After each night Jason Williams spent watching dirt track racing at area tracks, he’d wake up the next day and search for cars on the Internet.
Even if he found one he liked, he couldn’t but it. Money wasn’t an issue — he’d raced previously, for roughly three years in open-wheeled modifieds in the early 2000s. He had to give up racing when his daughter, Hope, began to play travel softball and race horses in barrel racing.
Saturdays were just too hectic.
“My wife, DJ, said, ‘If you could just stay away from (the track) you’d be all right,’ ” Williams said. “I just knew, though, that as soon as Hope got done with summer ball, I’d get back out there.”
It was a long wait for Jason, but Haley, now a senior member of the New Hope High softball team, is done with summer and travel ball. Though she still barrel races, the schedule has opened up for the Williams family, which means Jason can dedicate the time to maintaining a race car. He will return to the track next Friday at Magnolia, where he’ll compete in the Super Late Model race.
“That first race back at Columbus … it’s hard to really describe it,” he said. “That smell, being lined up, going around the track — it just felt right.”
It has been a year since Jason has returned to the track, this time in a Late Model car, which he has run in 602 Stock Late Model shows at Columbus Speedway and Super Late Model shows at Magnolia Motor Speedway. Williams bought the car from Mark Stokes, who has helped set up the car whenever he has raced. Lee Ray, who competes in the Street Stock division at both tracks and throughout the region, has handled repairs.
“I didn’t have a clue about anything when I first started racing,” Jason said, “and, to be honest, I still don’t.”
Jason said he wouldn’t be unable to put the car on the track each week if it weren’t for Ray and Stokes, the latter of whom he cheered for as young boy. The New Hope native used to attend races with his grandfather, and as young as age 5 was determined to one day race. He didn’t imagine a driver he’d watched turn countless laps on dozens of nights would serve as a mentor in the sport.
“If it weren’t for Lee Ray and Mark Stokes keeping me going, it would be me, myself and I,” Jason said. “People don’t understand what someone like Lee Ray goes through. He’s constantly working on a car. That’s something I didn’t expect.”
Jason said he got to know Ray during his first stint racing open-wheels. He said the generosity of Ray and his father, Bobby, has been overwhelming, but something he has witnessed before in their interactions with others in the area.
“You probably have that same kind of helpfulness at all the tracks, but maybe not to the extent that Lee and his dad are to people,” Jason said. “That’s special, you just don’t see that. And it shows. He’s well respected all over the place.”
Jason finished seventh in the 602 feature Aug. 22 at Columbus, but he has run a limited schedule this year. He took time off after the death of a family member. He also has been keen to revamp the suspension of his Mastersbilt car, which had dogged previous runs, he said.
“I’m gonna be honest, I’m real disappointed,” he said. “A lot has to do with me not being patient. I’m working on that. I attribute the downs this year to being too aggressive. I have to get in the seat and settle down.
“This year’s been tough. We came out the gates, blew a motor and had to work to get that rebuilt. We put all new springs on it, too, and I think that’s the problem. Some people say it’s not, but some people say it is.”
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