Racer Makes Most of Chance

A twist of fate has propelled Greenfield's Cameron Dodson into contention for the United States Auto Club Silver Crown championship.

Dodson, a veteran of Midwest sprint car races, is third in points in the new-generation Silver Crown series and trails leader Wayne Reutimann Jr. by a mere 10 points with six races left in the season. He finished fourth on July 26 in the J.D. Byrider 100 at O'Reilly Raceway Park, formerly Indianapolis Raceway Park.

"We're in a good position to win the championship," Dodson said last week from his home in Greenfield. "Misfortune put me in that position, so I'm going to try and take advantage of it."

Dodson, 19, was not scheduled to race in the 100-lap USAC race, but car owner and NASCAR driver Carl Edwards had to sit out due to a dislocated thumb suffered in a dirt late model race July 22 in Lincoln, Neb. Instead of driving, Edwards wound up spotting for Dodson in the USAC race.

Dodson, a Greenfield-Central High School graduate, has six top-10 finishes in six starts this season in the Edwards-owned R.E. Technologies Ford. He is the leading rookie driver in the Silver Crown series. He has best finishes of third place at Homestead and Iowa speedways.

He returns to action in the Silver Crown series on the one-mile Illinois State Fairgrounds dirt track on Aug. 18 in Springfield.

"I felt badly that Carl couldn't race," said Dodson of his boss who won the 2006 Silver Crown race at ORP. "I love driving for him; if he had been healthy he would have driven.
Dodson said that having Edwards as a spotter helps him find the fastest racing line around the track.

"Driving for him (Edwards) is not a job," Dodson said. "It's fun because everyone on the team makes it pretty easy for me."

He earned the Silver Crown ride late last year after a test session at Miami-Dade Speedway where team co-owners Carl and Roger Johnson were impressed. Driving for Edwards, the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup top rookie and this season's leading NASCAR Busch Series driver, was the icing on the cake.

The new-generation Silver Crown pavement car was introduced in 2006 to allow competitors to race on tracks as large as 1.5 miles. The front-engine open cockpit race cars are based on a sprint car chassis.

"It drives more like a stock car but reacts more like sprint car," Dodson said. "They are glued to the ground and that makes it easier to drive; it's like driving a Lazy Boy recliner at 180 miles per hour."

Dodson is also racing in USAC's national sprint car and midget car series for team owner Keith Kunz of Columbus, Ohio.

Dodson has three top-10 finishes in six starts on pavement tracks in the sprint car series. His best finishes have been sixth at Toledo (Ohio), seventh at O'Reilly Raceway Park and ninth at Mansfield (Ohio). He finished third in his first USAC midget feature this season at Salem Speedway last Saturday.

The 19-year-old realizes that his time to advance to higher levels in motor racing is now.
"I'm young, and when you look around, there aren't too many drivers over 25 getting good rides," said Dodson, particularly looking at NASCAR. "I'm approaching the right age, but I'd really like to see something happen in the next six months."

Dodson began racing karts when he was 8. At 16, Dodson won nine sprint car races and won the Mid American Sprint Series championship in 2004. He also won a Kenyon Cars feature at the Indianapolis Speedrome.

In 2005 he won 11 races and won the 2005 Auto Value Super Sprints championship. Last year he posted four winged sprint car victories and raced in the Hooters Pro Cup Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Dodson, who played ice hockey and football as a youngster, continues to exercise consistently but not at the same pace as Edwards, who does back flips after his wins.
Meanwhile Dodson remains confident that he's on the right path to land a fulltime NASCAR or Indy Racing League ride in the near future.

By Al Stilley - Star Correspondent