Crapser Racing 2011


	Crapser claims second WISSOTA Street Stock National Championship By Kirk Holmes All The Dirt! Racing News CHIPPEWA FALLS, WI - Cory Crapser made an offer someone couldn’t refuse prior to the 2009 race season, and it didn’t put any of their body parts at risk. Crapser offered to put his butt in the seat of a Kurshinsky chassis WISSOTA Street Stock - something he was well acquainted with - and do his best to win a national championship. Sixty-four nights of racing later, mission accomplished. The title was the second in three years for Crapser, who moved on to racing a WISSOTA Modified in 2008. That’s when he met Thad Jensen, his wife Tammie and their son, Christian. Thad, of Blaine, MN, bought the car prior to the 2008 season and raced it less than 10 nights, due in large part to the portion of his time that pays the bills. “Thad and I became friends during the 2008 season racing out and around the Alexandria (MN) area,” Crapser said. “He talked to me about selling his car because he had little time because of his growing business (First Impressions Lawn Sprinklers) and starting of his new business (Mosquito Doctor). “I thought driving for him would save money this season since I was purchasing a house with Anna (his new bride) and also getting married. Thad and his wife Tammie agreed on the plan and that is how it happened.” Crapser won 36 features in the #07 Street Stock (with Jensen’s #08 inset on the 7) with 31 clean sweeps in 64 nights of racing. He amassed 1,716 points and coasted to the championship ahead of Tim Johnson (1,687) and Danny Hanson (1,676) in the top three. Included in the results were 52 top five finishes that helped the team win the Eastern and Central Region championships in WISSOTA and the Minnesota and Wisconsin state crowns. They also won three of the highest paying Street Stock shows in WISSOTA this past season at ABC (WI) Raceway, Princeton (MN) Speedway and North Central (MN) Speedway. The team raced weekly at KRA (MN) Speedway on Thursdays, Deer Creek (MN) Speedway on Saturdays and Eagle Valley (WI) Speedway on Sunday. They were a close second in points at KRA and won the track point championships at the other two tracks. When Crapser and his crew weren’t racing their Modified - in which he won his first career feature at Red Cedar Speedway - they also raced the Street Stock at Rice Lake (WI) Speedway, Chateau (MN) Raceway, Madison (MN) Speedway, Mississippi Thunder (WI) Speedway, River Cities (ND) Speedway, Eagle River (WI) Speedway and Dakota State Fair (SD) Speedway during the WISSOTA 100. While motivated to get Modified program up and running at a consistent level at their local tracks, the #07 race team - including Cory’s dad, Bill, and brother, Chris - didn’t mind hitting the road when needed with the Street Stock. “I really like the Modified class, but traveling has always been my favorite part of the sport,” Cory said. “It is awesome meeting different people, although the driving does get tiresome.” And how, when you consider some of the events that made even the longest trips in 2009 seem like an eternity. On Thursday, May 21, at KRA, a silent protest led to Crapser having his engine torn down after he scored the clean sweep. Crapser said he expected it and didn’t get upset because it “quiets a lot of people.” However... “We made it home around 4 in the morning,” he recalled. “I went to work at 6 and left about 10:30 for Rice Lake (and Troy’s Shop Racing Engines). I cleaned parts while Troy put the motor together. I made it home with the motor and put it in so we could make it to Mississippi Thunder because there were make-up features. I won the make-up feature from seventh, the heat and the regular feature from eighth.” On August 11, the team made the 160-mile, three-hour drive to Eagle River Speedway for a Street Stock special. After finishing second to John “Wild Animal” Kallas in the feature, the top finishers were teched. Crapser’s torque converter was initially declared illegal but... “It was just a normal checking of transmissions and torque converters, during which, their gauge was not properly calibrated,” said Crapser, a machinist by trade. “I had to take the transmission out of the car that night, so it was also a late night getting home.” Crapser won seven more feature races before a pair of DNFs in early September - the first at Viking Speedway and the second at River Cities (ND) - may have (in hindsight) portended what lie ahead during what proved to be the team’s final weekend of racing: the WISSOTA?100. “The 100 is starting to seem like it is eluding me like Earnhardt and the 500,” Crapser said. “I just seem to use up all my luck early in the year.” The Street Stocks and Mod Fours joined the event on Friday night and ran heats, a qualifying feature and the Race of Champions, the latter with the other four divisions. Crapser won his heat and finished second in the qualifying feature. In the ROC, Crapser started seventh and led until Tim Johnson passed him on lap eight and went on to score the win. The next night, Crapser lined up fourth (on the inside of row two) in the three-wide start of the main event and got caught in a first-lap incident in turn two. After a tire change and restarting at the rear, he finished 21st. “The ROC was going perfect but the track seemed to be going away from me,” Crapser said. “Tim Johnson was really strong in a different lin, which made it easy for him to pass people. The feature (Saturday), it was just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The tape shows Ryan Buer losing control and he just clipped me as I was trying to sneak by.” With the season and the national banquet behind him - the car was sold before the season officially ended - Crapser is looking forward to focusing on the Modified in 2010 and beyond. “There is nothing I want more than to run consistently with a Modified,” he said. “Other than possibly running a Streeter, I doubt I would run any other class unless an opportunity presented itself.”