Driver's long wait rewarded
BUFFALO TWP — Carl Bowser, John Garvin Jr., Tony Burke, Ken Schaltenbrand, Michael Norris, Jeff Miller, Don McClure and Kevin Haas are Lernerville Speedway race drivers from nearby Sarver.
Clint Hayes wanted to join that party — even if it took him eight years to get there.
"You grow up a couple of miles down the road from a track like this ... you just want to do it," Hayes said.
Finding a way to do it financially was another story.
Hayes works as a landscape contractor, which is seasonal work that he supplements by delivering furniture. He didn't have thousands of dollars lying around to put into a racecar.
Instead, he started building one piece by piece.
"It took me four years of saving money just to buy the engine," he said of his No. 14 Late Model.
Once he bought a chassis, Hayes had his car on display at mall shows before the 2007 season. He planned to race that year, "but I was strapped for cash again."
Finally, four weeks before the end of the 2009 points season at Lernerville, Hayes drove his car on to the track for his first heat race.
He said he did it "just to get it out and around the track to feel what it's like."
Hayes, 33, estimates he has $22,000 invested in his car. During his final heat race, he passed a couple of established Late Model drivers, much to the joy of his pit crew.
Hayes has a younger brother, Travis, who he refers to as his co-driver, helping him in the pits, along with their father, Rick, 13-year-old soster Emily and friend Sean Osborne.
"He's been so dedicated to doing this," Travis Hayes said. "We're all proud of him. The improvement he's shown in a month is incredible.
"Clint is always so selfless. No matter how badly he wanted to get this car on the track, he always made sure I had something to race," he added. "He provided me a go-kart when he could have taken that money and put it toward this."
Hayes gets his Late Model to the track on a trailer pulled by a 1970 Ford truck.
"The thing moves so slow, I get flipped off by old ladies going down the street," he said, laughing.
Clint Hayes hopes his younger brother becomes the full-time driver of his Late Model down the road.
"I'm doing this partly for him," he said. "I plan to drive for a while, but Travis has a lot of racing years in front of him. I'm hoping we can build up sponsors and put a real program together."
Victory lane might never beckon for Hayes — and he doesn't care.
"If it happens someday, great, but I don't need that," he said. "I'm just here to have fun — finally."
