Glen Winner McAleer Makes Short Track Debut

CJ Wilson Racing’s victory in Round 4 of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge at a rainy Watkins Glen International was a true team effort and embodied everything about the collaborative manner in which the team race. Chad McCumbee’s opening stint behind the wheel of the ModSpace Motorsports Mazda MX-5 was hugely impressive and can be directly attributed to the work he has done with his Scottish teammate, Stevan McAleer, who arguably has more wet weather racing experience and prowess than anyone else in the ST Class field. The 30 year old Scot worked extremely closely with McCumbee to mentally prepare him for racing conditions that McAleer would view as routine.

Over the Independence Day holiday weekend, McCumbee decided that it was time to return the favor and expand McAleer’s racing resume with some short track Late Model racing at his home track of Myrtle Beach Speedway, something that is second nature to the driver from Supply, North Carolina. McAleer’s initial experience in the 3100 lb, 350 cubic inch V8 late model racer was anything but natural. “On race day morning I jumped in the car and had the crew in stitches as I complained about the fact that the I was on top of the steering wheel, the brake pedal was too close and that there was about eighteen inches of travel between each gear. Chad then reminded me that I really only needed to get it into fourth gear for the race and third gear for any restarts,” explained the New York based Glaswegian. His comfort level and the foibles of the gearbox were further compounded by the cars steering alignment. “The wheel had the usual yellow tape to indicate where ‘straight’ is but when I set the wheel straight the car pulled massively left. Twenty degrees to the left!” Once again, McAleer’s initial issues were greeted with laughter from his veteran crew.

Once the first practice session got under way, McAleer became fully aware of the fact that this was a completely different type of racing discipline. “I could manage the fact that I was so close to the wheel seeing as I was only making left hand turns, and there was only so much steering input required, but the car is designed in such a way that it is impossible to right foot brake. Every single series I have raced in whether it was Skip Barber, Formula BMW, MX-5 Cup or the Continental Tire Series has allowed me to brake with my right foot. In the Late Model car I had to brake with my left foot which was pretty exciting to say the least.”

As the session went on the Scot began to develop even more appreciation of the skills of his CJ Wilson Racing partner, McCumbee. “Without doubt the biggest thing for me was the ability to really feel the tires. When we debrief, Chad is always talking about not being able to feel a particular corner on the ModSpace car. With the stock car tires having such a big sidewall you can feel everything on all four corners. I now have much more insight into the feedback that Chad is able to give to engineer on the IMSA car and all of it comes from his years of experience racing these cars.”

McCumbee also recognised that it’s a skill that his years of short track racing has helped him hone. “That definitely comes from the short track background and being able to feel so much in the late model cars.” His only real regret was not being able to pass on more of that knowledge to McAleer during the event. “It was difficult for me to coach him as I was racing myself. But we got a lot of practice time and Stevan only had to figure out four corners as opposed to the ten or fifteen that we normally do.”

The Scot’s fifteenth place finish, having started 18th, impressed McCumbee. “It was an extremely stout field of cars in what is one of the toughest and largest events of the year. From his first lap of practice to the last lap of the race, I felt he got better and legitimately he was running his fastest times at the end of the race.”

Both ModSpace Motorsports drivers are keen to come back and race at the .563 mile paved oval and McCumbee is willing to provide McAleer with better machinery. “The ultimate goal is to get Stevan into one of my cars. We are building cars as we speak and we’d like to get him back to test and race some time later this year.”