When a friend invited John Healy to drive his race car, little did he know he’d earn his first win with it. That victory would result in an offer for a yearlong ride next season, too.
The triumph occurred last Saturday night in the Delmarva charger class at Delaware International Speedway in Delmar. It came in the Ford Focus owned by Jay Lowman of Kwik Motorsports.
Healy, a former drag racer, went dirt racing at the urging of his 12-year-old son, Trevor Hammet. The two started racing in the U car division at Potomac Speedway in Budds Creek, Maryland.
“I met Jay at the end of 2021 when he and Billy Cummings of Kwik Motorsports came to Potomac Speedway for the Small Car Nationals,” Healy, of Chaptico, Maryland, said. “Since I started racing on dirt, I met nothing but great people who wanted to help me.”
Fast forward to this year, Healy sold his car in June to a young racer who offered to buy it. That left him without a race car while he built a new one.
“I went to Delaware International Speedway every week,” said Healy. “I helped the drivers in the Delmarva chargers, a club that races at Georgetown and Delaware International speedways. I pitched in and lent a hand to any driver who needed help — swapping tires, checking air pressures, and helping on setups.”
Healy spent quite a bit of time helping Lowman.
“Jay has a lot of wisdom — and he shared it with me,” Healy said. “Even when he gets out of his car, he’s cool as a cucumber, never angry, never overly excited.”
When the points season concluded, Lowman offered his car to Healy to race.
“I wanted to make sure that I had the ability to drive a much faster race car,” said Healy, who had raced a Ford Focus with a 2.0-liter engine before. “I decided to hop in the pool and take a swim to learn if I had the mental ability — the drivability — to handle the Focus with the 2.5-liter engine.”
John Healy started second, dropped to third, but then regained the lead en route to the win. With a $500 bonus from Feebs Distilling, the victory resulted in $700 of winnings. Kwik Motorsports told Healy he could keep the earnings … and invited him to join their team next season.
“It was a big adrenaline rush to win my first race,” Healy said. “It was a reminder of why I got into the sport and [why] I have decided that dirt was my home.”
The Outside Groove Director of Photography 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.
