Farmer City Raceway
Unheralded home-stater exults over Illini showing
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Timmy Dick wheeling around Farmer City. (Josh James)
FARMER CITY, Ill. (April 10) — Timmy Dick and his crew were pumped up Friday evening at Farmer City Raceway. Moments before, the 37-year-old Monticello, Ill., driver had raced his way into his first World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature with a third-place heat finish, a notable achievement for a low-budget team battling an array of national touring champions and stars.
But while discussing how his success came about, Dick quickly pivoted to the future: his 15-year-old son Hudson Dick, a Crate Late Model racer who will likely sit in the driver’s seat of his dad’s Super Late Model. | RaceWire
“He’s helluva driver. He's going to be better than me,” the elder Dick said, gesturing toward the No. One22 machine. “It’s probably going to be his car sooner than later — but Dad still wants to have a little bit of fun anyways.”
And he certainly had some fun on Friday’s opening night of the Illini 100 weekend, time-trialing fifth in his 20-car qualifying group (outpacing multitime WoO winners Shannon Babb, Kyle Bronson and Ryan Gustin) and then smoothly finishing third among four transfer cars in his eight-lap heat. There were plenty of smiles in Dick’s pit area.
“It's pretty cool to definitely race my way into the show,” the home-track racer said, adding with a little laugh that “normally, I’m in the back.”
And while Dick finished a lap down in 15th in the 40-lap feature won by Brandon Sheppard, it was a bit of vindication for Dick’s effort and investment as he paves the way for his son’s continued racing.
Like most part-time racers, Dick has a busy day job that helps finance his fun. He operates Illini Overhead Doors, a business he bought from his uncle Chris Dick (himself a successful dirt racer). And Timmy Dick remembers scratching his racing itch as a 17-year-old, selling his pickup truck so he could buy an engine for his first race car.
He eventually moved up to the Crate Late Model division several years ago, scattering double-figure victory totals among Farmer City, Macon (Ill.) Speedway and Spoon River Speedway in Banner, Ill. He won 2022-23 titles at Farmer City and had a best season of five victories. When Dick got a chance to run 2023’s Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Mo., he decided to upgrade and splurge on a new engine.
“We got into the Dome two years ago and I ended up getting a motor, Matt Rhyne built it, and got a motor for the Dome to put in it, and we're like, hell, let's just stay in the Super,” Dick said.
Over the past two seasons in older equipment, he clicked off eight top-five finishes in the Super Late Model division, including a near-miss with a second-place run at Farmer City.
"I jumped up to the Super to see what I could do,” Dick said. “We were just always missing a little bit on a local night.”
Last season, "we were better, but we were kind of experimenting stuff with the car, just trying to make it faster and we just had a lot of bad luck last year. If something happened, it seemed like it happened right on top of us.”
His son Hudson also made the jump to Crate Late Models from modifieds last season, but, after grabbing his first victory in late September, he broke his left arm playing football, prematurely ending his racing season.
"I was kind of done for the year after that because he was done racing, so I was done racing,” Dick said. “We just decided, I said, ‘Man, there's only one thing we can do and it's buy a new car and try to update and keep up with these guys.’ We're very, very low budget, you know, compared to these guys.”
So over the last two weeks, Dick made the trip to Rocket Chassis in Shinnston, W.Va., to pick up the manufacturer’s latest car, went to retired racer Ed Bauman’s garage to drop the motor in, then received key support from Sheppard, the Rocket Chassis house car driver (and Bauman’s nephew) along with fellow Illinois racer Mike “Opie” Spatola. D.J. VanNoordwyk of Integra Racing Shocks helped him dial the setup in at Farmer City.
“And there it is,” a smiling Dick said Friday after his successful heat race.
“We kind of all just came together,” Dick said. “We got out last night, made a couple of test (runs), and then I just kind of tuned on it today and adjusted from what I felt last night and took advice from Brandon and Opie and all them guys that like always help me out.
"I mean, I hate losing, but it feels like a win getting third and making my way in. I’m super-competitive and that's what's so tough against these guys. They do it for a living. They're smarter than I am and way better drivers than I am, but I have a lot of good help. I have a lot of good help behind me with knowledge and stuff like that.
"This is our home track. Usually, honestly, like I wouldn't really travel to race against these guys because I feel like I'm bringing a knife to a gunfight most times just with their knowledge and the money they have in them,” Dick added. “It blows my mind. Because I know what I have in mine and it doesn't touch the money that they (have) in theirs. So to be able to go out and do what I did, at least qualifying in a heat race and run good and make the show, we're proud of our team because we are a grassroots low-budget team.
“We do what it takes and we try to do the best we can with what we got. Try to spend our dollars that we do have wisely. I get a lot of help, too, like I said, these guys, Opie, I hung out with Opie for an hour today, him and D.J. and Opie was helping me with stuff,” Dick said.
“Ed (Bauman) took me in the Crates from being a top-five car to winning, just by (his) help. He just sent me a text — actually he's here somewhere — but he just sent me a text that that was the best $50,000 you've ever spent, talking about the car. I said I don't know if my wife would agree, but as of right now, yeah.”
While Dick is still in the prime of his racing, he’s looking ahead to the next chapter. He already gets a kick out of watching Hudson — Hurricane Hud — zip around the Farmer City oval in his Crate Late Model.
“We had the motors from all my stuff and Jeff (Weston) helped out with a lot, and we're like, ‘We might as well do it now because you've got to start young.’ I didn't get a Late Model until I was 35, so I want him to start, and that's what he wants to do,” the elder Dick said. “That's what he wants to do the rest of his life is race, and I said, well, better learn how to sell and put in a lot of doors because that's what it takes, a lot of hard work to pay for it unless you go on somebody else's dime.”
The Monticello High School student is also a state-caliber wrestler, although he missed last wrestling season while his surgery-repaired broken arm healed. But he’s healthy enough to return to his Crate Late Model — and if it was up to him, dad’s car.
“He would do it right now. He would jump in it. I mean, sometimes I'll joke around. 'You wanna drive the car tonight?’ He’s like, ‘Yep!’ ” Dick said. “I told him he had to get 10 feature wins in the Crate before he gets in the Super.
“He's gonna be the next guy. I'm just kind of trying to learn as much as I can before he gets in it, but I have just as much fun when he's racing.”
