ANDY STRAIT – TRIPLE CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

RENO, NV (Nov. 5) – It’s been a fantastic season for Andy Strait as he did something most drivers only dream about. Most would just to like to win one championship but this year earned three of them.

Living in Spring Valley, a suburb of Elko, he and his wife Nicole have traveled many miles this year going to various racetracks.

Andy and Nicole Strait with his championship jacket and the IMCA champion’s trophy from Rattlesnake Raceway.

“We won the track championship at Rattlesnake Raceway and we won the track championship at Battle Mountain Raceway,” he said.

To top this he’s also the Nevada IMCA state champion.

Like many drivers his racing background goes back to when he was a around 10-years-old. At that time a co-worker of his father has a son racing go karts. After watching the other boy race they found a used kart and Strait began racing in the summer of 1999.

The karts back in Michigan where he grew up are different than the Outlaw Karts run on ovals in Northern Nevada.

“What we called it was Micro, we ran the 5 to 10 Class as I was 10 at that time. They just had flat karts, no cages or anything like that. We raced karts six years then moved up to what they called the Juniors, which was the 12 to 16-year-olds,” he said.

He went on to win two karting championships in Michigan and moved up into the Open Class when he was 15. Then when he turned 16 Strait moved into cars.

“It was a modified but with a different sanctioning body, we called it Michigan Modified Association,” he said.

After high school he attended the University of Northwestern Ohio, a technical college that specializes in high performance. While there he met his wife Nicole.

“I also took a diesel program there, that’s heavy diesel equipment mechanic. She was on the business side and is a pharmacy technician,” he said.

A little over seven years ago the couple moved to Nevada arriving that September then he began racing in this region the following May.

Strait has an uncle that lives in Nevada and being a diesel mechanic is what brought them out from the mid-west.

“We moved out here before we got married, we actually got married in Michigan two years after we lived here, we’ve been married five years now,” he said.

The 2018 season started very different than the way it ended.

“Actually going into the season my goal was to run 30-nights of racing as we had a new car and I wanted to get some seat time. Run 30-nights and see if we could be in the top 10 for the Western Region,” he said. “Then, shortly after May we saw we were leading points in Battle Mountain and the state deal. So that was the big thing we wanted to go for and we did win the state championship.”

His closest championship battle was at Rattlesnake Raceway and it was a season long effort that went down to the wire.

Strait racing at Rattlesnake Raceway.

“Actually it came down to the last race. I mean it was definitely a close, back and forth you know,” he said. “We led for a while and I had to miss the 4th of July race and then he (Dave Sciarroni) missed a race so that kind of brought back together so to speak.

“We ran close together. He had a little bad luck early in the season and that’s what kind of helped me but at the end of the season we were always close.”

He said the difference at Rattlesnake was about nine points while at Battle Mountain he was around 80 points over his nearest rival

“We were the only one that made all the races at Battle Mountain but we were also consistent,” he said.

Looking back on the season just past Strait feels being consistent was the key to his success.

One of Strait’s 45 nights of racing was at Lovelock Speedway. Here he’s passing another car during the IMCA Modified main.

“I had an impressive year, we didn’t have a lot of wins but 45 nights, 1 DNF, two wins both at Battle Mountain. We finished second 16 times, second five times at Rattlesnake,” he said. “We didn’t win a race at Rattlesnake, that was one of my biggest goals going into the season was to win a race there.

“But we won the championship, which actually means more to me than a win. We finished five times here. Every track except Fernley in Northern Nevada we finished second at least twice and we finished in the top five 34 times.”

Like any racer there are those whose support is critical and he’s very appreciative of that. Especially for the support his wife has given him over the years.

“She is probably the biggest sponsor especially at the track, she’s our main support sometimes we’ll get help from other friends, other teams but 90% of the time its just me and her,” he said. “My parents help us out as well even though they live in Michigan.

“Cory Sample Racing, not only just him but his whole family helped us out. Sometimes we’d stay with them and Rodney would help us out with the car. Bodies by Kanga, Kyle does an amazing job with the bodies and he’s going to put another one on it this winter.”

Late in the season the body on Strait’s racer is showing signs of how rough oval track racing can be.

Car bodies in short track racing are subject to much abuse so a new one is probably needed.

Now it’s winter and a time to look ahead to the 2019 season that is really about six months away.

“We’re definitely going to cut back, probably 20, 25 races. I would like to hit a couple of different tracks we haven’t been to. Like Quincy, Susanville, I definitely want to go over there for a weekend,” he said. “I’d like to hit a weekend in Utah. We ran a couple of tracks back when the Wild West was going when we first moved here.”

There are a couple of tracks that he wants to return to and hopefully improve his record there.

Looking ahead he said, “I really want to go to Rock Springs, Wyoming again because we didn’t make the show either night. I feel we’re capable now as we got a lot better. We’re still not where we could win there but I’d like to see where we’re at now.”

Another track he wants to improve at is pretty close.

“We struggled at Fernley but we did get a fourth the last time we were there in September when my folks were visiting. That was definitely the best run we’ve ever had there. I need to run there more because we do struggle there but we’re getting better,” he said.

Asked about his plans for the winter he said, “We’re excited to kind of relax and work on projects around the house.”

After the effort of winning three championships it is time to relax then after the New Year start preparing for the 2019 season.

OTHER RACING NEWS:

• As usual I’ll be on Teresa’s Garage Radio Show from 2 until 3 p.m. You can either stream or listen to it over the air. They week we’ll get a recap of her trip to the SEMA show in Las Vegas and this week we’ll be live on Face Book.

Teresa’s Garage Radio Show Graphic.

I’ll have a preview of what is going on this weekend both locally as well as on TV. Hope you’ll give us a listen as we cover all things automotive.

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Our first sponsor is Reno Motorsports. Not only do they have about anything a rider might want or need and the store also has a full service shop.

Their location is at 964 Terminal Way, by the intersection with Mill Street. Store’s phone number is 775-322-1499 and the site is, www.rms-renomotorsports.com.

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