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2/22 - Brian Ruhlman
2/1 - Dick Barton

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February 22, 2006 - Brian Ruhlman

This week we got one of the region's recent legends, Brian Ruhlman to answer a few questions. Brian is now a regular on the ALMS tour and weekly racer and several time champion at Eldora Speedway. Many of us still consider Brian to be a local though so we thought we'd hit him up for a minutes. BDLM's questions and comments are in black, Brian's in white. Enjoy!

1. We heard a story that young Brian might not have been old enough to legally race at Stateline and Eriez when he first started his racing career. Care to elaborate?

My dad and I built a limited late model for the 1985 season. It wasn’t a very competitive car at all but we knew nothing about racing when we started. My dad drove the car that year because Fritz said he wouldn’t let me run the car until I was 16. I talked my dad into letting me run the car the next to last race of the season while I was still 15. I ran 3rd in my heat and 8th in the feature. I didn’t get a scratch on the car and equaled my dad’s best finish. Fritz didn’t know I ran the car until after the race. He was mad at me for sneaking in the car but said I did alright so I could run it the next week. The following week didn’t go so well though. In the heat I was running second and spun out and knocked the front end off the car. In the feature, I was running pretty well but on the last lap, another car spun down into me knocking the whole rear axle out from underneath the car. We used a tow bar to haul the car to the track back then so we had to pay a wrecker to haul the car home because it was torn up too bad to flat tow it. 

2. In the late 80s and early 90s you and David Scott dominated the S/E circuit in the cadet and limited classes. Are there any particular memories that standout from those years in the support divisions?

David and I grew up together riding 3 wheelers, snowmobiles, skiing, etc. In fact, I got my first concussion racing David down the Buckaloons ski slope (backwards, of course). I’m pretty sure I was leading right before the back of my skis dug in…but that’s a whole other story. The most memorable race with David was a race at Stateline in the Cadets in 1988. We both started 15th and 16th due to the inversion they used to do. David made it up through traffic better than I did and had the lead about half way through the race. I got into second and was pressuring him for the lead. On the last lap, someone had lost a radiator and spread water across the track off of turn 2. David and I were dead even coming off turn two. I saw the water and lifted as I went across it. David spun his tires and that let me get past him. Coming off of turn 4, I got trapped behind the lap car of Ward Schell. David had a run on the outside of me so I had nowhere to go to get around the lapped car. I got right on the back bumper of the lap car and pushed him across the finish line which allowed me to get past David by just a couple inches. After the race, Ward told me that he had never gone that fast in a straight line before.

3. Have you and your brother Chad always been competitive? Is it true you once timed each other on bicycles in the garage after a STARS race got cancelled?

Yep, that’s absolutely true. Actually we had one bicycle and a stop watch. We set up a road course and timed each other. Chad and I would race anything. Bicycles, 3 wheelers, gokarts, field cars, shopping carts, etc. (I’m pretty sure I was faster than him but he’ll disagree)

4. Speaking of Chad, we hear he will be running the full season at Eldora in both the late model and emod classes. Will this be as teammates? If not, how does it affect your preparation for each event? Is he another competitor or do you collaborate in the pits?

Chad will be driving for the Sanning family who are the same people he drove for when he won the emod Championship in 2004. I drove their emod last year because Chad wanted to stay closer to home. He loves racing there, and now that his kids are a bit older, the family can travel with him to Eldora. The way it’s set up right now, Chad will be running their late model and I will run their emod. I’ll bring my #49 emod there for Chad to run and I’ll be driving the #11 Lawrence Motorsports late model there. It’s pretty confusing but as long as we both have cars to run, that’s all that matters. Chad and I talk all the time about building cars, set-ups, driving techniques, and all aspects of racing but once we’re on the track, we race each other harder than we would race anyone else. We can race like this because we know each other so well, we can just about predict the others moves. (most of the time) There have been times that we’ve torn up each others cars and then had to help each other fix them the next day.

5. Kelly Hamill was instrumental in the early careers of a handful of racers including Chub Frank and Todd Andrews. What was your relationship with Kelly?

Kelly was with Chub Frank the year that I drove for Chub (1991). Kelly and I got to know each other through Chub. The year I drove for Chub, I won the Eriez Championship in my rookie season as well as the Stateline LLM championship which helped start the relationship with Kelly. Chub and Kelly parted ways at the end of 1992 and Kelly called me and wanted to help me out. I talked to Chub to make sure he was ok with me getting involved with Kelly. Kelly helped me out with getting me a lot of sponsorships, deals, and relationships. He may not have always come through with everything he promised but he did help a great deal with promoting me, finding sponsors, getting me on product deals, and helped get my foot in the door with a lot of people who helped me in racing. He was the person who made it possible for me to run for STARS Rookie of the Year in 1994, which we won. Kelly and I parted ways at the end of 1994, not on the best of terms but I hope he knows how much I appreciated all the help he gave me and the doors he opened up for me.

6. In 1994 you won Rookie of the Year on the STARS tour. What was it like traveling up and down the coast back then?

Looking back on that year, I can’t imagine how we did the things we did. We ran 58 races in 13 states. We did it all with one car, one motor, an open trailer and a 1978 Chevy pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it. It would be insane for a race team to even attempt something like that today. My brother, Chad, helped me for part of the season until he started racing. Chad and I would sleep in sleeping bags in the back of the pickup and eat at the buffet places once a day so we had more money to buy tires. We ran used tires most of the time. That probably hurt us more than anything but it was all we could afford at the time. Kelly Hamill also hooked me up with Brad Nolte to help me when we went to Florida that year. Brad helped out when he could but his work and family kept him from traveling to all the races. I went to a lot of those races either by myself or with my 14 year old cousin, Chris. Part of the way through the year, I got hooked up with Ross Racing Engines through Kelly Hamill and Dean Nardi. Ross’s son, Tony Lombardi started helping me with the car and was my main crew for the next couple years. We would usually leave the shop on Thursdays and wouldn’t get back until Monday. We’d have 2 days to get the car serviced and then load up and head out again.

I have so many memories of that year. The year was a blur at the time but now that I think back on all the places we went, all the people I met and raced with, it’s hard to believe we did all of it in one season. I could go on for hours about the memories of that year. I got to race with a lot of the old school racing legends like Larry Moore, Jack Boggs, Mike Duvall, Bob Pierce, Kevin Claycomb, Buck Simmons, Jack Hewitt, Charlie Swartz, Rodney Combs, and many others. A lot of guys still had open trailers and we would work on our cars in the hotel parking lots in between races. The fans would hang around the cars as we worked on them. Those were great times.  

7. Who has been the most influential in your racing career, and why?

There have been so many people who have influenced my racing career but a few that stand out to me are:
Lars Huling: as a kid, he was my idol. The trait I liked about Lars was his ingenuity. His cars were always different from everyone else. He always tried to ‘out-think’ the competition to win. He inspired me to ‘think for myself’ and not worry about what everyone else was doing.
Toby Jordan: I worked for Toby after school when I was in high school right after I turned 16. Toby taught me about work ethics, quality and workmanship. I worked at that job for $3 per hour and usually got paid in quarters out of the pop machine. The money didn’t go far but the people I met and the experience I gained was invaluable.
Chub Frank: Chub put me into a late model in 1991. I didn’t know Chub real well before that other than talking with him when I worked for Tobber. Chub taught me so much about being a true racer and how to get the most out of your equipment. When the deal started, Chub made it clear that we had one car and one motor. If I took care of the equipment, we would run the whole season. If I wrecked it, there was no money to fix it. Chub would show up if he got home from a STARS race early and sit in the stands. After the race he would tell me everything I did wrong. I got pretty frustrated with him at times but he made me understand that if someone takes the time and effort to criticize you, it is well worth your time to listen. Chub taught me that there are things that you ‘need’ to run good and other things that you don’t need. Chub was as tight with money as anyone. He wouldn’t buy a new tire for my car until the groove marks were gone off the old one. He actually told me one time that the tires would get faster when they wore down past the grooves. I ran 2nd at Eriez one night that year on a tire that was so wore out after the race, it went flat when we loaded the car so I guess he was right. Chub is probably the wisest racer out there. Chub made me understand that half of winning races is mental. You need to use common sense and out-think your competition. He made me think about how much each position paid and think about how much risk you should put into each pass. He chewed me out one night at Stateline for not doing that. I was running 7th and racing Scott Gurdak for 6th on the last lap. We got together and both ended up finishing last. Chub asked me why I was trying to pass him. I told him “I was racing, that’s what we’re here for”. He asked me how much that pass would have been worth. I hadn’t thought of it but the difference between 6th and 7th was $10. He told me how stupid I was for wrecking my car for $10. That’s the thing with Chub, he is always thinking of how to get the most payback for his efforts. Chub has done more for me as a racer and as a person than I could have ever imagined.

8. You have an engineering degree and work in the automotive industry. How has your work experience helped your racing?

The engineering background helps me but can be a negative if you let it. Chub always teases me about being an engineer and how engineers don’t have any common sense. That’s the major thing to think about when you apply engineering to racing. You always have to fall back on your common sense. Engineering will help you out some of the time but common sense will always give you the best results.
My engineering background has helped me more in the fact that I have a very good job and I can afford to race. I would say that racing has helped me in engineering a lot more than engineering has helped me in racing.

9. We hear there are some pretty good John Venable stories including an incident where you posed as John at a wedding. Care to explain?

Not really….but I will say that there was a few times when Chad and I were in a jam, that we ‘may’ have told people we were John Venable. The most memorable time was at the Bonanza restaurant in Breezewood. We’d always stop there on the way home from Hagerstown and we were pretty rowdy and would flirt with the waitresses. Of course we didn’t want to take all of the credit for our actions ourselves, so I would introduce myself as John Venable and Chad would introduce himself as Dan Venable. One of the trips, John and Dan Venable were actually with us and when we went in there, the waitresses all said hi to Chad and I as Dan and John. Well, the real John and Dan Venable tried to tell the wait staff that they were the real Venables but the waitresses thought they were imposters.  

10. Finally, give us your three best and three worst memories in a racecar.

Best
Winning the 2000 Octoberfest 350 at Hagerstown.
I’d been going to Hagerstown for nearly 10 years before I ever won a race there. The year we won that race, I went there by myself (my Chihuahua, Pebbles, was with me but she isn’t much help.) I won the heat race and was on the pole for the feature. I had to call some friends back home to come down the next day for the feature so I had help for the fuel stop. We led the race flag to flag. That was the biggest paying and most prestigious race I had won.

Chad and I both winning the Eldora Championships in 2004.
That was a very big deal to us. It was the last year that Earl owned Eldora and they had never had brothers win championships in the same season. Chad and I love that place and winning championships there has more prestige than any other track. For both of us to win the titles in the same year was just an awesome feeling.

Passing Dick Barton in lapped traffic to win a $5000 50 lap race at Stateline.
Dick Barton has always been the man to beat at Stateline and Eriez. The race was in 1997 or 1998. I remember that Dick was way out in front of me and I figured I would end up second. I was actually just singing to myself in the car (don’t ask, it helps me focus) while going through lapped traffic and noticed that I had just went by Barton who was leading. I had been concentrating on maneuvering through lapped traffic that I didn’t realize I was passing for the lead. When I went to talk to Dick after the race, he was pretty upset at himself that I beat him. I am proud of that win because I beat the ‘King’ and passed him to do it.

Worst
Losing the 2005 Eldora Championship by a single point.
This one was undoubtedly the worst moment in my racing career. We had won the Late model Championship at Eldora in 2002, 2003, and 2004. We led the points the entire 2005 season up to the last race. At the UMP Nationals, the final points race, all we had to do was finish in the top 10 to capture the title. We qualified 6th fast and were passing for the lead in the heat race (which would have put us on the pole for the feature) when a camshaft broke with 2 laps to go. The team went home and pulled the engine out of the other car and put it in the car we were running for the B-main. I was leading the B-main when a clump of mud got in the fan belts and shredded them, ending our night. I borrowed Wayne Chinn’s car who had qualified for the feature. I started 26th and made it up to 17th place. Aaron Scott finished 3rd which gave him one point more than me. All I needed to do was tie with him to win the championship because I had more wins. We had done everything we could to win the championship that day but came up one point short. I would have rather lost by a hundred points than by just one point.

Losing the Hub City 150 race in 1994.
We were running second at the second fuel stop and the car was perfect. Charlie Shaffer was leading and Rick Eckert was 3rd. We could pull away from Eckert and I was faster than Shaffer. I was just biding my time and conserving my tires. With about 10 laps to go, I was working on where to pass Shaffer and I was better off of turn 4 than he was. I set him up so I could drive off turn 4 under him and pass him down the front straightaway. When I made my move, apparently his oil pump belt broke and he tried to dive into the pits, driving across my nose. By the time I got unhooked from him, it allowed Eckert, who was nearly a straightaway back from us, to get by me for the lead. I stayed right on Rick’s bumper but couldn’t pass him back. The race paid $10,000 to win and $3000 for second.

The trip to Speedweeks in Florida in 1994.
This was literally the trip from hell. We got caught in an ice storm on the way down and nearly clipped a salt truck. We had the truck wiring burn up in Virginia in the middle of the night and had to rewire the truck on the side of the highway. We had the trailer hitch break off of the frame of the truck when we got to Florida. We spent a day getting the frame and hitch welded back together. We lost a fuel pump in practice, lost a power steering pump on the first night, wrecked the car the second night, had the belts come off the motor the 3rd night. On the 4th night, we found out that the cam bearing spun in the block so we couldn’t race that night. We went to 2 different engine shops to get someone to help us fix the motor. When we got back to our motel, we found out they had sold our room to someone else (our bags were still in the room!!!) We ended up sleeping in the back of the truck that night. On the 5th night, we wrecked and bent the front and rear clips of the car. We spent the next day at a frame shop straightening the car out. The final night, we had a decent finish and made enough money to pay for gas to get home. To cap off the week, we lost the trailer ramps on the trip home. I swore I would never go back to Florida again.

That was great! Many thanks to Brian for putting the time and effort into his answers. This is why we want to continue to post a 10Q every once in a while. Also thanks to Chad for his help. Be on the lookout for 10 questions with Chad down the road as well.

For more info on Brian, be sure to check out his website at www.brianruhlmanracing.com.