Southern California sprint car driver Jeff Dyer had a dream come true last Friday and Saturday when he qualified for both main events in the Avanti Windows and Doors 57th Western World Championships at Arizona’s Mohave Valley Raceway. For the lifelong sprint car fan turned driver, it was his first time competing in one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious sprint car races.
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Seth Dyer will be back behind the wheel of the #39 in the GAS Chassis Young Guns on Saturday.
Kenny Lonngren photo.
Dyer’s sprint car fascination began as a kid at legendary Ascot Park in Gardena, California. Those early days at the track brewed a dream of his to race cars. No, not NASCAR, Indy Cars, NHRA, or Formula One. He wanted to race sprint cars. In a career that saw him start in karts and lightning sprints, he has now fulfilled his ambition by racing 410 sprint cars on the left coast for several seasons. To take it one step further, last week, his aspiration blossomed when he got to drive in the famous Western World race and compete against some of the best drivers in the sport.
“It was a pretty big deal,” Dyer enthused when asked what the weekend meant to him. “There were a lot of good cars there and it was the first time I got to race with the national guys. That was pretty cool. I really did not have a lot of expectations going into the weekend since I have not driven the sprint car a lot since July. Just to make the main both nights was great. I am still on cloud nine.”
The two races were only the third and fourth for Dyer after a nasty crash at Perris Auto Speedway on July 13th. The violent tangle with another car and the crash wall left him with a broken right arm and a concussion. Initially, the California Highway Patrol Officer, who speeds around dirt tracks when he is not at work, thought he was done for the season. While he has wheeled his lightning sprint car several times since the ferocious crash, driving a fire-breathing 410 sprint car is a whole different ballgame. Last weekend, Dyer was on his game and up to the task.
On the Friday preliminary night at Mohave, 45 cars showed up to race in the biggest traditional sprint car race in the West this year. Dyer, who lives in Yucca Valley, California, was the 26th-fastest qualifier in time trials. The now-veteran driver began his 10-lap heat in seventh and had to get to fifth to earn a ticket straight into the main event. He advanced to sixth and was closing in on the fifth-place car when he ran out of laps and had to go to the B main.
The B main required Dyer to finish in the top four to get to the 30-lap A main event. He did just that, finishing fourth, comfortably ahead of the fifth-place driver.
To say the least, Dyer had his work cut out for him in the opening night main. He started 24th in the 26-car field. However, he was up to the challenge and quickly passed seven cars and was running 17th. Unfortunately, his progress was halted when he was forced out of the race on lap 14 when his rear end broke. That left him with a 24th place finish.
The dream continued 24 hours later at the finale. After being a little slower in qualifying, the night worked out well.
“I did not qualify as good as I did on Friday because we did not go out until pretty late and the track had changed a lot,” Dyer said about night #2. “I looked at the lineup for the heat race and thought, ‘Oh man.’ It was going to be tough. If we did not transfer from that we would start deep in the B. But from the drop of the green we had a good car, was able to run the bottom and it worked out.”
It worked out indeed, as Dyer passed two cars and secured the final transfer spot into the 30-lap Western World finale. Starting 20th in the 26-car field. He stayed in that vicinity the entire race and ended up finishing 21st.
This Saturday night, November 9th, Dyer will be swapping his helmet for a crew chief hat at Perris Auto Speedway. His 17-year-old son, Seth, will take over the cockpit of the #39 car for the final Perris Auto Speedway GAS Chassis Young Guns race of 2024. It will only be his fourth race of the year in the restricted 410 sprint car class. The teen swept the show, winning both the heat race and the main event on August 17th.
“We are putting Seth in the car,” the proud dad said of his son. “He worked his tail off getting the car together for the Western World. So, I told him he could run it at Perris this weekend.”
Dyer received some other great news before the Western World Championships. He had put his name in the ringer for one of the invitations to compete in the sprint car portion of the Turkey Night Grand Prix at the Ventura Raceway on Thanksgiving weekend. However, not being a regular in the USCS series, things were not looking good. That all changed when fellow Southern California racer Eddie Tafoya Jr. had some other plans come up, and he could not make the race. Thus, he relinquished his spot to Dyer, who will be in the familiar Cal Smith Racing/Dyer Motorsports #39 in the historic speed contest.
In 2024, the following marketing partners will help keep the Dyers on track. Dependable Machine Inc., Haircuts By Susie, Jobu Racing, LBA Investigations, Straight Time Stirrups, Justice Brothers, Fonseca Racing, Specialty Fasteners, and Blud Racing Lubricants. If you would like to be a part of Dyer Motorsports in 2024, call (760) 550-7237 or send an email to mailto:[email protected].
Dyer Motorsports PR
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