Double duty was tough on Pollard
By Tom Gillispie
Chase Pollard and his dad Larry
hadn’t planned to make it harder on themselves this season, but they sure did.
Pollard won the 4-Cylinder title
at Hickory Motor Speedway in 2013 while he was a junior at Alexander Central
High. Then the duo decided to race 4-Cylinders again this season; no big deal.
But in midseason Tony Poole
invited Pollard to race his Street Stock car.
“Racing two cars is so
difficult,” he said. “The cars are SO different. There was a whole bunch more
work. I often had double duty with both cars, and it was hectic going to the
track every weekend.
“But it was rewarding to run among the top
cars in two classes. “
Pollard says he ran about half
of the Street Stock races, and he won one of them.
“That was just awesome; it’s one
thing I can be proud of,” he said.
He says that Street Stock car
was one that the late Donnie Harmon used to drive. He wishes he could have just
run that division.
“You cannot bring two cars (in two divisions)
to the track and be 100 percent on both of them,” he said. “It took something
off both of them.”
He says he’s “still trying to
figure (the Street Stocks) out. It’s an awesome class.”
Pollard points out that Taylor
Stricklin used to race Street Stocks before moving up to Limited Late Models
and winning this year’s title.
“There’s great competition (in
Street Stocks),” he said, “and Street Stocks makes you a better driver. There
are a lot of good racers in that division, too.”
One of the highlights of racing
Street Stocks, Pollard said, was the stories he heard on pit road. He’d listen
to 62-year-old Marshall Sutton and others regale everyone with memories.
Pollard added: “Marshall Sutton
really knows how to drive a car. It’s an honor to race with him.”
The highlight, if you can call
it that, of the season came when Pollard decided to go to his senior prom
rather than racing the 4-Cylinder class. Larry drove the car and finished
second in his only race of the year.
Pollard wound up third in the
4-Cylinder standings, 32 points behind division champion Matt Elledge. If he’d
passed up his senior prom, he’d have had a great shot at the division title.
But he says he doesn’t regret
the choice; not at all.
Pollard says he likes both
divisions, but he doesn’t know what they will do next year. He almost certainly
won’t race two classes. He might wind up back in 4-Cylinders.
As for racing Street Stocks
regularly, “We’ll still have to see about that,” Pollard said. “We’ll have to
get up with Tony (Poole) and see. But Street Stocks has been good for us; it’s
actually taught us a lot.”
Pollard says he’s been working
for his dad at LP Gear and Pollard Raceway Park, a go-kart track, and he’s been
pondering school. He’d have started in the fall, but he wanted to save some
money first.
He says he might attend a
community college, perhaps at Wilkes Community College, in the spring. After
studying there, he could transfer and work on an engineering degree.
“My life has always revolved
around cars or motorcycles,” he pointed out.
So he wants to do something in
racing, as a racer, crewman, crew chief or engineer. He’s just not sure what
yet.
(NOTE: This story appeared in the Hickory Daily Record in 2014.)
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