2009 World of Outlaws Late Model Series

 Crew Chief of the Year Mike 'Smoke' Countryman

Ready For Another Season Alongside Tim Fuller

 

BARBERVILLE, FL - Feb. 6, 2010 - When Mike Countryman was announced as the winner of the 2009 World of Outlaws Late Model Series Integra Shocks Crew Chief of the Year honor during the tour's awards banquet last November, he felt no immediate rush of joy.

In fact, Countryman didn't even realize he had been summoned to the stage. He's gone by the nickname 'Smoke' for so long, hearing his given name doesn't even make him turn his head anymore.

"After (WoO LMS announcer) Rick (Eshelman) said 'Mike Countryman,' it took me a couple seconds to figure out who he was talking about," recalled Countryman, who works for DIRTcar big-block Modified-turned-Outlaw-star Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y. "I just sat there. Kelly (Countryman's wife of 28 years) had to nudge me a little bit and say, 'You won!'"

Countryman, 47, of Antwerp, N.Y., has been traveling the WoO LMS alongside Fuller since 2007, and the awards-banquet presentation was likely the first time that most of the friends he's made in the full-fender world have publicly heard him referred to by his real name.

"Nobody calls me Mike," said Countryman. "My uncle's nickname was 'Smokey' and I looked more like him than my dad, so everybody started calling me 'Smoke' when I was a kid and it just stuck.

"It's kind of funny," he added with a smile. "A couple guys (fellow crewmen) came up to me after the banquet and said, 'Man, I voted for 'Smoke' (in the Crew Chief of the Year balloting), not this guy named Mike Countryman."

Countryman -- uh, Smoke -- is set to kick off another campaign as Fuller's right-hand man during the 39th annual DIRTcar Nationals by University of Northwestern Ohio from Feb. 8-13 at Volusia Speedway Park. The half-mile oval outside Daytona Beach hosts the season-opening WoO LMS events on Feb. 11 and 13, plus DIRTcar UMP Late Model shows on Feb. 8, 9, 10 and 12.

Fans attending the DIRTcar Nationals will have the opportunity to get a rare up-close look at Countryman and his mechanical compatriots working on the cars of the nation's best drivers. A FREE Fan Pit Pass is available to every ticket-buyer who comes through the main gates each night; fans can show their grandstand ticket and sign in to the pits at a table near the pit entrance.

Anyone who stops by Fuller's Gypsum Express No. 19 hauler will see one of the hardest-working men on tour in Countryman, who has developed as an ace dirt Late Model mechanic just as Fuller has grown into a national star. Both were new to the division when they embarked on the WoO LMS in 2007 -- and, in three short years, Fuller has gone from the tour's Rookie of the Year to a bona fide championship threat who in 2009 won seven times (including a record-tying four-race win streak) and finished a career-high fourth in the points standings.

Countryman has known Fuller, 42, for more than two decades. They met in the late '80s, when Fuller, then a young competitor in the Pure Stock class at tracks across New York's North Country, parked next to the Late Model team Countryman had been helping since 1978. Shortly thereafter Niles Busler, the area Late Model standout whom Countryman assisted, was forced to stop racing after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease, and Countryman began lending a hand to Fuller at the local tracks.

"In '89 I started helping Tim on his Sportsman," said Countryman, who got his first taste of North Country racing as a youngster when his three uncles raced Late Models (with, ironically, Fuller's father as one of their competitors). "When he went (DIRTcar) Modified racing, I built him his first body."

Fuller won the Mr. DIRTcar 358-Modified championship in 1993 with Countryman on his crew. Countryman remained with Fuller until midway through the 1994 season -- shortly before Fuller quit his job working in a zinc mine and became a fulltime racer -- when he decided to back away from racing to resume a career as a dairy farmer that he had previously pursued during the '80s.

Countryman stayed in touch with racing, but he didn't see himself making the sport his occupation. Then Fuller called him before the start of the 2006 season and asked him to come out of his wrench-twisting retirement. Countryman agreed, leaving his position as a farm-equipment mechanic to hit the road with Fuller.

"I've always liked working on race cars," said Countryman, who raises heifers for sale to supplement his income from racing. "I thought, Why not give it a shot? I'd probably regret it if I didn't do it.

"I like working with Tim, I like the travel, and I'm used to long hours (at the track and on the highway) from being a farmer for so many years. I love the job. I'm having fun."

Countryman's Fun Meter pegged out last summer when he witnessed Fuller go on one of the most memorable runs in WoO LMS history. Fuller scored his first win of 2009 on July 25 at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, and then ripped off three more wins in a row and seven victories over an 11-race span, stamping himself as a true driver to beat anywhere the tour visits.

"I've never experienced anything like that before," Countryman said of Fuller's coming-out party. "You're racing with the best (on the WoO LMS). It's amazing to beat these guys once, and we did it four races in a row. It made me feel like a kid on Christmas morning again."

The explosion also raised Countryman's profile in the pit area. His role in turning Fuller into a Victory Lane regular was the key factor in earning him the Integra Shocks Crew Chief of the Year award, which was determined by a vote of the tour's chief mechanics and officials.

"It makes me feel real good to know I have the respect of the other guys (crew chiefs) on the series," said Countryman, who earned $1,000 and received a specially-designed wrench-shaped trophy from Integra Shocks rep Brian Daugherty. "I try to get along with everybody and help anybody who comes over to ask me something. Tim and I came into this Late Model deal not knowing anything, but we got a lot of help from a lot of people to get where we're at now."

Countryman is hoping that the 2010 season will bring even greater success. Along with team tire-man Barry Knapp -- a talented 24-year-old crewman who joined Fuller's operation for the 2009 campaign and provided a huge boost -- Fuller and Countryman spent the off-season reworking their powerful '09 Rocket car and assembling a new machine that's essentially a twin to it. Powering the machines this season will be motors from a new in-house engine program organized by Fuller's Gypsum Express team owner John Wight, who decided to purchase engine-building equipment and hire Kevlar's Kevin Lamphear to head construction of powerplants for his DIRTcar Modified and dirt Late Model teams.

"We're ready as we can be for the season," said Countryman, who has two children, Nichole, 25, and Paul, 21. "We didn't get off to the best start last year (Fuller's first top-five came in the 10th race), so we're trying to focus on getting going a little faster this year. If we can do that, we should be O.K."

The dirt Late Model portion of Volusia Speedway Park's DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH is headlined by 50-lap, $10,000-to-win WoO LMS cards on Thurs., Feb. 11, and Sat., Feb. 13. There are also four UMP Late Model events -- $7,000-to-win shows on Feb. 8, 9, and 10, and a $10,000-to-win finale on Fri., Feb. 12.

For tickets to the 39th annual DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH, visit www.DIRTcarNationals.com or call Volusia Speedway Park at 386-985-4402. A ticket package for all six nights of dirt Late Model racing is available for $175.

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.