Dusty Masolini last won a race three years ago. To help get the proverbial “monkey off his back,” his wife and mother put a monkey in his IMCA sport mod. It worked. He won August 1 at Stuart International Speedway in Iowa.
The monkey rode along with Masolini before.
“The monkey hadn’t been on my car for the past three years,” Masolini, 34, of Des Moines, Iowa, said. “We took it off when we won our last race. We hadn’t seen the monkey for a while, and then it turned up in our shop.”
His mother, Cindy, and wife, Annie, attached the monkey to the roll cage of the car. They insisted that he race with it to end his drought.
“I’m amazed it just took a week to win,” said Masolini. “I kept telling myself for three seasons not to be too disappointed that I couldn’t win. The competition is tough here.”
Two of the most important ladies in Masolini’s life play a vital role on his team. That starts with his mother.
“When I was 11, I begged my mom for a kart, and she got me one for Christmas,” Masolini said. “She’s been part of my crew ever since. She cleans the car, does the tires, drives the truck, and loves every minute of it.”
Unfortunately, Masolini’s wife could not share in one of her husband’s greatest triumphs. As a health care worker, her work schedule prevented her from attending the event.
“It’s usually just the three of us,” said Masolini. “I have to say now that my mother knows best and that my wife was right.”
Dusty Masolini concluded victory lane celebrations by whipping out a knife and cutting the monkey out of the car.
“It was symbolic,” Masolini said. “I got the monkey off my back. We’ll see how I do now that it’s gone again.”
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.
