FIghTIng The Good FIghT
SLAVENS AND HIS TEAM NEARLY REALIZED THE DREAM A
YEAR AGO, FINISHING AS RUNNER-UP AT NO MERCY 10 IN RVW.
THEY’VE STRUGGLED IN 2020, BUT SLAVENS IS HOLDING OUT
HOPE THERE’S A VICTORY IN THEIR FUTURE AT A MAJOR RACE.
the people to do it.”
Ultimately, it comes down to Slavens. If he isn’t
buying in, none of it works. That, however, has
never been in question.
“Our relationship has been strong for way be-
yond this car and then I’m constantly learning,”
Slavens says. “I still make plenty of mistakes, but
it’s kind of one of those things, if Joe and Mark
see something in the data that I have done that’s
not optimizing the program, we talk about it. I
can take criticism. It’s not going to be the first
time I was told I was doing something wrong.
Everybody’s got that open mind and if one of us
is missing the mark, then tell us we’re missing
the mark. Quite honestly, I wouldn’t know why
or how we would want to change that part of the
program in any shape, manner, or form.”
T
he only problem – and everyone
involved knows it – is that things don’t
slow down in RvW. Jackson seemingly
made 100 runs in the 3.50s in Valdosta
and he’s talking as though things are going
to be even quicker at Sweet 16 3.0. That could
mean even lower 3.50s or even 3.40s, and that’s
somewhere Slavens knows he can’t get to.
Oplawski joked if they reach the 3.50s, it
“might be a 3.59 with a 9” and even then it would
have to be the perfect conditions. That’s just the
nature of running a stock-body car in a class
where that’s nowhere near the norm anymore.
It also begs the question: Can old-school still be
successful in the undoubtedly new-school RvW?
“It’s a continual thing we have to look at,”
Slavens says. “As far as going deep in the rounds,
it will be a struggle to hang with them from that
perspective. But we don’t want to lose focus on
what we’re doing now. We still have goals that
we want to achieve.”
That might include a run in the 3.50s, but it’s
not the priority. The main objective is winning a
Lights Out, a No Mercy, a Sweet 16 or a Shake-
down race – a major event stocked with the best
in Radial vs. the World.
Werdehausen admitted it will take consistency
and luck, but that’s not much different than the
recipe for success for any driver at any level of
racing. Minus the moonshot at Lights Out last
year, Slavens has built his program on consistency
and making it down the track. The recent prob-
lems have plagued that approach, but everyone
involved is confident – or at least optimistic – they
can return to that level.
The trio will test before Sweet 16, having taken
a step back and narrowed down what they believe
is the problem.
“I’m going to be optimistic and tell you that I
think that the wizards, as I call them, will figure
it out again and that we’ll at least be competi-
tive comes Sweet 16,” says Slavens, referring to
Oplawski and Werdehausen. “So I think we feel
fairly good about our findings and we’re anxious
to go test and see if we can actually put it on
rubber again.”
Is there a chance to put together another mag-
ical weekend and grab a victory? They all remain
unrelenting, even as their car becomes a rarity
in the class. Of course, this team wouldn’t have
it any other way. “I think there’s still a place for
the car and we’re up for the challenge, regardless,”
Oplawski says.
There may be a time and place – and it may be
in the not-too-distant future – where Slavens will
have to weigh the options with Michael and the
Zimmerman family. Maybe it makes more sense
to jump to Pro 275, run in the 3.70s and 3.80s
and try to win something major in a class that is
gaining steam at an impressive rate.
But Slavens is not at that point yet and he’s
thankful for the constant dedicated support from
the team owners. He’ll look at that option when
and if the time comes, but Slavens is steadfast in
the belief it doesn’t have to be right now.
All three are driven by the hope of winning with
the steel-bodied Camaro in RvW, knowing the
celebration that would follow. With that in mind,
the journey still remains very much worth it.
“I’ve imagined a lot of stuff and I don’t know
that I can put into words what it would mean.
I mean, it would be huge,” Werdehausen says.
“We’ve had some success, we went to Milan last
summer to a race and we won that deal, but it
wasn’t like what winning one of the big races
would be. To win against 50 or 60 other cars, that
would be really meaningful.”
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