Modified driver Heath Metzger was ready to hang it up. However, a chance trip to Behrent’s changed his mind and his trajectory. Metzger won his first race in more than 10 years of trying at Big Diamond Speedway.
Metzger funds most of his operation, with a few loyal sponsors backing him year after year. He builds his own engines and runs the sole Troyer modified at Big Diamond.
“Troyer is fantastic to work with,” Metzger, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, said. “So, I stuck with them through pavement and dirt racing. For example, when I wanted to try a special spring, they called me to make sure I had received it in time. I’m a nobody, but they cared about me. That amazed me and that’s why I’m loyal to them.”
Last season didn’t go well for Metzger. He reached rock bottom when he failed to make a feature.
“I was ready to park it,” Metzger said. “We took a ride to Behrent’s — there was a brand-new Bell helmet for sale at nearly half price. Something told me I had to have it.”
He couldn’t let a good helmet go to waste, right?
After donning the helmet, he started finishing in toward the top 10. Progress.
“I don’t know if that helmet was lucky or I could see better or that I could focus better,” Metzger said. “Whatever the reason, something changed the night I put that Bell helmet on.”
Last Friday, Heath Metzger just hoped he transferred to the feature from his heat race. He won that heat. Starting on the pole, he led the whole race.
“I proved to myself I could do it,” Metzger said. “The feeling I had seeing the checkered flag was utter disbelief. I was out there lap after lap, just waiting to get moved and passed. In the final laps, I felt a bit of a vibration. I could tell it was my driveshaft. I prayed it would hang on.”
Back in the pits, the crew found a broken bolt on the yoke. His team couldn’t fix the issue in time to make the second race, but Metzger left the track with that win he longed for, for so many years.
“Heck, I was ecstatic to load up and go home with a win,” Metzger said.
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.
