Sportsman modified racer Brett Gilmore started off the night by cashing in an IOU for one tire. He ended it with the biggest race win of his career, the Firecracker 40 at Grandview Speedway.
The IOU came from his fiancée, Ali. She agreed to buy one tire, and only one, this season for Brett’s race car.
“I was holding off for a big race,” Brett, of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, said. “I chose the Firecracker 40. We went up to Hoffman’s [the tire dealer] and she whipped out her credit card.”
After Brett mounted it up for the right rear, he found the tire to be too big for his desired stagger. He decided to see if he could find a bigger left-rear tire to close the gap. As luck would have it, fellow driver Chase Gular sought a smaller left-rear tire. The two traded tires, but Brett wasn’t en route to victory lane, yet.
“I knew I would have to beat my dad,” Brett said.
Brett started the feature sixth; his father, Kenny, third. The two battled throughout the race, with Kenny favoring the lower groove while Brett rode the high side. Jesse Landis also moved into the picture, too, to make it a three-way contest.
“We were a heated pack of three for the last laps of the feature,” Brett said. “As a race car driver, racing your dad is one of the most fun things you could do. I’ve beaten my dad before, but not for a win, just for a middle-of-the-pack position or a heat race. I used everything he taught me, but I realized it was not everything he knew, because he beat me so many times.”
The father and son even use widely different setups, with Kenny preferring a torsion-bar car and Brett using a coil car. The two also have distinct approaches to driving.
“[My dad] is a better driver than me, being patient, while I am aggressive,” Brett said. “Oh my God, he raced me hard. He hit his marks on the bottom every lap, while keeping momentum and speed up. He runs me like he runs anyone else — clean.”
And Brett Gilmore credits Ali for the purchase that led the night the entire family will remember.
“Ali and I were friends first — and she said she would never date a race car driver,” Brett said. “Now, we are getting married in October and her parents are celebrating in victory lane with me. How cool is that?”
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.
