Brian Clausen, sprint cars and Indy 500
MILLER: Remembering Bryan Clauson
Monday, 08 August 2016
Robin Miller / Images by Boyd Adams & LAT
ABOVE: Bryan Clauson in a midget at this year's Chilli Bowl. (Boyd Adams image)
Bryan Clauson was a likeable mix of intensity, aw shucks, hard work and a 1960s racer who lived on the loud pedal and loved driving anything with four wheels – anywhere and anytime.
From his quarter midget prowess as a 10-year-old to winning sprint car races at 14 to becoming USAC's youngest-ever victor at 16 to his amazing catalog of success in the past five years, B.C. was consumed by racing.
Speaking on the phone a couple weeks ago after completing his 100th main event of 2016, the 27-year-old Noblesville resident sounded like a man with the perfect job.
"I'm crisscrossing the country and racing almost every night so getting this motorhome was a really good idea," he said with a laugh. "It's kept me sane. Well, as sane as I can be but it's been fun and I am definitely a full-time racer this year.
"Our goal from the start is to run 200 races and I think we're going to make it."
It was impossible not to like this kid with the scrawny build and sunken eyes who worked on his own racecars in his garage with his dad, Tim. He took everything in stride – the successes and the realities of racing when he lost his NASCAR deal almost before it got started and when he crashed on his fourth lap of qualifying as a rookie at the Indianapolis 500.
He accepted the fact he wasn't going be a Cup star and make NASCAR money or spend 20 years in an Indy car. He treated every May he got to run the Speedway as a bonus.
"If I can win 20 races a year, I can make a living in midgets and sprints and it's a pretty damn good life because it beats working," he said in the summer of 2012.
Since then he'd been one of the most prolific winners in North America. He won 21 features in 2012, 26 in 2013, 22 in 2014 and 21 in 2015. This year in 115 starts he'd already amassed 27 victories in non-wing sprinters (1
, midgets (5) and winged sprinters (4) while running USAC, weekly Indiana sprint shows, World of Outlaws, All-Stars and POWRi.
The real challenge had been jumping back and forth between a winged and non-winged sprinter.
"You can get yourself in trouble pretty quick because you don't feel like you're going that fast into the corners," he said with a laugh back in early June. "The non-wing car is a little more fun because the winged car is so intense.
"Qualifying is so important in a WoW race and if you don't qualify well, forget it. I haven't won one yet but we seem to get better every week."
In this age of specialization, B.C. was a refreshing throwback to days gone by when racers drove everything. Sure, he was a four-time USAC champion and carved out his reputation in USAC but he wasn't afraid to step outside his comfort zone – be it at 225mph at Indy, a WoO race against all the regulars at Knoxville or a Wednesday night ASCS show in South Dakota.
Parnelli Jones and Jim Hurtubise didn't have a motorhome, they slept in Herk's station wagon during their barnstorming IMCA days but Bryan embodied their spirit with his desire. Last May, a couple hours after finishing the 100th Indy 500, he was at Kokomo Speedway winning a sprint race.
His prowess in midgets and sprints would have made him an Indy star in Parnelli's era and, instead, it only made him one of the most respected racers in the land but that was rewarding in itself. He enjoyed his life, lap by lap, with his fiancee Lauren at his side and his fan following just kept growing from state-to-state.
He dodged a bullet in a nasty crash on Friday at Belleville, but his number came up Saturday night through no fault of his own.
His final act was classic Clauson – charging from ninth to first on the cushion. That's the way we should remember him.
