Veteran road racer plans to end career at BIR
AUTO RACING
Brainerd International Raceway will host its first Trans-Am Series event this weekend with the Sports Club of America series running on a 2.5-mile, 13-turn competition course.
The race will coincide with the 22nd annual Coca-Cola Muscle Car Shootout that will run on BIR's drag strip.
Jim Derhaag
The SCCA event will mark the return of Trans-Am racing to BIR for the first time since 1989.
"We are very excited to have the Trans-Am Series back at BIR," BIR racing series director Gary Curtis said on the BIR website. "The series has a very colorful and storied history at BIR that dates back to the late 1960s during the series' glory days."
One of the drivers that fans will recognize is Jim Derhaag, owner of Derhaag Motorsports in Shakopee.
He competed in a number of events in the 70s and 80s and is excited to return to his home track.
"This has always been home for me," Derhaag said. "I have not raced since 1997 so it has been a long time. My road racing career started here and it will probably end here. I want this track to be successful and I want this race to be a success. I'm going to do everything I can to make that happen. Gary and the new ownership have made a tremendous commitment to this track and to the community."
Derhaag has driven almost every race car imaginable but he said his love for the Trans-Am Series occurred through a series of events that started at BIR.
"Well this is actually my first road race track," Derhaag said. "I came from the stock car world. I started at the raceway at Elko and at the state fair and then with ASA.
"The first time I came here, Dick Roe asked me to bring an ASA car up to see if it would run a road course as it had never been done before. Dick Kantrud loaned me his car for the weekend and it was a lot of fun.
"There was also a lot of stuff happening with ASA that I didn't like. The cars weren't very safe and a couple of friends had been killed. I was looking at road racing as something to do. I had been up here the year before in 1980 and thought road racing was pretty cool stuff.
"The Uncola National was a popular race here and I raced at that and beat Jerry Hansen and Tuck Thomas. It was a hell of a race. I got into Trans-Am racing after that and we raced here until about 1991."
The Trans-Am Series was a series that Winston Cup drivers turned to build up their name recognition.
"It started with the pony car era, the Mustangs and Camaros in the 1960s," Derhaag said. "They needed a place to road race and that's where it sprung up. At one point NASCAR used to send drivers to drive the Trans-Am Series to build their notoriety. It was bigger than NASCAR."
Derhaag explained how the Pontiac Trans-Am car got its name.
"The Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am was named after this series," he said. "They actually paid the series $5 for every car that was built on a licensing fee. What fans will see now are Mustangs, Corvettes, and Jaguars. If you ask anyone who has driven cars at all ranks, they will tell you these are the most fun to drive."
The series was successful through the 70s and 80s, but interest started to slip in the 90s and the series ended in 2001. In 2005, Derhaag had a major role in getting the series started up again. Today, drivers compete in a 10-event season, which started in New Jersey in May, and will end in Atlanta in September. After BIR, there are two more races.
Points leader Tony Ave will be one of the drivers competing. He won the last event at Joliet, Ill., in early August, leading 25 of the 26 laps. RJ Lopez is in second place followed by Tony Drissi.
Simon Gregg races for Derhaag Motorsports and is in fourth place. He will be driving car No. 59 while Jim Derhaag will be driving his old No. 40.
While Derhaag isn't racing for points, he is looking forward to racing again and is planning that this will be his last race.
"I was pretty rusty when I got into the car," Derhaag said. "We have run a total of 87 miles. The rust is coming off and I am feeling pretty comfortable right now."
The event will consist of testing Friday and qualifying Saturday. The weekend will culminate with a 36-lap, 90-mile event at 2:45 p.m. Sunday. Derhaag sees the stop at BIR as a fixture of the Trans-Am Series in upcoming years.
"I would be willing to predict that this will become one of the cornerstone crown jewels for the Trans-Am Series," he said. "In the heyday this was one of our biggest and best attended events. It is an awesome facility in a great area of the country. We are going to do everything in our power to make sure that the fans see a great race."