At 73 years old, Skip Wise battles against the inevitable ravages of age. He had both knees and shoulders replaced, just so he could keep racing. Despite that, he shows no signs of slowing down. At Rattlesnake Raceway, Wise put on a show of determination in the dwarf car class.
“A guy spun out [in front] of me, so I swerved to the right, and ran up the wall,” Wise, of Bishop, California, said. “The momentum took me to the left. I hit the inside berm, bicycled on two wheels and kept on going. It was a fun ride.”
Wise finished ninth in the feature that day.
“I’ve been driving more than 40 years, and I’ve always preferred small cars because of their agility,” said Wise. “I went from mini mods, to pro 4s, to dwarf cars, which I was first introduced to five years ago.”
Wise travels to race. For example, Rattlesnake Raceway is three-plus hours away from his home. He said his favorite tracks are along I-80 in Nevada. He prefers 3/8-miles to ¼-mile ovals.
“The 1/4-mile tracks seem to tear up easier, and the big cars do a number on them before the dwarf cars come out,” Wise said.
Wise found that a good number of senior racers compete in the dwarf cars.
“Older racers love dwarf cars because they are easy to push around, easy to haul, and easy to work on,” said Wise.
Ultimately, Skip Wise finds the dwarf cars fun to drive.
“I have a 1,150cc Kawasaki, producing just about 200 hp,” Wise said. “My car weighs 1,085 lb., with the driver. That’s quite a horsepower-to-weight ratio. To handle that power, you drive with an egg under your pedal. It is both the ultimate challenge and thrill for a driver.”
Outside Groove Note of Transparency: The last name for Skip Wise was corrected as well as the engine of his dwarf car. (2020-10-08).
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.
