ANDERSON, California — It all began Friday evening in Anderson Ca., after Mike Doss finished watching his son Jeremy Doss race his Legend car. Mike said, “I should have brought the late model; I really need to win a race here before I hand it all over to Jeremy”. Denise Doss, wife and mother to Mike and Jeremy, said “Then you better go get it”. Mike and Dale Dodd, Jeremy’s crew chief, hopped into the truck and headed back to Upper Lake Ca. to pick up the late model, about a 6 hour round trip, arriving back at Anderson in the early am.
Before I go on, let me tell you about Junior Roddy. He lives in Gualala Ca., off of highway 1, 60 mi north of Fort Bragg. Because of his remote home base, he has his own plane and a pilot’s license; he flies to his races and claims it’s actually less expensive. Junior Roddy’s #41 crew usually rolls up later with the hauler, not today. They called in broke down somewhere between highway 20 and 53. Looking for advice on how to get the rig and late model to the track on time, they called Junior with the news, and Doss overhears. Of course Mike offers up, “My shop is only a few miles away; could they get over there and pick up my hauler?” His toter was sitting ready for them to hook up their trailer. They made it to the track by afternoon Friday.
Saturday morning, Mike and Dale unloaded their late model, already a day behind everyone because of not testing on Friday. They went to fire it up and it would not start. They changed out the ignition systems and checked a few things, only to discover the distributer gear was broken. Mike runs a Ford and no one had a gear he could use, there was nothing at the local parts stores. Now are you ready for this, while Mike was asking around for a gear, Junior Roddy over heard Mike say, “I have one at my race shop but it would take me way to long to drive back and get one.” Junior said, “Let me fly back to Upper Lake,” Mike thought Roddy would miss practice, but Junior did not hesitate and looked at Dale,” lets go,” and told Mike to have some one meet them at the Lakeport airport with the part, and then off went Junior and Dale on unbelievable mission to rescue a $50 part.
Later that afternoon when practices were almost over, here comes Junior and Dale with the part to fix Mike Doss’ late model, how amazing that sounds, the part came in a ring size box. The smallest things make the biggest difference. It did not take long for Mike and Dale to get the late model running. The Shasta Raceway Park officials made some adjustments to the schedule so Mike and Junior would get a few laps in, and they would at least be able to scuff their tires for qualifying.
Sunday Morning, during late model practice, Mike said the car was a little off, and after Mike and Dale convened, it sounded like more than just a little off. It looked like Dale changed every thing but the driver. Mike started 6th for the feature and he fell back a few spots, while Eric Gannon was pulling away from the field. At half way point, he started moving his way to the front, slowly passing one car at a time. Mike took the lead somewhere around lap 100 with 25 to go. It was just a lot of good side by side racing, with everyone standing and cheering. The laps went by so fast; I could not keep up with the count. Mike took the checked flag, and you could see Dale jump up in excitement and Jeremy was the most popular spotter in the stand. Everyone stopped and shook his hand, and you could hear, for only being 14, you are one hell of a spotter. This was a very emotional win for Mike; this is the race he has wanted for some time now. During the post race interview, Mike said he is going to retire from full time racing and start focusing on Jeremy’s racing career. Mike was quoted “I could not have won this with out the help of Dale, he worked his butt off all weekend, and Jeremy, what an awesome spotter, and a big thanks to Junior for flying back and getting the part we needed. We could be here all night thanking everyone; there are just so many people that make this a team”
