Interview with 2019 Duros Dent Works Sprint Car Champion Trevor Grossenbacher

Interview with 2019 Duros Dent Works Sprint Car Champion Trevor Grossenbacher

by Greg Soukup

Well; we SHOULD be talking about the Icebreaker Challenge starting today, but with the whole world under the pale of the Corona Virus we find ourselves looking for some kind of racing fix since at least the April part of the schedule has been cancelled.

So, we continue our series of interviews with last year’s Eagle Raceway points champions. This time it is the Duros Dent Works Racesaver Sprint Car champion, Trevor Grossenbacher.

31-year old Trevor began his racing at the age of 5. “I started racing BMX then moved to mini-sprints in 2000 when I was 12. When I was a senior in high school in 2007 we got our first 360 sprint. Then in 2015 we decided to buy a Racesaver sprint to stay competitive with what we could afford. And, with the birth of our son Tate it was just so much easier to race 20 minutes from home rather than travelling every weekend. Plus, we love Eagle Raceway, so that made a lot more sense to us”.

He is the son of local racing hero Steve Grossenbacher. I asked Trevor what influence his father had on him. “He had a huge impact on me! When I started racing BMX as soon as I got off the bus from school he had me do wind sprints on my bike from the bottom of the hill to our mailbox 5 times a day before I could go play. Dad was always having me do something to do with racing. Then, when I actually raced BMX we travelled all over the country in our little Astro van to race. He had quit racing sprints when I was born, but in the late 90’s he got a call to go and race a sprint car at Eagle again for a couple years. After that was when I got my mini-sprint. He’s been helping me the whole time since then. Now Tate is racing, so the roles have reversed. So it’s not all about me any more. I mentioned that Tate’s grandfather is the ‘Silver Streaker’ and Trevor said “Tate keeps trying to make up his own nickname, but he can’t decide on which one he wants yet”.

As to what he felt helped him win the points last year, he related “The biggest thing I decided to do last year was to first of all make it to every race and then to finish every race. So, consistency was the name of the game last year. We wanted to finish the best that we could without tearing anything up. We had a good year. The only DNF we had was the first race of the year and that was a mechanical malfunction. We put that behind us and had a great rest of the year”.

My next question was to wonder what his plans were for when we finally get back to racing. “I told my family that my goal was to win the points championship last year at Eagle and that if we did that we would just have fun the next year. We planned to race mainly at Eagle and maybe hit some other races that we wanted to go to. If we want to go camping one weekend we’ll do that we plan to race pretty much every weekend. I’ve won points championships in every class I’ve ever raced in and I wanted to make that happen in the Racesaver, and since I did I can focus more on what Tate is going to do.”.

Of course, every racer has lots of people that make it possible to do what they love. “I need to thank my wife Lydia, Mom and Dad, my grandma and grandpa. I’ve got a lot of sponsors who’ve helped me make it to the track throughout the years of course. Rik Forbes let me drive his car this year, and that was pretty special being able to win the points with him last year. He had stopped racing years ago and when I was hurt the year before he approached me to drive his car. It was really cool to get to race for him and his dad and especially to get a championship with them”.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that we can get back to racing as soon as possible. Until then, stay safe!!

 

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