2010 is a season of getting back to the track for 14E Todd Evans Racing.  Todd is racing for the seventh year as a sprint car owner and driver. He and his race team are proud to be sponsored by Sport Clips for the fifth straight year. Sport Clips is the national leader in men's and boys haircuts.

Todd started his racing career in go-karts nearly a decade ago and took home one championship along the way before moving up to sprint cars. Todd lives near Georgetown, Texas, the national headquarters for Sport Clips.  Below is a great article written last season in the "Liberty Hill Independent" that tells Todd's  story of fulfilling a lifelong dream of making it to the  race track as a sprint car driver.

Special thanks to Merle Rouillard, the reporter who interviewed Todd and brought his story to the headlines.

Life is in the fast lane for Liberty Hill Sprint car racer Todd Evans

Liberty Hill’s Todd Evans was born to drive fast cars.

Born in McPherson, Kansas, you can literally say Todd Evans grew up around racetracks. His father, Mike, was a pit crewmember in the 1960’s, where Todd saw first-hand all things racing while building a lifelong knowledge base of the sport. Decades later those lessons would give Todd the dream of a lifetime when he started racing go-carts at the age of 35. His go-cart wasn’t just any go-cart; it topped out at speeds of 100 miles per hour and turned out to be a very expensive hobby. To understand where the racing dream began you have to go back to Todd’s roots, growing up in the foot-hills of Denver where he loved the outdoors and all that it brought with it. Eventually though the Colorado winters got to him. He found that he liked the lifestyle of Central Texas and could play his favorite sport all year round, golf!

In 1983, Todd, who is single, made the big move to Texas having now lived in Liberty Hill for a year and a half. Six years ago there was another big change in Todd’s life when he became a sprint car driver. As a racer with the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS), Todd travels to racetracks across the country. He also races with the ASCS Regional Tours. The Gulf South Region covers a large part of Texas, encompassing Dallas, Houston, Corpus Christi, Victoria and into Louisiana with 11 race tracks and 28 events a year.

For those who aren’t up to speed about sprint car racing, the cars weigh 1400 pounds and race on oval-shaped dirt tracks. The key to making a sprint car run fast is changing the tires and setup of the cars according to the condition of the track. The tires must ‘stick’ to the dirt. The cars have 750 horsepower engines and no starters! They burn methanol for fuel. Over the past four years, Todd is racing with the logo and sponsorship of Sport Clips haircuts, headquartered in Georgetown. Todd first met Sport Clips Founder and CEO Gordon Logan, during his go-cart days. Sport Clips is a national leader in men’s haircutting with over 600 stores nationwide.

According to Todd, the Sport Clips sponsorship is the best thing to happen to him as the owner of a "grass-roots" racing team. Todd makes appearances at SportClips® stores throughout the year. He averages 14,000 miles a year driving to and from tracks giving SportClips® even more off track publicity on highways and rural Texas roads with his trailer decked out with the company’s big time logo.

The sport of sprint car racing is very competitive and is tough to end up in victory lane, with Todd winning three features (main events) and numerous heat races so far. Associate sponsors for the 14E car include Young & Rogers Farm in Wichita Falls, Smiley’s Racing Products in Dallas, and Eagle Body & Paint in Liberty Hill. Todd doesn’t get much time off, even if he wanted it! Racing his sprint car starts in the shop with prep work. The green flag drops starting the second week of February to the middle of November. And yet, racing is just a hobby for Todd! For the past 12 years, he has owned and operated Water Conditioning of Central Texas, a water treatment company that sells water softeners, purifiers and services to these products.

Todd owns two complete sprint cars and a whole lot of spare parts! The cars have many safety features. The motor alone is worth $38,000, and Todd considers himself lucky if it can run for 20 races before it has to be ‘freshened,’ or rebuilt, which can cost as much as $8,000! The whole car, worth as much as $55,000, contains complete titanium components. It is lightweight and built for speed. When racing, Todd wears a fireproof Nomex suit. If a car goes up in flames, it will keep the driver from being burned for 90 seconds. That sounds like a long time to be on fire, but safety crews are stationed at four points of the track and can get to a crash within seconds. Todd wears a HANS (Head and Neck Safety) device that prevents the driver’s neck from twisting and turning during an accident. The neck

stabilization is literally the difference between life and death during an accident, some of which are airborne in sprint cars. The cars are also inspected for safety upon arrival at racetracks.

The ‘wings’ on a spring car keep it on the track and help prevent it from flipping – most of the time! At over 100 mph, there is over 5,000 pounds of down force on the wings. In 2008, Todd flipped once, but two years ago he destroyed three cars by ending upside down. He says flipping in the air – sometimes higher than the light poles at the tracks feels like slow motion but knowing the landing is going to hurt. Todd has escaped serious injury.

Todd’s dad also helps him and goes to his races. Barbara, Todd’s mom, was actually the biggest part of his pit crew when she took care of his beloved dogs Maxim and Lexus while he was away at races. Both dogs have since passed away. Todd’s brother-in-law Brad Webb, a former Liberty Hill resident, and sister Janet keep his web site up to speed and on line. It is www.14etoddevansracing.com.

What an increase the population of a town from 5,000 to 45,000? The Sprint Car Nationals, which is a yearly racing tradition in Knoxville, Iowa, each August! Todd is looking forward to nearly a week of racing, as he and his team race against the best in the business. The thrill of competition is what Todd has enjoyed since childhood whether playing golf, baseball, skiing and now racing "hammer down" in a sprint car.

Todd is available to do presentations a real cool "show and tell" at schools with his sprint car.

Teachers, what a great opportunity to teach children the importance of reading, math and science as it relates to racing. If you are interested in more information you can go to Todd’s website, www.14etoddevansracing.com or email him at 14etoddevansracing@sbcglobal.net.