As they watched their kids grow up playing sports, Chris Lewis and Fred McCarter thought about what it might be like to get their competitive juices flowing again themselves.
Lewis and McCarter had backgrounds in racing, and so did Troy Knorr and Mike Mensendiek. Now, the four Columbus residents — all in their 50s — race microsprints several Saturday nights in the spring, summer and fall.
"Chris and I over the years would talk about, ‘We just need to go race. We need to do it,’" McCarter said. "We threatened it for who knows how long — 10 years?"
"Then one Memorial Day Weekend, after a few too many beers down at the lake, we decided to do it," Lewis said.
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McCarter started getting in touch with the owner of U.S. 24 Speedway in Logansport, and the owner told him he would rent McCarter and his friends his daughter’s car and rent them the track. So McCarter, Lewis and Mike Miller went on a Sunday and were hooked.
"We still talked about it, and then I just kind of surprised everybody and bought a daggone car," McCarter said. "Then, after I had a car, I would tell Chris, ‘Hey, I’ll race it in the senior class,’ which at Logansport is 30-and-above, and then I tricked Chris into racing it in the non-winged class with the younger folks who are even faster. The next thing you know, he bought one right away. Then, I tricked Troy into doing the same thing. So Troy raced my car in non-wing, while I raced it in the senior class."
Jumping back in
Knorr and McCarter resurrected their racing careers in 2016. Lewis and Mensendiek came on board the following year.
Knorr, who is from Northwest Indiana, started racing quarter-midgets at age 7, then raced late models until age 21. Then, he was away from racing for more than three decades.
"My dad ran a dirt track in Northern Indiana, so it was a normal progression," Knorr said. "There was a 40-year dry spell when I didn’t race anything."
McCarter got sons K.J. and Cole involved in go-karting, and K.J. moved up to microsprints before he became a quarterback at Columbus East High School. But Fred didn’t do much racing until a few years ago.
"I always had a dream of racing," McCarter said. "My grandpa raced sprint cars. I remember that from when I was really young. So I told my wife when we were dating that we were probably going to be poor, and I was going to race sprint cars. Then, that didn’t ever happen. We started having kids and realized it’s too expensive, too dangerous and things like that."
Mensendiek raced go-karts at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds as a kid. He stayed close to racing while his son Nathan was been driving go-karts, lightning sprints and modifieds.
"I pretty much was going to get completely out of racing when my son was done," Mensendiek said. "Then, I would say unfortunately for me, that’s when Fred called and said, ‘Why don’t you go to the track with us?’ So I went with them."
Lewis also raced as a kid before going on a long hiatus from the sport.
"We’re probably the ones that are a little bit unique in that we haven’t been doing it our whole lives," Lewis said. "But most of the guys out there in some form or fashion have literally been doing it their whole lives."
Traveling to compete
Lewis, McCarter and Mensendiek race mostly in the senior microsprints class at Circus City Speedway in Peru, Indiana. Knorr competes mostly at U.S. 24 Speedway about 15 miles to the west in Logansport.
"We travel 2 1/2 hours," McCarter said. "There are people that go to U.S. 24 and Peru Circus City that travel further than we do every week to race. They’re really very competitive tracks with really good drivers at those two places in particular, and we get good car counts."
At 57, Knorr is the oldest driver at Logansport, where the senior division is 30-and-over.
"Every once in awhile, the old guys can sneak one in on the younger guys," Knorr said.
The senior division at Peru is 40-and-over. McCarter, 50, said there are drivers there older than him; Mensendiek, 51; and Lewis, 53.
"We’re definitely not the oldest," McCarter said. "The reality is, some of these guys that are old have been racing forever. Some of them will race with us and then race with the young whippersnappers at night. The reality is, there are some 12- and 13-year-olds that race in non-wing that are phenoms. But the older guys that we race that are in their 50s, they’ve raced forever."
Knorr is going to Coles County, Illinois, this weekend, about a 3 1/2-hour trip. He said microsprints are big in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, but in Indiana, it’s more in the northern half of the state.
"The micros are a huge thing in certain areas, but not nationally," Knorr said. "For us, it’s more Northern Indiana. There aren’t a lot (of drivers) around here, and that’s probably part of why there aren’t a lot of tracks that race here."
A sound investment
As is the case with just about any sport, there is a cost to racing. But Lewis said racing microsprints is not as expensive as some other forms of racing.
"You can be all-in with a motor and a good car and be competitve in what we race for $5,000 for sure," Lewis said. "There’s a lot of current and ex-sprint car drivers that race the micros because they’re a reasonable way to race without breaking down. It’s competitive. It’s legitimate racing, just a smaller scale."
Knorr, Lewis, McCarter and Mensendiek all have concept chassis from a builder in Northern Indiana.
"We’ve been fortunate," Lewis said. "We’ve been smart enough to connect ourselves with the right people that help us to know what the right setup is, what the right package is because if you blindly went out and did this, you wouldn’t do as good as we do. The only reason that we’re where we are is, we bounce ideas off the people that do win all the time. We get the equipment from those guys, and we ask them questions."
Some tracks offer large payouts. Peru has had $10,000-to win shows, and Logansport had an $8,000 to win show. Those events often attract professional drivers.
Being competitive
None of the local quartet has won any of those large purses, but they have had a measure of success. Knorr was track champion in senior microsprints at Logansport last year and currently is second in points this year.
McCarter has won feature races at Logansport and Peru and is second in points at Peru. Lewis has won feature races at Peru, and Mensendiek has won some heat races.
"We’re very, very competitive," McCarter said. "Our problem at Peru is that there are like three guys that are so hard to beat. We’re almost normally racing for fourth place."
Their biggest competition at the tracks is 54-year-old Russ Gamester of Peru, the 1989 USAC midget champion. Gamester still races USAC Silver Crown cars and pavement sprint cars.
"He pretty easily beats us, but he doesn’t only win senior class, he goes and wins the other (younger) class, too," Lewis said. "He’s phenomenal."
Mensendiek said they go race to experience racing because it’s exciting to be there, and it’s fun, but the reality is, a few drivers are a couple levels above them.
"Those guys are the real deal," Mensendiek said. "A lot of those guys do it for a living in sprint cars, and they come back into these. They travel around from track to track. It’s very tough to beat those guys."
Surviving a scare
Knorr is the only one of the local quartet to have been involved in a serious accident since they resumed their racing careers. He was knocked out once last year, but did not have any major injuries.
"My steering box locked up, and it just went into the fence full-throttle," Knorr said. "It was pretty nasty. The guy that actually built my car, his son was watching and said it’s the worst wreck he’s seen there until we had one Saturday night that was worse. Luckily, it wasn’t me."
Lewis said the quartet usually doesn’t take quite the risks that some of the younger drivers take, which maybe is why they don’t win as much.
"We want to win, but we have to go to work Monday morning, and I’d prefer not to have to work on the car all week, either," said Lewis, who is president of Primary Financial Company.
Knorr, who owns Premier Home Inspection, said this is his final year of racing. But as the other three pointed out, he’s said the same thing the past couple of years.
"It’s a nice escape," Knorr said. "Midweek when you’re dragging, when I’m on my second inspection of the day, and I’m hot and tired, I think, ‘Well, at least Saturday, I get to go race.’ It’s something to look forward to."
Mensendiek, who owns Mensendiek’s Auction and Real Estate, called racing an addiction.
"With what I do for a living, as far as the auction and the real estate and all the stress that I go through day-to-day — Jason Setser said it best to me, and I feel the same way — when you climb down in that car, everything else leaves," Mensendiek said. "You don’t think about what auction I have this day or who I have to please tomorrow. I’m in the car, and it’s the only thing I think about."
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Name: Troy Knorr
Age: 57
High school: Lowell
College: Indiana State
Occupation: Owns Premier Home Inspection
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Name: Chris Lewis
Age: 53
High school: Seymour
College: Indiana University
Occupation: President of Primary Financial Company
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Fred McCarter
Age: 50
High school: Carroll (Flora)
College: Indiana University
Occupation: Accounting partner in Aviation Tax Consultants
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Mike Mensendiek
Age: 51
High school: Columbus East
College: College of Auctioneers and real estate school
Occupation: Owns Mensendiek’s Auction and Real Estate
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