A tight pit crew

BUTTE — Not much can rev the relationship between a father and his children than cars.

From teaching children to drive to spending countless hours restoring a vintage automobile, the combination of tools, machinery and time have brought fathers, sons and daughters closer over the decades.

At Alaska Raceway Park, Father’s Day weekend is a celebration of speed and family fun. While mothers are treated to flowers on their day, fathers at the raceway are serenaded by the sounds of horsepower and smell of rubber burning on pavement.

Racing provides an adrenaline rush, Alaska Raceway Park co-owner Earl Wagner said, adding the sport has done much more to bring him closer to his children.

“When our kids went through school, they were all interested in cars and stuff anyway,” he said.

So when his oldest, Jim, began racing in 1987, it was with a 1969 El Camino father and son fixed up themselves, Wagner said. Following Jim, it was daughter Michelle’s turn to race, and for them to fix up an old 1953 pickup. The youngest, Michael, took his turn with a 1968 short-bed pickup, also restored by father and son.

With a family devoted to racing, Wagner said he would have never considered purchasing a car ready to race.

“You gotta restore it, fix it up yourself,” he said. “It’s the time you spend with the kids that brings you together. The idea is to have the time together working and building. When you do that, (kids) aren’t out on the street doing other bad stuff. The best thing you can do is spend that time.”

That’s a lesson Colin Brown was taking to heart at the raceway Saturday, spending the day with 4-year-old daughter Chelsea. Brown said he remembers time he spent working on cars with his grandfather, and hopes to do the same with his daughter.

“She already wants to race me everywhere,” he said. “I used to have a Mustang, and eventually I’d like to do that with her. She’s kind-of a tomboy type. She’s a big car person already.”

Chelsea said she likes when her dad “works on stuff with me,” and enjoys visiting the race track because “they drive really fast.”

Jay and Mariah Ulen spend most of their weekends racing junior dragsters with their father, John Ulen. At the track Saturday, the teens — Jay’s 13 and Mariah is 15 — spend the afternoon preparing for Sunday’s races with their dad. Both said the time they spend working on their cars has strengthened their relationship with their father.

“My dad used to race and my mom does race now,” Mariah said. “We’ve been here at the track all our lives.”

While working on their cars “I enjoy that we talk to each other,” she said. “The interaction makes a lot stronger bond.”

Tinkering is also a learning experience for the teens, Jay said.

“Well, for one, it takes two of us to do lots of the stuff on the cars, and he explains a lot of stuff to us.”

A former racer, John Ulen said he doesn’t race much anymore; rather, he helps his children.

“It’s always been a part of me,” he said about spending quality time with his children. His family homesteaded the area, “and when you’re homesteading, you have to do it all yourself.”

In addition to staying involved in the lives of his offspring, John hopes “it teaches them responsibility and sportsmanship. When we leave home for the weekend, they can’t get away from me.”

Jeff Hickman is a relatively new dad — his children are 2 and 6 weeks — who looks forward to working on cars with his children as they grow older. Hickman was showing his 1981 BMW 323i Baur special edition in the pit area at the track.

“I remember working on a Ford Galaxy with my dad,” he said. “We didn’t have enough money to fix it and were taping up the muffler.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.