Lernerville Speedway
Hess ready for Lernerville after back surgery
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Dave Hess Jr. is getting up to speed after back surgery. (Todd Battin)
Losing a chance to win a third straight track championship at Lernerville Speedway due to an early-spring back operation was a tough pill to swallow for Dave Hess Jr.
But fortunately for Hess, he won’t have to miss the 4/10-mile track’s marquee Firecracker 100 presented by GottaRace.com as well. He’s recovered from surgery and focused on upholding his home track’s honor in the sixth annual $170,000-plus World of Outlaws Late Model Series spectacular, which features three complete nights of racing from June 28-30.
“We’re ready for the Firecracker,” said Hess, a 27-year-old talent from Waterford, Pa., about two hours north of Lernerville. “It’s disappointing to not be going after another (Lernerville) championship this year, but at least we still have the Firecracker to look forward to. It’s one of my favorite races of the year.”
Hess underwent lumbar microdiscectomy surgery on a herniated disc in his back on April 9. He obviously hated the timing of the procedure — with an estimated recovery time of at least six weeks, he knew he would be out of action just as the 2012 season at his western Pennsylvania area tracks heated up — but the intense pain he had been enduring left him no choice but to take immediate action.
“My back’s been bugging me for a couple years, but after we got home from running the modified in Florida (in February), it got to where I couldn’t move,” said Hess, who was told the herniated disc resulted more from heavy lifting than any on-track action or incidents. “I was down for about a week. Once I was able to at least move a little bit I went and saw some people and they told me I’d need surgery to really take care of it and be right.”
The operation took just a bit over an hour and Hess “could feel the difference” as soon as he woke up in the recovery room. He spent about a week largely off his feet before starting physical therapy, and just shy of six weeks after the surgery he decided he was ready to return to the cockpit. His first night back was May 19 at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y., and he showed no signs of rustiness, rolling to a $1,800 open-wheel modified victory.
Hess also raced on May 20 at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., finishing second in both the Dirt Late Model and modified features. But he didn’t race over Memorial Day weekend (he attended a friend’s wedding and was rained out at Eriez) and had all three of his scheduled starts last weekend washed out by rain (he did run a heat race at Stateline on Saturday before showers moved in), so with his back pain-free he’s anxious to get rolling.
“I’m feeling better now than I have in the last couple of years,” said the rejuvenated Hess. “I’ll have to get in the best shape I’ve ever been in or I’ll have more problems, so I’m doing a lot of stretching, exercising and walking. I don’t want to go through all this again.”
Hess plans to make his season debut at Lernerville on June 8, beginning a stretch of three consecutive weekly-show tuneups at the speedway before WoO’s weekend, which is capped by a $30,000-to-win feature. Getting back will certainly put him in a good frame of mind.
“I enjoy racing there more than anywhere,” said Hess, who owns 11 career Late Model victories at Lernerville. “Just the way they keep the surface, the racing’s always good at that place. You can come from the back and still win a race, which is tough to do at a lot of tracks. Plus the people down there are good and they’re always trying to get us big races to run.”
No full-fender race in Pennsylvania is bigger than the Firecracker 100, filled with not only memorable racing but a wide variety of other entertainment, including fireworks, postrace concerts, Miss Firecracker contest, horseshoe and cornhole tournaments and camping camaraderie.
“I’ve been to every Firecracker and I think it’s one of the most fun weekends there is,” Hess said. “The facility is second to none, the racing is great and the atmosphere is always a lot of fun. We come out there every year with like 30 to 50 people, all family and friends, and we have a great time.”
Of course, Hess’s Firecracker 100 weekend will be even more enjoyable if he can make a serious run at victory in the headline extra-distance event. The modest driver downplays the notion that a regioanl standout like him can outrun the nation’s biggest stars for the Firecracker 100’s $30,000 top prize, but the fact is, his performance record in WoO competition over the past eight years stamps him as the Lernerville racer most likely to make noise in the big show, which has been won by big national names Jimmy Mars of Menomonie, Wis. (2009 and ’11), Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn. (‘07), Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa (’08) and Shane Clanton of Fayetteville, Ga. (’10).
Hess has entered 49 WoO events and started 30 features since 2004, compiling three top-five and seven top-10 finishes as well as one fast-time honor, four heat wins and one consolation race victory.
He has a career-best World of Outlaws finish of second, on Aug. 31, 2008, at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa., and also recorded top-five runs in 2005 at Stateline (fourth after leading laps 1-17) and 2006 at Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio (fifth).
What’s more, Hess has started four of the five Firecracker 100s. His personal-best outing of 11th in the inaugural 2007 event still ranks as the top finish by a driver who competes regularly at Lernerville or the western Pennsylvania-area circuit.
“I’d love to be the first local guy to win that race, but every year it gets tougher to beat those travelers,” said Hess, who has qualified for one of the four Firecracker 100 preliminary features that have been contested since the weekend was expanded to three nights in 2010. “Lernerville is a little bit bigger racetrack where they can get their car tuned a little better because of their experience and the technology that’s hard for us to keep up with.
“We’ve had some good runs in heats (during the Firecracker); I remember battling Bloomquist for the lead one year (’07). But then in the feature the track ends up so slick, and that’s a totally different deal to get used to.
“I still think we can win,” he added. “If you hit everything just perfect, I guess anything’s possible. But we have to get up front, that’s for sure. If we can get a good qualifying run and get out front, maybe we’ll have a shot at pulling it off.”
