Kenny Brightbill hasn’t been at all 36 Super DIRT Weeks on the Syracuse mile, having supported Lindy Vicari’s Nazareth National events that briefly went head to head with Glenn Donnelly’s annual “Salt City” speedfest.
After all, it was Vicari’s Reading Fairgrounds that made Brightbill a legend in modified racing.
Brightbill turned fast time for the inaugural event in 1972 and again in 1996. He ran 21 miles per hour faster the second time he claimed the pole and overall, lap times have dropped 10 seconds since ’72.
Brightbill won Syracuse in 1988, ran second to Kenny Tremont in 1999 and was third in 2000. This year, he started in the eighth row, and moved forward until dropping out of the race and finishing 29th. At 56, he’s still a factor, but it doesn’t get any easier.
“For years, it helped to build your own stuff,” he reflects. “That way, you had a little bit of knowledge the other drivers didn’t have. Now, with all the chassis builders around, they can make anybody quick, even though they don’t know what they’re doing. You can still get an edge, but you need plenty of money and a great team to do it.”
Therein lies the problem for many “older” racers. They started on their own, made their bones, and got some support from admirers. But at heart, they’re racers, not sponsor seekers.
“I never had the talent to get money from people,” admits Brightbill. “It’s hard to get sponsorship at all today, much less a real good one. I got by by driving for guys who had money themselves. I did all the work and they paid the bills. I’ve done it since I was 26. I’m 56 now and afraid my first real job is coming soon.”
Does that mean guys without family money or a big sponsor can’t get started today?
“I guess you could, if you just wanted to have fun and it didn’t matter where you ran. You could scrimp by. But to run all over like we did and be competitive, no,” Brightbill says.
The key phrase there is “all over,” as Brightbill, Billy Pauch, Doug Hoffman, Dick Tobias and other New Jersey and Pennsylvania drivers of that ilk used to be regulars at special events in New York. Today, the area’s “heavy hitters” rarely cross the New York line.
“It’s tough to travel anymore,” offers Brightbill wistfully. “It costs so much and the promoters don’t help you out anymore. They used to slip you something and you could scrape by if you had a bad night. Then the deal money all went away. The newer promoters don’t believe in it. They don’t even believe in advertising anymore, most of them. You’ve mainly got operators, not promoters, these days.”
Brightbill has seen plenty of changes through the years.
“There are a lot of fans who went to all the races who have dropped off over the years,” he said. “When they hear I’m running somewhere, a lot of them come back to see me, but it’s never like it was.
“The other big change is the talent level of the racers. There’s more and more guys who’ll just run over you,” Brightbill said. “And the promoters won’t do anything about it because they’re afraid of losing cars. It ends up costing everyone more money. Guys like Pauch and I lived to race. Today, guys just want to walk around in a firesuit and show they’re a driver. We raced because we could make a buck at it and because we loved racing.
“When you had to build your own car, it took two years to get a car to go good. In that period, you learned how to drive and developed respect for each other. If you ended up second, you took second,” he continued. “Today, they’ll drive over you to get past you because they all think they’re winners.”
The subject of talent brings a torrent of thoughts from Brightbill. Clearly, he’s considered the subject on those endless nights up and down the highway in his hauler.
“I’m not saying there’s not a lot of good drivers out there,” he adds. “There’s a lot of good talent. But when they don’t drive right, the track should put them in the pits for the night. They’ll tell the promoter they’re going to quit, but if they really want to race, they’ll be back.
“I’ve seen a million guys who got mad, but they were all back the next week. What else are you going to do with your race car?”
What else, indeed?