Mike Darne has won big races before but a victory on Saturday night would mean more to him than any previous victory in his career.
On Monday, Darne’s close personal friend and longtime crew member Tommy Hartman passed away. Hartman had been working with Darne for over a half-decade, dating back to Darne’s seemingly unstoppable success at Old Dominion Speedway (Virginia). Darne said he was now dedicating his entire 2015 season to Hartman’s memory and he hopes to win one for him at Hickory Motor Speedway (Newton, North Carolina) in Saturday night’s Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Late Model Stock Tour race.
“Out of any race I have ever run, it would mean more to me to win that race than anything, “Darne said. “We’re 100 percent dedicating our season to him and we’re going to carry a sticker on the car. He was one of my best friends and most loyal crew members I ever had. He was one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet in your life.”
A victory on Saturday would not only lift the spirits of Darne and the Jim Dean Motorsports camp in light of tragedy, it would also lift spirits because of a recent run of bad luck the team has had. At Orange County Speedway, Darne was involved in an accident while trying to work his way up through the field. A couple weeks later, the team went to Motor Mile Speedway but engine troubles forced them to load up before even getting to attempt to race.
“Southern National was disappointing,” Darne stated. “We’ve gone there with what we ran last year but we’re trying to do the new stuff and didn’t get it figured out. Orange County, we were better than we got to show. We weren’t good in qualifying. We were up in the middle of the pack and started moving forward when the accident happened so nobody go to see. We learned a lot at OCS and learned more since then so hopefully we’ll be in better shape at Hickory than we’ve been the first few races.”
Darne attributed his struggles in the CARS Tour to the bump stops which competitors are allowed to run in the series. Bump stops have generally been outlawed in traditional Late Model Stock Car racing due to guidelines set forth by the NASCAR Whelen All-Americna Series. Despite that, Brayton Haws won the Orange County race on a conventional setup – but Darne feels the conventional setups won’t be competitive once teams have figured out the bump stops.
“What’s happening is a lot of us are searching to see how to get the bump stop setup to work and once we do, a conventional setup will not beat us,” Darne explained. “Two races in, we’re still trying to figure it out. Unfortunately, we only have eight more races this. Years down the road, it will matter. That’s how we’re looking at this. If we go back conventional, we may run better but, eventually, guys are going to figure this out so we’re dealing with growing pains and hopefully we’ll start figuring this out and run better. We have to learn the new stuff.”
Darne now hopes his bad luck is behind him and he’s turning his attention to Hickory Motor Speedway with hopes of turning his season around and having a strong run.
“We’ll put as big effort into this race as you’ve seen any race we do,” Darne remarked. “My bad luck hasn’t ended yet but hopefully we can turn it around at Hickory because this race means the world to me. I’ll be giving 150 percent to get a good finish for Hartman and our team.”
RACE22.com will have “Up to the Minute” coverage presented by Five Star Race Car Bodies from the CARS Tour Catawba Valley 250 at Hickory Motor Speedway on Twitter. In addition to RACE22.com’s coverage, RACEFEEDX.com will have live streaming video coverage of the race.
