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Impressive season for New Mexico newcomer
By Joshua Joiner
DirtonDirt.com staff writer
Garrett Alberson celebrates a victory earlier this season. (Jim Rosas Photography)
Garrett Alberson has enjoyed a successful start to his career in the Late Model division. The 22-year-old from Las Cruces, N.M., has dominated DIRTcar Late Model weekly racing this year at both his hometown track of Southern New Mexico Speedway and El Paso (Texas) Speedway Park while also scoring his first regional touring series victory earlier this summer in Championship Late Model Association DIRTcar Series action at Aztec (N.M.) Speedway. | Slideshow
Those may be impressive feats for a driver in his first full season behind the wheel of a Late Model. However, things haven’t always gone so smoothly for Alberson, whose Late Model career began with limited starts in 2010.
While competing in the super truck division that’s popular at tracks near his home, Alberson caught the eye of fellow Las Cruces Late Model racer Dave Deetz late in the 2009 season. Impressed by the young driver’s ability, Deetz offered Alberson the opportunity to restore and race an older Bullitt Chassis he owned.
Alberson and Deetz rebuilt the neglected race car and made plans for Alberson to make his debut at the 2010 Wild West Shootout at USA Raceway in Tucson, Ariz. Up against many of the West’s top drivers and Late Model veterans from the Midwest, an inexperienced driver in an older car didn’t make for a good combination, and Alberson struggled.
“It wasn’t exactly the way you dream about,” Alberson said of his first taste of Late Model competition. “We put together this car that had been just sitting out in the dirt and had been sitting out there for years. We’re racing against guys like Billy Moyer and Jimmy Mars and just got creamed worse than you can imagine. It was bad, worse than you ever seen.”
While the inauspicious debut wasn’t what Alberson had hoped for, it didn’t deter the young driver from continuing to compete in Late Models.
Alberson stuck with his ride with Deetz’s and competed in the limited opportunities his base in southern New Mexico afforded him throughout the 2010 season. Alberson’s perseverance paid off, and by the end of the year, he was starting to get things figured out.
“That was the first Late Model racing we’d ever done of any kind, but after that we just started working on it, researching and learning and doing this and that to it as we went,” Alberson said. “It was really hit-and-miss at first. The car was really old and we really didn’t know what we were doing. But by the end of the year we were getting pretty competitive around here.”
After showing some potential in the older car, Deetz’s invested in a new MasterSbilt Race Car for the team at the end of last year. The team prepared the new car over the offseason, and planned for a return to the Wild West Shootout.
While the results may not have shown it, Alberson was much improved in his second trip to the early-season miniseries.
“We went back to Tucson in January and we were really strong,” Alberson said. “I was chasing down (MARS points leader) Brad Looney for the lead of a heat race and just got a little over my head and got into the wall our first night there. We put it back together, but then it blew the motor.”
Again, Alberson wasn’t deterred by the setback in Arizona. And With both Southern New Mexico and El Paso adding DIRTcar-sanctioned Late Models to their weekly events, Alberson had plenty of opportunities to bounce back. Alberson made the most of those opportunities, racing to nine victories so far this year between the two tracks, while also leading both points standings. He's also leading DIRTcar's Western Region points chase through Aug. 21.
But weekly events haven’t been the only source of success for Alberson. His CLMA victory July 3 at Aztec Speedway came in his first visit to the track and his first time competing with the Colorado-based series. The victory was a surprise to even Alberson, who was just hoping for a decent finish.
“My goal was just to keep the car out of trouble because I had never been to the track before. I was really just hopeful for a top 10,” Alberson said. “I knew we’ve been fast down here and I’m starting to get comfortable with the car. So I was hoping for a top ten, and I thought a top five would be out of this world. I wasn’t even expecting that, so it worked out pretty well.
“It was one those deals where we were fast, but you hope it’s not a one-time thing. I’m already looking forward to going back and trying to do the same thing again.”
Alberson will soon have a chance to prove his victory wasn’t a fluke. He plans to return Aztec for two more CLMA events Labor Day weekend and he’ll have home track advantage when the tour wraps up its 2011 schedule with a doubleheader weekend at El Paso and Southern New Mexico on Sept. 16-17.
“The end of the season is going to be pretty big for us,” Alberson said. “It’s been good to race weekly and get experience. We’ve got nine wins now and that’s helped a lot with confidence, but I’m really looking forward to the bigger shows here at the end of the year. We’ve know we’ve definitely got better this year, but I think these races we’ll hopefully show how far we’ve really come.”
