Lawrenceburg Speedway
Stricker makes granddad proud with sublime run
By Bryan Ault
DirtonDirt contributing writer
Adam Stricker with his family in victory lane. (Steve Alcorn)
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. (June 13) — Joe Stricker beamed with pride as he watched his grandson, Adam, race to victory in Saturday’s 30-lap Northern Allstars Late Model Series-sanctioned Whiskey City Classic at Lawrenceburg Speedway.
The 81-year-old Dirt Late Model veteran, whose car won the first World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, in 1971, couldn’t help but cheer on his beloved 27-year-old grandson from Lawrenceburg’s covered grandstand as Adam captured the richest Super Late Model triumph of his career in beating Jason Jameson of Lawrenceburg, Ind., to the finish line by 1.774 seconds. | RaceWire
“He's good. Really good,” Joe Stricker said of his grandson, his eyes briefly welling up with tears in the Team Christy Racing hauler after the race. “I knew he was a good driver the first night he drove. I could tell the first night he was up against the wall in the heat race, and he had never been on a racetrack. In three weeks, he won. Then he wanted to run a lot of other tracks that had more cars.”
It was an emotional moment in victory lane for the younger Stricker, who dedicated the win to his grandfather and took home the $7,500 winner’s check. Overtaking Jameson for the lead on lap eight, Stricker never looked back while pacing the field on Lawrenceburg’s high banks in his Team Christy Racing-owned Longhorn Chassis.
“He's having some heart trouble right now, you know, but he’s stable and stuff like that,” Stricker said of his ailing grandfather, whom he lives alongside. “It’s not like he’s on his deathbed or anything like that, but he's 81 years old and he’s worked every day his whole life, you know?
“They’re saying the walls of his heart are hardening. He’s not on any medication or anything, but … When I gradually see my grandpa go downhill, it makes it more of an effect on me than I think probably anybody because I see him every single day.”
Joe Stricker still managed to make his way down from the bleachers to the Lawrenceburg pit area to celebrate after the race. The victory was made special because Stricker’s family, including his wife Bailee, was on hand to witness it.
“It's just full circle, man,” Stricker said. “You know, I win my biggest race and it’s where I met my wife. You know, my father-in-law’s here, my parents are here. A lot of times we’ve won races where I haven’t had my whole family here, and literally my whole entire family is here, from my grandpa’s brother to my uncle ,and just everybody that is part of my family and is behind my racing is right here.”
Stricker had no problems as he cruised to victory after passing Jameson, whose trips to Lawrenceburg have either been feast or famine. Last season Jameson totaled his car in a Northern Allstars race as he flipped violently in turn one. In 2024 the veteran wheelman captured a victory right after his JRR Motorsports crew chief Jeff Gullett passed away.
Stricker knew Jameson had plenty of experience around the 3/8-mile, southeastern Indiana track. Stricker trailed Jameson in the opening circuits, mirroring his line on the track’s upper grooves. He dipped to the bottom just after reaching the flagstand on the eighth lap and passed Jameson off turn two and cruised to victory.
“I just tried to bide my time a little bit and not necessarily ride, but just wanted to get the lead and kind of set my own pace,” Stricker said. “I felt like (Jameson) got out there and was getting comfortable and then I just kind of turned the wick up a little bit and caught him. And I knew clean air was going to be crucial, you know? So I just wanted to get to him and try to get to the lead.
“I was trying to just save some tires if I could save them for at least, you know, seven or to 10 laps and just to have a little bit at the end. I really thought that top line was going to get real, real thin or we wouldn’t be able to be up there, but it just packed up so big against the wall you just had to be up there.”
Stricker’s only concern was Jameson, the series points leader, throwing a daring slider after the race’s two cautions.
“Restarts are known for sliders, you know what I mean? So, if anybody was going to do it, I knew Jason was going to do it,” Stricker said. “But I knew that middle (groove) had a good traction strip to it to where I could fire off. Me and Jason are great friends. I know he’s not going to fence me or nothing like that. I see him show his nose, and he could easily come across and I’d have to check up. But, you know, he raced me clean and he knew I would have done the same.”
Stricker’s goal in life was to become a full-time Dirt Late Model racer. He spent last year running an off-again, on-again schedule following a departure from his Jim Beeman-owned ride ahead of 2025. Last season Stricker distanced himself from the Dirt Late Model world, feeling his confidence was lacking and questioning his abilities after a rough-and-tumble 2024 season.
“I felt like I knew I could drive,” said Stricker, who received plenty of advice from World of Outlaws Late Model Series full-timer Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., during his time as a modified ace. “I knew I could do it. But the thing was, is that I had to be so included with the right people, and I felt like I had the right people but maybe I wasn’t wasn't doing the right things as they were telling me.
“It goes back to the modified. You win 20, 30 races a year, and you come in here and then you might win maybe one, two. And so after a while, you just beat yourself up and just wonder if you can even do it.
“I wanted to race full time,” he added. “I mean, me and my wife had many conversations about it. I felt like I was falling short of that, so I was going to beat myself up more and more. And I just started to get burned out a little bit. When the (opportunity to race with Team Christy) came about (this season), I knew this was my last shot. Obviously the racing full-time deal is probably out the window. I’m a homebody, you know what I mean? But I want to share this right here with my family.”
Right now Stricker is enjoying his ride with Team Christy, who gave him the call in late February with the opportunity. He’s also running his own excavation business in Batavia and spending more time with his family.
“He’s won a lot in a mod, but yet this is different,” Joe Stricker said of his grandson. “This is going the other way. Like, in the Late Model, you’ve got to be on it hard. You know, you run a mod hard, but it’s not the same. It’s got to be all-the-time hard on this. They look like they’re going to wreck every time, you know? And when the car’s right, you just see how good he was tonight. He’s driving it, so he does a wonderful job.”
