Race car rookie

Racing stock cars has long been a dream of Dan Ortiz’s. But it has taken nearly 50 years for the Post Falls resident to make that dream come true. “I always wanted to do this since I was a teenager,” said Ortiz, 70, a second-year driver, but a rookie in Stateline Speedway’s Fever Four class. Ortiz got started racing last season, driving a $200 Pinto in the Road Runners, an entry level racing class that runs during Stateline’s Wednesday Night Fever program. He finished 10th in points. Receiving his trophy was the highlight of his year.

This year he’s moved up a notch to Fever Fours, a class for four-cylinder cars. After getting into racing with an investment of a couple hundred dollars, this year finds him spending 10 times that much. The $2,500 he’s spent on the car isn’t all cash out of pocket, because Ortiz is often “swapping work” and trading services.

Ortiz gets help and advice from Mel Aukerman, currently the class points leader. Pat Norris and son-in-law Leo Crothers also lend a hand. Chuck Tremblay builds engines.

“I’m grateful to have a whole bunch of good people (to help),” Ortiz said. “Everybody puts their thoughts together.”

Crothers’ main duty is to keep things on schedule during races.

“Dan and I have a lot of fun, but it has proven to be much deeper than that,” said Crothers. “He is my father-in-law, and through this we have become even closer. I can honestly say that we’re best friends.”

Crothers proved his friendship by putting off preparing his own car for racing until next year so he could help Ortiz.

Sponsors like Independent Tractor Repair, LaCabana Restaurant in Post Falls, Mufflers Plus, Sutton’s Body and Towing, Soupy Sales and Affordable Used Cars provide monetary support for Ortiz.

As a relative new competitor, one might think Ortiz takes it easy and putters around the race track, simply enjoying the moment. Not so. Ortiz said as he’d much rather drive “wide open.” That tends to push the car out of the “groove,” the lane with the most traction on the track. Ortiz admits this is one of his bad habits.

“I wish I had started when I was 18. Then I might have been able to rub shoulders with Jeff Gordon, my favorite driver,” said the big NASCAR fan with a smile. “Racing is in my blood.”

Ortiz did do some racing earlier in life. He rode motocross and did hill-climbing. Ortiz also followed drag racing in California. He has lived in Post Falls for the past 12 years. Before that he called Santa Maria, Calif., his home. Ortiz was born in Longmount, Colo. His copper-colored 1984 Celica carries the number 33, a reference to the year he was born.

Racing is just one of Ortiz’s leisure time passions. He’s also a pretty decent scratch bowler. “I bowled in three leagues,” he said. This is the first year he hasn’t scored 200.

Ortiz is a semi-retired cement contractor. Even when he’s not racing he spends time at Stateline, having recently poured concrete for a new stage area in the center of the speedway’s quarter-mile oval.

Ortiz’s wife, Barbara, is OK with her husband’s hobby — if he’s having fun. The couple have been married, “I think for 36 years,” Ortiz said, adding that he hopes he’s right, “or I’ll be in trouble.” At maybe twice the age as many of his competitors, Ortiz boasts “pretty good reflexes,” but jokes, “my memory is gone.”

In a season and a half on the track, Ortiz said he’s luckily been accident-free. The only incident has been a spinout — “nothing scary.” In his first race he was so excited he forgot to put up the safety net in his window, and the flagman had to stop him on the track.

Still, there was the time when his seat mount broke. A bolt broke while he was driving through the first turn and the driver’s seat was leaning to the right. “I had to hang on to see over the dash,” Ortiz said, but he finished the race that way.

Wednesday Night Fever is bargain night at Stateline with adult admission at $5.75. The cheap admission helps pack in the crowds and that’s a neat experience, Ortiz said.

Like many drivers, Ortiz has a fan club of friends and family who cheer him on. One night when he won a trophy dash it just so happened that his daughter — one of the couple’s six children — and her two children from Chicago, were in the stands.

“When I made the trophy dash, I said, ‘I gotta win this thing,’ and I did,” Ortiz proclaimed proudly.

So far this year he’s won two trophy dashes, but “not a main event yet. Maybe before the season in over?” he said.

In one of those trophy dash wins, he beat one of the class’s top drivers, Les Billings, “by inches,” Ortiz recalled.

“That son of a gun beat me by a bumper. He earned it,” Billings said. Billings thought he had won, but a replay of the videotape he shot proved otherwise. Billings gave Ortiz a copy so he could enjoy the moment again.

Having moved up the ladder through two of the Wednesday Night Fever Classes, Ortiz is not content. Next he’d like to drive in the wild and crazy Bump-to-Pass cars. Driving the full-sized sedans and station wagons “would be a blast,” he said.