Over the course of the season, Derek Green could have lost the USRA Iron Man Stock Car Series championship several times. But champions overcome adversity, and at the end of the year, he won the title.
Green started off with a win during the season-opening races at Lucas Oil Speedway. Then came a runner-up at Fairmont Raceway. But, at the series’ sixth race at Sports Park Raceway, a fan belt broke, leading to the engine overheating and a DNF.
The next race, a second, coming at Mason City Motor Speedway. Then, he DNF-ed again.
“We battled a fuel issue for a couple of nights; my car died in staging,” Green, of Granada, Minnesota, said. “I thought our fuel problem was fixed three times. We took the entire carburetor apart. We thought the filter looked good. When we took it apart again, we found it was falling apart on the inside. It was an $8 stainless-steel filter. The glue used on the inside of it broke apart and stopped fuel from flowing. We added a new filter, changing brands, and we were back racing.”
Later in the season, Green crossed the line first at Callaway Raceway. However, his ride height was a ¼-inch too high on the left rear, resulting in a DQ.
“It couldn’t come at a worse time,” Green said, “with only five Iron Man races before the end of the season.”
The setbacks never frazzled Derek Green, though. He kept his eyes on the prize, finishing in the top 10 in 18 of his 22 starts. That consistency resulted in winning the USRA Iron Man Stock Car Series title by 90 points over second-place Brandon Hare. It was the icing on the cake of a season that included seven wins altogether. Green is nearing the 200-victory milestone in his career.
“Next year, the Iron Man series is supposed to be bigger and better,” Green said. “Whether we will chase Iron Man points or race in big special events is yet to be determined.”
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.
