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(MAY 25, 2006, PERRIS, CA) When
the USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series takes to the track at Perris Auto Speedway, racer
J Hicks is a familiar site in David Miller's blue #66. Known to the fans as the
"Flyin' Canuck," Hicks is not your typical west coast sprint car
racer. Starting with his place of birth to his current full time job, he is
unique in the world of sprint car racing. Read on and let the friendly racer
tell you the story in his words.
THE PAS: Most of the drivers in the USAC/CRA series are natives of the
southwestern portion of the USA. You were not even from the USA. Tell us where
you were born.
HICKS: I am originally from Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada. It is in the prairie
lands. Kind of the farmland. Moved here when I was about 5 years old so I have
been here (Torrance) most of my life.
THE PAS: Your Dad was involved in racing and had a famous partner. Can you tell
us about that?
HICKS: He raced with Dale Armstrong. Armstrong was crew chief for Kenny
Bernstein. My dad and Dale raced circle cars. When my dad moved down here Dale
had just moved down here from Calgary (in Alberta Canada). They got a car and
ran at Ascot, Speedway 605 and all of the other places. My dad raced and Dale
was the crew chief. Dale said he could never drive. Dale was fine in a straight
line, but in a circle he crashed a lot, so my dad did the racing. They had a lot
of fun doing that.
THE PAS: What kind of cars did your dad race?
HICKS: He drove modifieds. Late Models with the bigger engines. That was their
main thing. He never drove a sprint car, but he always wanted to. I think that
is the one thing he regretted. He never got to try one of those.
THE PAS: When you were a kid did you do any racing?
HICKS: Yeah! Actually when we moved down here we started going to Ascot every
week to watch the sprint cars. One day we were going to the sprint car races
early and they built a little eighth of a mile (Ascot South Bay Stadium speedway
motorcycle track) track at Ascot. It didn't even have the walls up yet and they
were racing go-carts. Dad had actually bought me a go-cart with a little
three-horse engine and a full body. We saw the races out there and bought a race
cart. I started when I was eight or nine and raced go-carts until I was 16 or
17. Ran and won some championships at Ascot, Glen Helen, Carlsbad. I won the
last race at Ascot. That made me really happy! That was probably the biggest
highlight of the go-carts.
THE PAS: Did you race against any now familiar names in go-carts?
HICKS: When I started out they ran Sunday afternoons at Ascot and I was young.
The Pedragon brothers (NHRA Drag Racing), the Jones brothers (P.J. and Page),
Rodney Argo. I ran with Rodney a couple times when he first started. My second
ever race I was leading the heat race and pulling away and my right rear tire
blew out. We didn't have any extra right rear tires so we started loading up
after that heat and this guy came over with a new tire for me. He said,
"You don't have to worry about it, just use it and give back the wheel next
week." He was real nice to us and helped us out a lot. That was Bryan Herta.
So, we always cheered for him. Now he is with Andretti/Green Racing. It is
pretty cool to see guys like that move up.
THE PAS: When you were a kid doing that, in your mind, was it a plan to race
sprint cars?
HICKS: Actually no! For the longest time sprint cars were too dangerous. We saw
some people hurt at Ascot. With my mom, the biggest thing was I could race
go-carts, but never sprint cars. Both dad and I promised her I would never race
a sprint car. We were going to move up to TQs about 1995 or so. We saw that it (TQs)
was dying and we started going to Ventura for the 360 races. That was a pretty
cheap way of going back then. They had the spec engine deal and the spec tire. I
saved up my money. I was working at Barnes Systems and I saved up all my money
and stayed home and didn't move out. I put the sprint car together with a friend
of ours from Canada, Warren McNaughton. It was a lot of fun and I started doing
pretty well in that, too.
THE PAS: Did your mom accept you driving a sprint car at that point?
HICKS: At that point at Ventura you could get into some big crashes, but it is a
smaller track. She felt pretty safe with it. She saw with the roll cages that it
was not to bad. Luckily I was not in any big crashes there and it made it a
little easier on her. Now she enjoys coming out and seeing the races.
THE PAS: How did you go from 360 to 410 racing? You have been in the 410s for
quite some time.
HICKS: We were running the VRA. Actually back then it was IMCA. We won a few
races. Some of the races were with good people. You know, people who were in the
410 division (SCRA) at the time. We have a friend of named Betty Sauer. I have
known her since the early 1980s. She helped us out with our 360. She was also
sponsoring Verne Sweeney at the time. She asked Verne if we could drive if we
could drive his second car. We did that a few times. It just got to where it was
tough with money so that kind of stopped. At the same time we split, the
Alexander team did not have a driver. Sherman (Jeremy) had been driving for them
and left so I started driving for them. We were just going to do it once or
twice and see what came up. We were having a good time and it was not real
serious. We were going out and having fun. It was a low buck thing. I learned a
lot from them and since then they have become one of the top teams (Tony Jones
is the current driver for the Alexanders). It does not matter how big they get.
They are still the same guys. They are always helpful and have a good time. We
pit beside them every week and get a lot advice and a lot of help from them. It
is good to know people like that.
THE PAS: I remember a passing masters dash here around 1999 when you passed Rip
Williams and the crowd went wild. Was that a thrill?
HICKS: Yeah, that was a good night. I remember back in 1999 we had a Ford engine
and an old Gambler car. That Ford would come off the corner. When we got that
thing hooked up, especially on the bottom of the track, we would just fly by
people. It would be shocking to some of them. I think it was the 1999 Oval
Nationals. We qualified horrible - something like 50th quick. We almost made it
through the heat and started 18th in the B main. Got up to a transfer (sixth
spot) and then fifth. Got right up to Kaeding for fourth and that is when we
hurt the Ford engine. We transferred with the engine dieing on us and we did not
get to start the main. That was the last time we ran the Ford. I kind of wish
that would have lasted longer. I had some good times with that car.
THE PAS: You missed some time in racing, but now you are back full-time with a
pretty good ride.
HICKS: Yeah! I took a couple years off, as it was time to get serious about
college. I wanted to become a teacher and taking one or two classes a semester,
it was taking to long. I went full bore into it (school), kept working, got
married and got my degree. David Miller (his car owner now) was working with the
Alexander crew and I got to know him. He had a car that they ran in the 360
division a few times with Eric Severson. Eric decided he wanted his own car.
Dave had his car in the garage and it was just sitting there. I came up to him
one night and said, "Why don?t we go and have some fun." We got
together. Slowly we are getting things going here. It is a struggle, but we
learn every week. The main thing is we have fun. Dave, Tom Roberts, Mark Spivey,
Joe, Walker Dude and a lot of good people. Some weeks we are fast and other
weeks we struggle, but like I said, we learn every week. We have been struggling
lately so tonight we came out with a new car (interview was done in late April).
We will see how that works.
THE PAS: Brand-new?
HICKS: Brand-new! It has been sitting in the garage for almost a year. It is a
Stinger. We were going to run every night this year, but it got to a point that
we had been struggling so bad. We were really just wasting money away. We set
the old car aside, found out a couple of things that was wrong with it that was
causing the problems. We took the Tucson race off and put this car together. It
has a lot of new things on it so we may struggle for a bit here trying to get
the set up right, but it was time to try something new. You cannot just sit
there in the back cruising around. We want to get where we are consistently in
the top ten. Hopefully a top five here and there and you never know. We have led
a few main event laps here and there. When he hit the setup we are good. When we
don?t hit it we are horrible. We have to hit it more consistently.
THE PAS: When I was a kid going to the races most Saturday night racers were tow
truck drivers named Bruno or Gus! Tell us about your job.
HICKS: I always wanted to be a teacher. I was working in a racing related field
at Barnes Systems. They are great people and they treated me right. They let me
go through school. Now I teach fourth grade at Riviera Elementary School. It is
a handful. There are 34 kids in the class. They are always excited, screaming
and yelling and having a good time. It is fun for me. Everyday you go to school
and it is something new. The kids think it is cool that their teacher is a
racecar driver. They go to our website and see pictures of the car and I have
taken movies in a couple of times. It is interesting for them and the parents
get into it. I tell them how important math and science is to the racing and
they see that math is more than just numbers. I enjoy what I do for sure!
THE PAS: Do you teach a specific subject or is it a homeroom type deal where you
teach them everything?
HICKS: I teach everything. This is my first full year on my own (teaching) and
you are teaching some things you kind of forget so you have to go back and study
yourself.
THE PAS: Any of your students come out to see you race?
HICKS: No, but a couple of them have tried. It is hard on a weekend, because
most of them are involved in sports and things like that. The school I am at is
in a very good district in a very nice area. The kids are all in sports or
science camps or reading camps. The parents are very involved. It makes it very
nice for me. A couple have wanted to come and almost did, but they have not made
it yet.
THE PAS: Speaking of kids, you became a dad for the very first time about four
months ago. Are you enjoying that?
HICKS: Yeah! First kid and she is the greatest thing that has happened to the
both of us (J and his wife Meredith). Her name is McKenna. She hasn't crawled
yet. She sits there and mumbles all day long and smiles. It is amazing as
everyday you come home there is something new with her. We are having a great
time with her.
Anyone wishing more information can contact Perris Auto Speedway at (951)
940-0134.
racesatthepas@aol.com is the only authorized Internet address to issue official
media news released from The Perris Auto Speedway or Oval Entertainment
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