Athlete of the Week

Athlete
of the
Week

Tim Huddleston

Four NASCAR races into the season and already it’s been a busy year for Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills.

Racing in the Auto Club Late Models event at Irwindale Speedway, he’s finished first, second twice and has one fourth-place in four races.

His first place win of April 13 will be televised on the "NASCAR Racing from Irwindale" show on Fox Sports Net West 2 tonight, Thurs., May 9 at 6 p.m.

Huddleston will have his car and many of his support team at Rib Ticklers in Agoura Hills beginning at 5:30 p.m. to sign autographs, pose for photos and talk to fans—then watch the show.

In the winning race he set the pole, the fast time, "But I did a terrible spin and started eighth," he said. "We took the lead at lap six and led the remaining 44 laps."

For Huddleston, race car driving is his avocation. In his daily work life he is a sales rep for BG Products/PetroSpecs automotive products in Newbury Park.

The days preceding the race he had a trade show in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He left there on April 12 at 5 p.m. and drove nonstop 19 hours with one other driver.

"We just slept in the car and kept going. We pulled into Irwindale at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, missed the practice and we ended up setting the pole anyway.

"Normally we get to practice early, warm up and go for qualifying. I missed all that and we ended up winning that night. It was a pretty emotional win."

Huddleston’s first season of racing was 1989.

"This is my lucky 13th season," he said. "This is the best ever. Our team is really gelling. We are definitely on a roll."

According to Irwindale Speedway’s current race results, Huddleston is in second place and has never been that high in the standings before in the 19-race schedule.

"We are in the ‘Embryo State’," he said. "We have a pretty good lead on the third-place driver. I have never had three consecutive poles in a row. Last year was our first time having one. So, we’re pretty excited about the way things are rolling."

Explaining how the poles’ procedure works at Irwindale, Huddleston said that qualifications are done after practice during the day that drivers arrive. Each car is driven five laps and the fastest lap is taken.

In the big leagues (the Winston Cup), he said, drivers start in that order. The fastest qualifier starts on the pole lane (closest to the infield) and the other qualifiers follow, based on their lap times.

But in the local short track divisions such as at Irwindale, an "invert" is used in which a cash bonus based on qualifying pole position is paid to the drivers. The actual starting lane positions are based on spinning a giant wheel.

The difference between Irwindale and the Winston Cup, Huddleston said, is to compare racecar driving to baseball. The Winston Cup would be like Major League Baseball. The Busch Grand National would be like Triple A minor-league baseball.

Racing at Irwindale Speedway would be the college level except NASCAR drivers are paid. Under the umbrella of NASCAR at Irwindale, drivers are insured by NASCAR. Instead of doing a traveling series, Irwindale drivers stay at the home track and participate in a weekly series.

Last year, Huddleston ended up with a total of three wins, one of which was televised on the Fox Sports West Irwindale Racing show. He also had three poles and eight top fives. During the winter he has rebuilt his car, gaining some help from M and R Engines and Ladco Leasing.

His father-in-law, Oren Prosser Sr., and brother-in-law, Oren Prosser Jr., race Ventura Speedway dirt track in the Sprint Car Division.

Concerning his father in law, Huddleston said, "He is kind of a living legend on the West Coast for racing with more than 1,000 main events on the local NASCAR circuit, including five championships at the Saugus Speedway in the early 1970s."

At the core of a successful race car driver is a strong support team, he said.

"The sport that I am in, or NASCAR in general, is the biggest team sport there is of any sporting event," Huddleston said. "I would say it is more of a team sport than football or baseball. You cannot do it without a full team support."

He has a team of six who work nonstop from the minute they arrive on a Saturday afternoon from unloading the car out of the trailer until the car is reloaded many hours later.

"They pamper me like crazy," Huddleston said. "I have a guy who does nothing but monitor the air pressure, the humidity, the air temperature and everything of the tires.

"I have another guy who works with nothing but the engine and the chassis. He tunes and makes sure the chassis is right. I have another guy who is my spotter who talks to me over the radio. I have another guy who helps set up and organize the pit."

And when his team is through with its work, his family (wife Lisa, son Trevor, 6, and daughter Haley, 18 months) are there to greet him.

While there’s always the possibility that Huddleston cold move up to a higher level of racing such as the Winston Cup or Busch Series, right now he prefers staying with racing on the weekly series on San Gabriel Valley track off the Interstate 605.

"I love Irwindale and I love staying close with my family. For me, I feel as much as an entertainer as racecar driver," he said. "If there were no people in those stands, I can’t honestly say I would do it just for the fun of driving a car.

"To me the enjoyment is having all the people in the stands there to share it with and most of all my family. On the road it is hard to take them and hard for them to be there. I like it that it’s close. We go out there, the whole family goes and it is an event that we all do together."