Thiesse on LaFavre Racing Team

Nate Thiesse, a former Wissota Super Stock points champion at North Central Motor Speedway, was featured in a recent Actionline, an American Speed Association (ASA) newspaper which features a member of the ASA racing family in each issue.

Thiesse, who has been working at the LaFavre Racing Team Shops in Lakeville since February 2000 and is a former Brainerd resident, was featured in an article complete with photos titled "Technical Side of Racing Appeals to Thiesse."

In the article, Thiesse said he definitely wants to pursue a motorsports career but doesn't know for sure in what part yet.

Thiesse did race a LaFavre Racing "house" Chevrolet late model during a race at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, held in conjunction with ASA at a track last summer. He had worked his way to sixth in the race before mechanical problems ended his night.

His main task at LaFavre Racing is assisting on the shock development program and overseeing the engine program for LaFavre Racing's ASA racers Mike Garvey and Kevin Cywinski. Cywinski is a former ASA series points champion.

His responsibilities at the tracks on racedays are to make sure the engines run well and help with the car's shocks and setups.

During the week, he works in the research and development area of LaFavre Racing Shops.

He was quoted in the Actionline article saying, "When you're down here in the pits you understand what the whole team concept is about. The greatest satisfaction in racing is when everybody does their specific job all going toward one specific goal. It can be a short-term goal like winning a race or a long-term goal like winning the championship."

The race team, including Thiesse, also was featured in TNN's Raceday last month. A test session in North Carolina was taped.

He said in a phone interview last week that his job "is going really good." The team recently also tested at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In some of this testing, there were 32 channels of data tested with a data acquisition system as the car cruised around the track.

He noted that all of the ASA racers are powered by the General Motors Vortec ASA 5700 spec fuel-injected V-8 engines. He said General Motors made 300 of these sealed engines in one "hour or something crazy like that." Some of the racing modifications included a racing camshaft.

For this reason, crews can't modify the engines and the outcome of the race depends on the driver and the car's chassis, Thiesse said.

Thiesse also will be able to experience the latter statement first hand this season. He said he will debut the shop's new Chevrolet Monte Carlo "house" late model at Cedar Rapids soon, but his main focus will be late model racing at Elko Speedway in Elko.

NHRA book available

Our own Book World in the Westgate Mall has "The Fast Lane: The History of NHRA Drag Racing." The 230-page book, which also is available on-site at the 24 NHRA Winston Drag Racing events, includes full-color photographs and insights into past and present racers.

Included are stories about current racers John Force, Tony Schumacher and Angelle Savoie (Seeling).

Regarding Force, he recently purchased two Heartstream FR2 semi-automatic heart defibrillators. One of the units will remain at the team's Yorba Linda, Calif., shop facility. The other AED (Automatic Electronic Defibrillator) will travel with the race team should it be needed on the road.