"RACING ALL IN FAMILY FOR DANE CARTER"
Published, in edited form, in the Indianapolis Star (StarWest), Aug. 15, 2002 ©
Dane Carter's field of dreams is laid out on a floor of concrete, not natural turf, here in a small race-car shop on the west side of Brownsburg, behind a car lot.
A half-dozen race cars, several of them undressed of their sheet metal to one degree or another, line up in two rows across the floor of Carter Racing. Carter is reaching inside the cockpit of one of the stripped-down models of the trademark royal blue and fluorescent orange Carter cars, the largest in the spare and virtually silent shop, to secure a hose fitting.
The Silver Crown machine, the upright, hump-backed kind of race car that used to be the only kind you could race at Indy or elsewhere 50 years ago, is what young Carter, oldest son of one racing legend and grandson of another, has pinned his growing racing dream on for the latter part of the 2002 racing season.
"We have four dirt Silver Crown races left," he explains, taking a short break from making the No. 7 car fitter for racing. "I'm trying to run strong on the dirt to show car owners I can do both, be versatile on both dirt and pavement.
"That's what I'm really focusing on the latter part of the season here, so I can hopefully run dirt and pavement for someone next year."
That goes straight to the heart of the racing dream held by the sandy-haired 23-year-old with eyes several shades of blue lighter than his race cars who did most of his racing on paved tracks as a teen-ager in quarter-midgets and Legends cars. In racing, if you can build a record of good finishes on different fields of high-speed play, the backing will come.
"I'm trying to run strong on the dirt to show to car owners I can do both, be versatile on both dirt and pavement," says Carter, whose credentials on paved tracks are solid, especially since a third-place showing in a Silver Crown race at Richmond, Va., in July.
"That's what I'm really focusing on the latter part of the season here, so I can, hopefully, run dirt and pavement for someone next year."
Now, as he walks over and leans against a tall tool cabinet in the center of the race shop, his words gain a certain lilt and race even faster as he talks on about his hopes for taking the next step toward the intermediate racing dream, getting "hooked up" with car owners and sponsors that will allow him to race full-time out of a better-heeled stable than the small one hidden away in his hometown. "This year was going to be our closest chance of going for a series championship, like Silver Crown," he says with a boyish laugh. "But the biggest problem has been financial, not being able to run two cars.
"Like the midgets, we don't have enough cars or the money to be able to run the entire 28-race schedule. We don't have that big a sponsor budget yet."
So, Carter has run a few midget events this season and dreams of someday running all three divisions of USAC racing, perhaps as early as next year. "Right now, we just can't afford to do it on the same level as teams with large, large pocketbooks that can race three times a week," says the aspiring driver who won two midget events at Winchester, Ind., in 2000.
As he talks, his father, Pancho (Duane Jr.), and younger brother, Cole, come into the shop and begin tinkering with the rear suspension of one of the midget cars in another corner of the shop. They, too, are part of the blue-and-orange dreams that grow like hothouse flowers in the small race shop.
For Dane Carter, it is part of a three-layer legacy of like grandfather, like father, like son. His father was a champion in all three USAC divisions, raced Indy-cars and won the inaugural Michigan 500 back in 1981. His grandfather, Duane (Sr.), was a sprint car champion and Indy 500 driver, too.
His uncle, the late Dana Carter, was a winning midget and sprint car driver as well.
So, the ultimate dream doesn't fall very far from the family tree for a third-generation Carter. "The goal definitely is to get to Indy-cars and run the 500," Dane says, his words revving up a notch.
"The one thing that I'd probably like people to say about me is being the first Carter to finally win the Speedway, because Grandpa tried and finished fourth, Dad tried and finished third, but it never quite worked out."
"It's kinda like the (Michael) Andretti curse, you know?" he adds. "Dad ran it 17 times, and his dad ran it 11, so I'd like to be known as the first in the Carter family to win it."
But that is a dream for tomorrow; for today, he'd settle for a level of racing involvement that both his father and grandfather reached at fairly early ages. "In the meantime, racing full-time, making a living racing, is what I want to do," Dane says.
"But, to do that in USAC," he is quick to add, "you have to have six cars, two for each division, and that's just not feasible with this operation. You don't see anybody driving all three divisions for themselves."
He says he is also looking into a possible ride in the Infiniti Pro Series, the new developmental series for the Indy Racing League and another potential path to the Indy 500.
He is also heading toward his last semester at IUPUI and a degree in organizational leadership and supervision, a degree he believes could come in handy if he ever has to run his own business - like, say, a race team. "It's part of the deal with Dad," the Brebeuf High School grad says. "'If you go to school, I'll help you race.' It's the same deal his dad had with him."
The family legacy spreads to both Carter sons, with Cole, 19, following closely in his big brother's footsteps. The younger Carter, also a Brebeuf grad, is racing USAC midgets now, excelling on dirt tracks, which allows the brothers to tutor each other to a certain extent.
"He's run a lot more pavement in a midget than I have, so a lot of times I'll listen to him, and to my dad, about things I should do," says Cole, who has moved over to the tool cabinet. "But then I've run a lot more dirt, so a lot of times he's asking about things on a dirt track.
"So, it's kind of a give-and-take thing."
"Yeah, it's pretty much an overall team effort," Dane chimes back in. "When I'm racing my car, he's kind of my crew chief, and, when he's racing his car, I work as his crew chief."
Such teamwork does not always prevent some brotherly bickering, however. "We fight and argue and do the typical things that brothers do that are four years apart," Dane admits, with a smile, standing in the middle of this concrete-floored field of racing dreams.
"But five minutes later," Cole adds, with a youthful smile of his own, "we're back to normal."
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