For Addison Meitzler, he does more than stretch a set of tires — he wins, too. Not once. Not twice. But three times in two weeks, with two trophies coming at Grandview Speedway and one at Big Diamond Speedway.
For four straight weeks, he used the same set of American Racer tires in the heat races. Furthermore, that same rubber took him to victory lane for two of those three wins. One of those victories came on June 13 at Big Diamond, the other last Saturday, at Grandview.
“At $260 a pop for rears and $250 for fronts, you don’t put tires on unless you really need them,” Meitzler, of Kempton, Pennsylvania, said. “I felt they had enough life in them to keep using them. One night, we used them in the heat race and used a different set for the feature. Then we went back to them in the last two weeks for two more heat races and won two more features.”
Last Saturday, Meitzler decided not to swap his heat race tires for another set — and he had a reason other than frugality.
“The track was real heavy, with a cushion,” said Meitzler. “Stagger is more important than tread. So, I went with tires that give us the most stagger, even though they had half the tread.”
Meitzler cites a few reasons for his prudence with tires. First, the payoff at the end of the night.
“When you are being paid $100 to $130 to take the green, that pays for half of a new tire,” Meitzler said.
Next, comes the team situation.
“Rick Fenstermaker owns the car; Mike Myers owns the motor,” said Meitzler. “Rick is stepping back and sponsor Mike Oldt, of Gehris Meats, is taking over as car owner. Rick gave us the car — we are all in charge of paying the bills — that’s why saving money is so important.”
Modified driver Brett Kressley, whom Meitzler used to crew for, offers his used tires to Addison Meitzler.
“Two weeks ago, they spray-painted tires before the heat races to make sure no one was using a locker rear end,” Meitzler said. “The next week, we were the only car that had spray paint on our tires — and we won 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.
