
Then came some changes within the team, which led to better performances on the track. Marks notched top 10s at Calistoga, Eldora, Fulton, the Salina Highbanks, and The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
“After the last month, my confidence has been a lot higher than it was two or three months ago,” said Marks, who had 23 top 10 runs this season. “It’s weird how racing works.
“It’s easy to get dragged down really low and beat yourself up. It’s twice as hard to bring yourself back up to where you can focus and drive a race car properly.
“I’m definitely feeling a lot better about things. We are playing around with difference cars. We are still with Maxim, but we were changing different dimensions and playing with things to make things a little better.”
Marks didn’t stumble upon the magic bean. There is no such thing in this sport … the better drivers and teams will tell you that.
In fact, Marks indicated that he was still experimenting going into the offseason, looking at shocks and different packages to see what worked and what didn’t … something, anything to give him an edge next season.
The good news is that Marks ended on a good note. He placed ninth in the final World of Outlaws race of the season at The Dirt Track and Charlotte and collected a nice $30,000 check for finishing 10th in the point standings.
“The competition out here is so close,” Marks said. “We have gone to tracks this year where it’s a half second difference between first and 20th, and if you are two tenths off, that puts you 13th or 15th in time trials.
“We have to dial in on all that and make sure we figure this out. Even the weight in the car makes a difference, which isn’t easy when you are 6-2, 200 pounds. It would be nice to be 140 pounds like some of these guys.
“We are just going to look at everything. Everything we tried is written down, and we are going to review it and come back again next year.”