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Sunday, April 22, 2001

By Lori Shontz, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

When Rick Ferkel started racing sprint cars in the late 1960s, he didn't know where he was competing until the mail arrived.

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Only after his copy of National Speed Sport News appeared in the mailbox could Ferkel sit down with his buddies and hammer out the schedule. "We'd go coast to coast, California to Pennsylvania," he said. "Wherever there was a race that paid good money, we were there."

Ferkel and his friends lived like "gypsies and nomads." Sometimes he napped in the back seat of his car. Other times, under the trailer. But Ferkel had wanted to be a professional race-car driver since he was growing up in Fremont, Ohio, where he won his first feature on the town's track. (And is still No. 15 on the all-time victory list at Fremont Speedway, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this season.)

A little inconvenience like an uncomfortable sleeping situation wasn't going to stop him. Ferkel became one of the first Outlaws when Ted Johnson formed the World of Outlaws circuit in 1978. In the inaugural season, he finished second in points, 54 behind Steve Kinser.

Now that his driving career is over, Ferkel is still involved in the sport. "It's sort of an old cliche," he said. "But it gets in your blood, it really does."

After a stint as a World of Outlaws official and a crew chief for a USAC team, Ferkel now directs the World of Outlaws Gumout Series, which is the sprint-car equivalent of the Busch Series in NASCAR.

"He's the role model and coordinator of this series," said Carol Gamble, the public relations director at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, which has hosted several Gumout Series events. "These young guys need someone to look up to, to know that somebody understands where they are now."

So Ferkel knew what a difficult circumstance the drivers found themselves in Friday, when the opening race of the series, scheduled for Lernerville, had to be canceled because of rain.

"It's tough," Ferkel said. "We've got guys from all over the U.S., and now they're left without a race date. So where do they go tomorrow?"

With that idea in mind, Ferkel tries to alert the drivers to cancellations as soon as possible. Still, although the show Friday night was canceled early, he didn't catch any of the drivers at home. Some were en route to Lernerville. Others were already there.

Again, Ferkel understands. He has done it, too.

When Johnson started the World of Outlaws in 1978, Ferkel was thrilled. The only series option he had then was USAC, which he rejected because "they had too many rules and I was young and crazy." Being part of a series, he found, made his life easier. And his planning.

"It was a great deal for us," he said. "We knew how much money we were going to run for each week. We knew where we were going rather than searching through the paper."

Now the World of Outlaws Gumout Series gives drivers another option. It's a series geared for drivers who need more of a challenge than they're getting on their local tracks but still need some seasoning before they're ready to compete consistently against Steve and Mark Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Danny "The Dude" Lasoski and the like.

"It definitely would have been an advantage to come to a series like this," Ferkel said, reflecting on his early days. "We went from a local track right into a full-time series. It would have been good to go step-by-step rather than making one big jump."

The series is designed to be easier on the drivers' wallets. It doesn't have any races on the West Coast and is limited to 37 events, less than half the number on the top circuit. Which makes canceling a date even less fun.

Especially for Ferkel, who loves being at the track even when he's not in one of the cars.

"There's nights when you're sitting there and you're like, 'Man, if I was out there, I could do this or that,' " Ferkel said. "There's other nights when the track's real tough or the weather's bad, and that's when you're like, 'This ain't too bad.'"

Which was the feeling Ferkel had Friday night: "I don't have to worry about cleaning up the rig, I don't have to truck all those miles ..."