National notebook
Notes: Cancer can't slow down Missouri racer
Todd McCoin at Lucas Oil Speedway. (gsstanekracingphotography.smugmug.com)
If fans are looking for a driver to cheer on this season at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., Late Model driver Todd McCoin might be one to consider. McCoin, who’s been racing Late Models for more than 20 years, is battling cancer and is undergoing monthly treatments to target the renal cell carcinoma.
“We’re pretty much ready to go. The car is ready. I don’t know about the driver, but the car is ready,” the Barnett, Mo., driver said with a laugh.
McCoin is keeping a smile and a good attitude despite the adversity he faces from a health battle that’s been ongoing.
“I’ve been fighting cancer for a couple of years now,” he added. “This may be the last year for us. I’m not really sure. We’re gonna play it by ear. We’ve been kind of holding it at bay for the most part these last couple of years, but you never know what tomorrow brings.”
McCoin, who turns 52 in May, is coming off a solid season. He wound up sixth in Lucas Oil Speedway points with seven top-five finishes in 11 races. He won a midsummer feature at Lake Ozark Speedway and a season-ending open Late Model event at Nevada Speedway.
With plans to run Callaway Raceway in Fulton on Friday nights and Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturdays, McCoin is looking to enjoy every minute behind the wheel. He’s approaching his racing like his cancer challenge with the motto of never give up.
“We’ve been just trying to have fun instead of taking stuff so serious,” he said. “We run for points, but if we have to miss a race it’s not the end of the world like it used to be. We’re just trying to have fun.
“It’s just getting a little more difficult. My daughter used to help a lot and she’s gone her own way, with other interests. I’ve lost some other help. But we’re gonna keep on trying. We’re not gonna give up yet.”
McCoin’s life took a turn six years ago, shortly after winning the season-opening feature in Wheatland. Three weeks later, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and underwent surgery to remove one of his kidneys.
“Talk about having a high, winning the first race at Lucas, to three weeks later being told I had cancer. That was kind of a shocker,” he said.
The next two years, McCoin was in remission but in 2018 the cancer came back in his lung and adrenal gland. He had radiation treatments last year and again in January along with monthly immunotherapy in Columbia.
“The last night of last season at Lucas, I took third and for me, that was like a win,” McCoin said. “Shoot, I had radiation treatment the day before on Friday. The treatment leaves me really fatigued.
“It’s a struggle wheeling the car when it’s 100 degrees in the shade and 130 in the cockpit with a racing suit on. But as long as I can get into that car, I’d sure like to keep going.” — Lyndal Scranton
Hammer’s return home
Kyle Hammer’s journey into the unknown on his World of Outlaws rookie tour ventures to a land of familiarity this weekend.
The Clinton, Ill., driver gets his chance at a home game against the World of Outlaws Case Late Models as the Series returns to Farmer City Raceway for April 1-2’s Illini 100
Hammer is eight races into his Rookie of the Year campaign and has shown promise this season with a top-five at Volusia Speedway Parks’ DIRTcar Nationals in Barberville, Fla.
While he couldn’t break into the top 10 in last weekend’s WoO races at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C., Hammer may have an edge at Farmer City. The Prairie State competitor grew up at the track, a facility his father, Don, operated in the 2000s.
“Dad actually promoted the racetrack from (2005-10), I think it was,” Hammer said. “That’s when I started racing, so he sold out of it, but yeah, we’ve always since I’ve been alive had a connection with Farmer City.
“Whether we were there every Friday or when we were there seven nights a week when Dad was doing the track work, we’ve always been around it.”
Those years that Don Hammer ran the day-to-day operations gave his son experiences he’ll never forget. Now he’ll compete against national competitors at the quarter-mile oval.
“The cool part is getting all of the friends there,” Hammer said. “None of them have been able to come to watch me run a Late Model since we really started in Florida and haven’t really been anywhere near home with it.
“For them to come, hang out, and just kind of make it like a family deal, everybody’s going to show up, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”
While Hammer prefers larger tracks, Farmer City is in his wheelhouse.
“It’s a bullring, but it’s not,” Hammer said. “It’s got such big sweeping corners, and it kind of fits my driving style. I don’t know if it’s just the amount of laps I’ve made there that makes me like it so much or just the driving style.
“Like I said, it’s a bullring, but you drive straight and smooth like you would a big half-mile track, and that’s why it fits me so well.”
Hammer knows he’ll be facing tough in-state competition as well, including four-time and reigning series champion Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin and current WoO points leader Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville.
“You got all of the guys from Illinois,” Hammer said. “(Jason) Feger, (Kevin) Weaver, (Ryan) Unzicker, (Bobby) Pierce, all those guys. Then you also got (Shannon) Babb, who ran at a national level for a while, but still, he’s the local guy of the area, so you got a lot of them. I definitely feel like it’ll be the hardest area for us to go to.”— Mike Warren
Odds and ends
The Illinois-based Midwest Big 10 Super Late Model Series has disbanded because of competition from richer events, series director Adam Mackey said. The organization added a modified series as a replacement and still operates a Crate Late Model tour as well. … Friday’s Complete Well Testing Sooner Late Model Series event at Red Dirt Raceway has been cancelled because of an unfavorable forecast; the track plans to continue with a regular-season event. … BMRE Electrick Carts is sponsoring 2022’s victory lane for the Wabam Dirt Kings Tour.
