Jerry Lee
11-18-2009, 04:32 PM
Another one of the nicest, most humblest guys I've interviewed over the years was 1991 Colorado National Speedway Figure 8 champion Rick Sheil. Rick was a natural at the racing game and was always very, very consistent at winning races. He stopped at the top of his game in '94 (driving Sportsman and Late Models) to help his son get a start in racing and carry on the family name.
Here's some clips from a 1997 chat I had with Rick in an interview I quite enjoyed.
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JL: "Didn't you once tell me that Englewood champ Ed Brunner had inspired you to start racing?"
RS: "Ed Brunner was my neighbor! He lived about four houses down from me, and one day I saw him towing this old race car home. Then I started pitting for him when I was old enough to get in the pits at Englewood."
JL: "Ed Brunner won the '76 Figure 8 championship by just three points over Roger Avants."
RS: "Really? Ed took his racing very seriously, he loved it. He was superstitious, he used to always wear the same black shirt when he raced."
JL: "So you started out running at Englewood?"
RS: "During the last season of Englewood I bought a Figure 8 to race but never quite made it out. It was all over by 1980, so I ran in the Bomber division at Erie that year, then ran at Lakeside until they closed."
JL: "You drove a Street Stock there for years. How did you do?"
RS: "That season that Lakeside closed, I missed the Street Stock championship by one point."
JL: "Ouch!"
RS: "Yeah, but y'know, that's just the way it goes sometimes."
JL: "You really found your calling when C.N.S. paved an X through the infield in '89."
RS: "You know who really talked me into running the 8 was Lucky Bieckman. He talked me into it after Lakeside closed, so we converted my car over to a Figure 8. I had never raced a Figure 8 and the first night out I won the main event! (laughs) The funny thing though, I forgot to look at the X! Hell, I was just racing to race! I was just concentrating on what was in front of me. But I figured it out pretty quick."
JL: "You seemed to fit in with all those Figure 8 veterans."
RS: "It was fun to race against those guys. We were all good, hard competitors and had our arguments and stuff, but there was a mutual respect."
JL: "Any fun stories?"
RS: "Oh, Lucky and I would sometimes see how close we could get to each other in the X just to get a rise out of our wives up in the stands. That was fun, but we always heard about it after the races, believe me!"
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Here's some clips from a 1997 chat I had with Rick in an interview I quite enjoyed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
JL: "Didn't you once tell me that Englewood champ Ed Brunner had inspired you to start racing?"
RS: "Ed Brunner was my neighbor! He lived about four houses down from me, and one day I saw him towing this old race car home. Then I started pitting for him when I was old enough to get in the pits at Englewood."
JL: "Ed Brunner won the '76 Figure 8 championship by just three points over Roger Avants."
RS: "Really? Ed took his racing very seriously, he loved it. He was superstitious, he used to always wear the same black shirt when he raced."
JL: "So you started out running at Englewood?"
RS: "During the last season of Englewood I bought a Figure 8 to race but never quite made it out. It was all over by 1980, so I ran in the Bomber division at Erie that year, then ran at Lakeside until they closed."
JL: "You drove a Street Stock there for years. How did you do?"
RS: "That season that Lakeside closed, I missed the Street Stock championship by one point."
JL: "Ouch!"
RS: "Yeah, but y'know, that's just the way it goes sometimes."
JL: "You really found your calling when C.N.S. paved an X through the infield in '89."
RS: "You know who really talked me into running the 8 was Lucky Bieckman. He talked me into it after Lakeside closed, so we converted my car over to a Figure 8. I had never raced a Figure 8 and the first night out I won the main event! (laughs) The funny thing though, I forgot to look at the X! Hell, I was just racing to race! I was just concentrating on what was in front of me. But I figured it out pretty quick."
JL: "You seemed to fit in with all those Figure 8 veterans."
RS: "It was fun to race against those guys. We were all good, hard competitors and had our arguments and stuff, but there was a mutual respect."
JL: "Any fun stories?"
RS: "Oh, Lucky and I would sometimes see how close we could get to each other in the X just to get a rise out of our wives up in the stands. That was fun, but we always heard about it after the races, believe me!"
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