Dan Fredrickson after capturing the Raceway Park ASAMT event. (Photo by: Doug Hornickel/www.fastlapphoto.com)
DAN FREDRICKSON…HAVING A GOOD TIME IN THE ASAMT
By: Kevin Ramsell (www.kevinramsell.com)
Dan Fredrickson stands tall, looks tough, and carefully thinks about what he wants to say. He almost appears to be a gentle giant, that is until you get him behind the wheel and you watch him charge to the front.
The Lakeville, MN driver made a huge impact in the inaugural season of the ASA Kwik Trip Midwest Tour presented by Echo Outdoor Power Equipment by being the only driver to take home more than one win. In fact, he took home three point wins (four all together) in three different states that the ASAMT visited in 2007. In nine starts, he finished seventh in points with three wins, five top-five and six top-ten finishes.
He captured a non-point win last July at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. He followed that up with a convincing win at Grundy County Speedway. He then put on a show at Raceway Park in Shakopee, MN and followed that up by capping off a great weekend of racing by claiming his first Oktoberfest victory at La Crosse.
“Raceway Park is a race that I went into thinking I could win but it was the most exciting. They all are special.” Fredrickson recalled. “Grundy, winning the George Appleton Memorial was awesome. Growing up, I always thought that Eddie Hoffman was awesome and to beat him at his own palace was cool. I love La Crosse that was fun to have a dominating performance there. I felt like I had about five or six wins there that got away from me and that was my first win in a premiere series at Oktoberfest. It’s my favorite track.”
If Fredrickson can continue the momentum that he started at the end of the 2007 season into 2008, he could be one name vying for the championship.
“The end of the year last year went really well for us; it made us wish we had a better start,” Fredrickson recently stated. “Going into this season, if we get a good start and have a good time at what we are doing, we will make a run for the points.”
Fredrickson knows what he is talking about. In 2006, he came up a few points short of capturing the final NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division Midwest Series championship to Tim Schendel.
Even though he came up short, he always keeps one thing in mind and that is to have a good time. “First goal in racing is always to have a good time doing it and as long we are having a good time, I think we can be contenders to win the points,” Fredrickson explained.
And he knows that competition will be tough in 2008. “It will be a lot of tougher competition,” Fredrickson stated. “Donny Reuvers never got out of town much more than last year and he had a good year, next year will be better for him. Just knowing what kind of a competitor he is, he will be tough. Obviously, (Nate) Haseleu is always going to be tough. I think Kenny Richards is going to figure out probably what he did wrong at the end of the season and be really tough.”
When he was asked about the ASA Midwest Tour, he had plenty to say. “You know I thought it was going to be a pretty good deal going into it and I had no idea it was going to be as big of a deal,” Fredrickson recalled. “If you asked me to score it on a one to ten scale, I thought it was going to be a seven or eight right off the bat, and it ended up being a ten and a half.”
Along with his total support he does have one concern, and it’s a concern that many probably think about. “The only thing that worries me is with a deal that good, is that a lot of big money teams might come in and then you get a lot of money involved in it and it ends up self destructing. It seems that money is usually the root of all evil,” Fredrickson explained.
But, he feels that he is getting an equal shot with the equipment he has and how the ASAMT are working on keeping level playing field out there. “We are a low budget team and I think about what is going to happen if a big money team comes in there. But for me, I think if it comes down to thinking personally that if I won the lottery, would I buy anything different or do anything different, probably not,” Fredrickson stated. “I think in that aspect, the other teams and the series does insulate themselves from checkbook racing with the rules they have in place and I think we have a lot of good honest officials and there won’t be any type of favoritism. Its only going to get better from here on out and it will be fun to see what happens.”
When asked what he thinks fans will see when they attend an ASAMT event, he doesn’t spare the details. “I think that if you had a fan that understands racing watching the tour closely, you will see a group of driver’s race with a lot of blood, sweat and tears behind it. They race with a sense of urgency. Nobody is out there making laps, nobody is giving things away, and there is a lot of respect on the racetrack in the same regards. Just a lot of hard racing, physical short track racing like it should be.”
He followed that up by going back to the ASAMT rules package. “With the weight, motors and tires we have its going to have a series with the most passing around. I have raced in a fair amount of different series, and these cars are fun to drive, you can wrestle with them, and I got to think it’s the best racing to watch. I know personally in the car, it’s a blast to drive them its fun to watch the racing in front of me and sometimes I can watch them in the rear view mirror. It’s a good time.”
And he appreciates that the ASAMT goes out of their way to present a class act series for everyone as he stated in regards to the upcoming ASAMT banquet as an example. “That is one small thing that nobody thinks about. It’s the middle of winter, you have a race banquet to go to, try to find a babysitter for the kids, going to a casino type deal and the ASA Midwest Tour books it at the Kalahari which has a huge indoor water park and it’s a family affair. Those kinds of things are what make it a class act series.”
During the off-season he purchased a vinyl graphic business from a friend, “We can do printing and cut vinyl, car wraps, regular lettering, make smaller decals. Have a lot of fun putting different lettering on my race cars and would like to get some more clients.”
For now, he feels that he is competing in one of the toughest series in the United States. “Its only going to get better from here on out and it will be fun to see what happens. I think as raw talent goes, I think the series has the best talent now that you can have, so I don’t see anybody coming in now and popping up, they will have to earn it.”
