PERRIS – One week after a disastrous night at the Ventura Raceway, Jeff Dyer is stepping out of his lightning sprint and back into his 410 Sprint Car for Saturday’s USAC/CRA race at Perris Auto Speedway. It will be the first time Dyer has steered the bright yellow No. 39 car onto a track since his March 11 Open Comp race at the Imperial Valley Raceway.
The last time Dyer, 40, raced the 410 was the first time running the engine he purchased from Heidi and Cody Williams. He was running near the top five the entire time he was on the track. Unfortunately, mechanical woes knocked him out of the race late in the going. Fortunately, the problem was only a couple of broken rocker arms and a lifter.
“It felt pretty good and to be honest with you, we were probably running on six or seven cylinders the whole weekend,” Dyer said. “We still did a lot better than I thought it would have. We were pretty happy with it.”
Dyer was happy with the first run of the new engine, but the same cannot be said for last week’s California Lightning Sprint Car Series race at the Bakersfield Speedway. Things on the track billed as “The West’s Fastest 1/3 Mile Banked Clay Oval,” started off bright enough when Jeff was the fastest qualifier of the night. From that point on, things spiraled downhill in a hurry.
In the first heat of the night, Jeff’s 16-year-old son Seth blew an engine. If that was not enough, a water line let go in Jeff’s car at the end of the second heat. As hard as it is to believe, things went downhill in a hurry again.
Jeff started third in the main, but disaster was about to strike again, and believe it or not, again. He first broke a right front shock and then had a scary moment when a fuel line broke and he ran out of fuel.
“I thought it was leaking from the return line, but it was leaking from the rail,” Dyer said. “I was incredibly surprised I did not catch on fire…and I was covered in fuel, too. I could have been the human torch.”
In addition to driving the 410 on Saturday, Jeff and Seth were both slated to drive in the POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprint Car portion of the program. But with Seth’s engine being blown and a new one not going to be here in time, they will sit out of lightning racing until early May.
Jeff is racing in memory of his grandparents, Glenn and Beverly Sels, throughout the 2023 season and would like to thank the following for making the 2023 racing campaign possible in the No. 4 and No. 4Jr. Lightning Sprint Cars: Dependable Machine Inc., Haircuts By Susie, Jobu Racing, LBA Investigations and Dyer Motorsports.
Fans can see Dyer’s return to 410 sprint car racing in person on Saturday at Perris. For those who wish to purchase advance tickets, they are available until noon on Saturday at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/pas/7 or by calling 800-595-4849. Special thanks to Scott Daloisio for contributing to this article.
Submitted by Perris Auto Speedway.
