Vince Evenson (pictured in the No. 4k) ran into his younger brother, Will, during the IMCA modified feature at Battle Mountain Raceway in Nevada. Their younger sister, Ainsleigh, ran into an infield tractor tire in the GenX class. The incidents left their father and team manager, Steve Evenson, shaking his head.
“The whole weekend was a disaster,” Steve said. “If you haven’t had a weekend like we did, you haven’t been in racing long enough.”
However, many team owners and parents do not have three cars to worry about, let alone three children racing on the same night.
Vince, 22, moved up to sixth in the feature and then got impatient and drew a yellow for his actions. Officials put him in the back of the pack, behind his 16-year-old brother, Will.
“A car checked up in front of Will, who reacted, and Vince ran into Will,” Steve said.
Steve got the racing bug from his father, Phil. Phil worked as an auto shop instructor at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center. He and his inmate students built a car four decades ago to race in what is now known as the ARCA Menards Series West.
“My very first time in a race car on a dirt track I won the main event,” Steve said. “My car was a 1970 [Ford] Torino with a 351 Cleveland [engine]. That car got me into racing hook, line, and sinker at Tonopah Speedway [in Nevada].”
Steve eventually graduated to the modified class, and now gave his children the racing bug like his father gave to him. In addition to Vince and Will in the modifieds, his 13-year-old daughter, Ainsleigh, races a 1984 Ford Mustang in GenX class, a division for front- and rear-wheel-drive four-cylinder cars.
“My three children work on each other’s cars, which is great to see,” Steve said. “Vince doesn’t want his younger brother to beat him. He may do that someday, as may Ainsleigh, but they will have to earn that win.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
