Story-book season ends with unlikely off-track injury MORGAN
HILL With 17 wins on the season, one local youth auto racer stands
high atop the youth racing world.
Story-book season ends with unlikely off-track injury
MORGAN HILL
With 17 wins on the season, one local youth auto racer stands high atop the youth racing world.
Devon Ostheimer, 13, of Morgan Hill, races midget cars in the 600 cubic centimeter engine, restrictor micro sprint class.
Midget cars use four-cylinder engines that have a good weight to horse power ratio of about a 750/100.
After a fourth-place overall finish in his rookie season last year, Ostheimer set and has since reached his goal of becoming the track champion at both Plaza Park Raceway in Visalia and Lemoore Raceway in Lemoore, Calif.
In a typical race Devon competes with more than 20 drivers on a 1/5 mile semi-banked oval course.
At Plaza Park, Devon won nine out of 15 races.
“The motto at Visalia is ‘If you can win here, you can win anywhere,’ ” his dad and crew chief Don Ostheimer said.
At Lemoore, which claims to be the fastest clay track for Micro/Mini sprints in the Central Valley, Devon won seven out of 16 races.
“These are two of the toughest tracks in the country because of the amount and quality of competitors,” Don said.
Devon’s 17 wins give him more victories than all of his competitors combined, and make him the winningest 600cc restrictor micro sprint car racer in the country.
In comparison, the racer with the second most wins is Braylon Fitzpatrick of West Terre Haute, Ind. with 11 wins.
“This is unprecedented,” Don said. “A lot of kids race, and there are a lot of people who want to do what he does, but very few will reach the top level.”
Devon received $1,500 for being this season’s series points leader at Plaza Park Raceway, and another $1,000 for being the series points leader at Lemoore Raceway.
He will be honored on Nov. 9 at an awards banquet in Visalia, where he will also get a chance to address the audience.
“I’ll just wing it,” Devon said about his chance to speak to the audience. “But I feel very accomplished.”
Last year after attending the awards banquet as the fourth best driver in his class, Devon set the goal of being No. 1 this season, Don said.
“The goal was to win next year, and he did it,” Don said. “For his age what he has done is pretty phenomenal … he’s a tough competitor.”
Of course Devon would not be able to race without the help and support of his dad and mom, Marinella.
“The parent or adult is an interactive part of the team, and that’s what makes this sport unique,” Don said. “I have to be crew chief, truck transporter, cheerleader and psychologist when things go wrong … he can’t do it without us, and I can’t do it without him.”
Devon’s story-book season was cut short when he suffered a broken collarbone playing touch-football at school last week.
“This is the first break he’s ever had and is the first time he’s been out of commission,” Don said. “It’s ironic too because it happened playing football … we think that auto racing is safe, and there is a big safety factor with the roll bar and all the safety gear he wears.”
The injury will keep Devon out of the cockpit until the end of the year, but his next goal is to win the Tulsa Shootout, in Tulsa, Okla. Dec. 28-30.
“Assuming his collarbone is fully healed, we’ll be there,” Don said. “Our first goal is just to make it to the main event.”
While Don is very involved in Devon’s racing, he insists that he his not living vicariously through his son.
“Most people think ‘Here’s some guy living through his kid,’ but it couldn’t be more opposite,” Don said. “He drives me pretty hard, and he knows what he wants to do… Devon lives and breathes racing.”
Devon is sponsored by Mark Reuter and MDR Machine, a machine shop at 16055 Caputo Drive Suite B, Morgan Hill, and also by Dave Modderman, Porsche service specialist, based in Mountain View.
“Mark has been more of a benefactor than a sponsor because we can’t give him any money back,” Don said. “He has a love for the sport of auto racing.”
The Ostheimers received $5,000 last season from MDR Machine.
“It takes a lot of money, and people like this are helping some kid achieve his dream,” Don said.
Devon is moving up to the much faster 600cc open stock class next year, where there is no age limit, and is eager to be racing again.
“Bring ’em on,” Devon said.
Looking back on his storied season Devon was frank about his success.
“It’s domination baby,” he said. “I owned them.”
