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RACINGWEST Q&A
Source: RacingWest.com / Janet Peery
Date: 08/18/2007
Terry Elmore has been a RacingWest.com member for a lot of years, maybe since
he was 13 years-old or so. And I found this Q&A to be absolutely amazing,
how I could “know” someone for so long and not really know him at
all.
The funny thing is I have input results with his name, but never really connected
him to the RW user he was. So here is another winning user, literally. How cool
is that? And how fun to get to know the man behind the user name. This Q&A
is just fueled my curiousity to want to know more about Elmore and the tracks
and series he races as well as some of the drivers behind the names he menitions,
including a certain promoter.
When I think of great race promoters, I usually pull from experience or word
of mouth. I guess it is time to add another promoter to the list of greats.
Want to know who it is? Well read the Q&A below :)
Name: Terry Elmore
Crew: Can’t forget my fiancée Cassidy Clayborn,
Bill Elmore, William Elmore, whoever else wants to help
RacingWest: Could you share about your passion for racing,
where you saw your first race, who your first hero was?
Terry Elmore: Oh yes, my first race I watched. My dad used
to race at Orange Show in the Bomber division during the late 80’s early
90’s so I grew up at the track. I'd have to say he was my first hero or
Ron Peterson ….. He could wheel a car.
RW: What and where did you first race?
TE: My very first race was at the Bullring at LVMS, I drove a charger stock
for a friend of mine, driving for Quality Motorsports. The same team Kurt &
Kyle Busch drove for when they were coming up.
RW: What was going through your mind when you went out to
compete in that first race? And how did you do?
TE: Not to tear up the car, and to have fun. I pretty much
sucked; I ran around the back and managed to pass 1 car the whole race. It was
cool though cuz my dad was pretty proud after that first race. And I got better.
RW: After the Bullring you moved up to race modifieds at
Blythe and Havasu ub 2005. Who was there helping you during that time?
TE: I had some good help my first year in modifieds, me and
my dad were the main people working on the car. But a good friend of mine Richard
Kerr gave me lots of knowledge and taught me everything he knows about setting
up cars, we just didn’t have a good enough car that year.
RW: Did you accomplish what you set out to do?
TE: Not really, it was a really hard year. One of those years
were you start to doubt if you can really drive or not, a lot of tore up stuff
and we fought a lot of problems with the steering in the car, only to find out
during the last race that we had a bad power steering pump. So finally I decided
to sell that car and take off a few years and do a lot of homework and come
back strong.
RW: Have heard that you are going to race the Lucas Oil Modified
Series, how is the car coming along? When might we expect to see you behind
the wheel?
TE: Yes I am and the car is coming along. I’m currently
putting a new rear clip on the car and changing a lot of stuff on the car to
be fast. It’s just a money issue basically and I have a list of parts
to order and not a lot of money to order them with so we’re working on
sponsors. We’d like to make the last 2 races of the series this year but
if not you’ll see me doing some testing this winter at Blythe and Havasu
to gear up for the March 22nd series opener at Havasu 95 Speedway.
RW: This is sort of a weird question, but what the heck,
if you were told you could have any car currently racing that series, whose
car would you choose and why?
TE: This is a tough one, I can think of 2 cars Id like to
drive though # 1 Jason Patison's car, he has the best equipment money can buy
out there right now and with Steve Teets crew chiefing on it you cant go wrong.
# 2 Dean Kuhn’s car, the man is a legend in modifieds and knows how to
set one up, so I got to imagine I could do good in his car.
RW: What is the most exciting thing the Lucas Oil Modified Series has going?
TE: well the biggest thing is just the fact that modifieds are fun to drive,
but than you get to go to different tracks and be on TV. The most exciting thing
though I have to say is the series allows for us drivers to have potential to
get sponsors. I sat back and thought about what division I wanted to go into
and this one made the most sense, you can go race for about 1,000 a race, once
a month and be able to get sponsors that’ll almost cover expenses as long
as your not tearing stuff up.
RW: What is your goal for the Lucas Oil Modified Series? What would you really
like to accomplish or learn?
TE: My biggest goal is to have fun, we sometimes lose the
whole idea of why we do this stuff, and that’s because its fun. But Id
like to be a top 5 car every race but as long as I’m learning every race
and getting faster I’ll look back at the end of the year and saw I accomplished
what I wanted to do.
RW: Are you racing for fun, do you have dreams of moving up to another series
and if so which one would you like to try next? Of course I guess it would be
nice if I let you started one series before asking you where you are going next…but
it is so much fun to think of things that could be!
TE: I’m 23 and didn’t start racing till I was
18, I’m too old to be dreaming of Nextel Cup rides. So realistically I
do this for fun. I guess the perfect way to answer this question is, if I won
the lottery and had all the money in the world to spend what would I do …….
Build a super late and go race at Irwindale when I wasn’t racing my modified.
RW: What do you like the most about that series?
TE: I’ve always wanted to race at Irwindale, when I
got my first modified we re-built it to Irwindale rules and than they moved
them to the 1/3 mile and ultimately got rid of them. So just the chance to
drive at Irwindale is what I like most.
RW: Before we move on… I wanted to ask you about I-10
Speedway; it is a bit out of the way for a lot of us. What can you share about
the track that makes it a cool place to be?
TE: From a racers stand point Id have to say Greg Scheidecker is the best
promoter I’ve ever seen. He’s a racer himself and treats us like
he would have wanted to be treated when he was racing. How can you beat pizza
and pit pass BBQs after Friday night test & tunes. And getting paid in cash
right after the races. As a fan he puts on a great show, tries to keep it moving
on so there’s no dead time and Blythe puts on some of the best racing
around.
RW: What is one of the things the promoter at Blythe did
out there that you really enjoyed?
TE: Treated the racers like they are gold. He knows how to put on a show
too for the fans; it’s just a fun place to race.
RW: Of all the races you have been to, which was the most exciting and why?
TE: Actually my most exciting races have been at Havasu as
a driver, me and my team mate Ryan Kerr raced side by side almost the whole
main event with me on the outside and coming out of turn 4 we both got loose
and drag raced back to the start finish line, than the next race we did the
exact same thing except with 2 laps to go we got together and he spun out. I
have to say winning 4 main events in a row this winter between Blythe and Havasu
was pretty exciting.
RW: Of course I have to ask a few of my favorite questions…so
here goes… If you had to choose a form of Motorsports to race in other
than modifieds or stockcars, what would you most like to wheel around and why?
It could be anything your little ol’ heart desires.
TE: This is tough, Id have to say a Rolex Sports Car. I’ve always
wanted to do some road racing and if I ever had the chance to go race a road
course race Id jump at it in a heart beat.
RW: Do you watch much NASCAR racing? Have a favorite driver?
TE: Yeah, my fiancée complains every time I watch practice and qualifying
on Speed Channel. I have to say my favorite driver is Kurt Busch, I’ve
liked him since he ran back in the tour and have followed him ever since. But
I always have to root for the west coast guys that have made it.
RW: Any current rule in NASCAR Cup that you would like to
see changed?
TE: Definitely, if I could change any rule it would be the
top 35 rule. I'd make it to where the top 43 qualifying raced and that was that.
No provisionals, you don’t go fast enough you don’t race.
RW: So you go to Australia…where are we most likely
to find you…Surfers Paradise on the topless beach, on a rain forest tour
up above Port Townsend, Bungee jumping in Cairns, down in Perth swimming with
the dolphins, in Melbourne watching the Penguins, in Tasmania searching for
the elusive Tasmanian Devil, on a walkabout up in Darwin, or hopping it up with
the locals in a town called Alice.
TE: Id have to go swimming with the dolphins, there just so
cool.
RW: Now if you find yourself in Victory Lane…who would you most like
to see as the trophy girl…Rihanna, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, Mandy
Moore, Paris Hilton or Julia Stiles and why
TE: I’ll probably get in trouble but ….. Miranda Lambert, do
I really need to explain why?
RW: Well, I hope you have a very successful season…and
if you don’t mind I would love to follow up on your first race.
TE: Definitely, Id love to do this again, we're looking forward
to the first race, but won’t rush it either. The car has to be right before
I put it on the track.
RW: Oh yea….the important question. When will that
first race be?
TE: We’d like to test some this winter by running a race
or 2 at Blythe and Havasu, and as far as I know the Lucas Oil Modified Season
opener for 2008 is March 22nd.
RW: Thanks a bunch. This was a lot of fun!
TE: I had a lot of fun with this, and Id like to do my best
Michael Waltrip impression to finish this off. Id like to thank my local NAPA
store, Blythe Auto Parts, for providing me with the best parts available and
low, low prices, they have been with be since day 1 and have done so much for
me; also Oval Research for coming on board and helping me out so much with setup
help and equipment. Oh and RacingWest, for being the best website there is and
allowing me to do this.
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