ASCS Frontier Region driver preview: Joe Ramaker

5/5/2015

ASCS

ASCS Frontier Region driver preview: Joe Ramaker

Andrew Kunas - COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Joe Ramaker makes it a point to not race for points. Just do the best you can and go for the win. That formula worked for the Choteau, Montana driver in 2014 as he claimed the Frontier Region championship in the American Sprint Car Series. He'll expect to follow that same plan again as he chases the championship in 2015.

The two-time Montana sprint car champion won six times en route to the title last year and has 14 total victories since the Frontier Region of ASCS was started in 2013. He had three more potential victories snatched away at the last moment in what was otherwise a dominant run for the Ramaker Racing No. 98.

Ramaker, who had lived in Boise, Idaho for the last several years but hails from Choteau, Montana and has his racing operation based there, won the season opening event at Electric City Speedway and nearly won the next night if not for a last corner pass by T.J. Hartman. Ramaker won the next two races and led in the point standings most of the season, only faltering in July with a rough weekend with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour. Ramaker's runner-up finish and a win in the following Frontier Region races later that month got him back ahead of Alberta's Kelly Miller. Two more victories at Gallatin Speedway, including a third straight Big Sky Super Nationals win, helped seal the championship for him.

Despite being talked about at or near the top of the point standings often, Ramaker doesn't like talking about it himself, as he said after that late July victory at Billings Motorsports Park put him back on top for good last season.

"I try to drive (points) out of my head as much as possible. I let it get in my head one night (in 2013) and it cost me a championship I think. I want to focus on getting as much as I can out of my equipment and my talent, and not make it about beating people."

Ramaker, considered by many to be one of the best sprint car racers to ever come out of Montana, likes to win, having done so 69 times total over his career, going back to 1998. He was the champion of the Big Sky Sprint Tour, a predecessor of the ASCS Frontier Region, in 2008. Aside from all of his victories in his home state of Montana, Ramaker has victories to his credit in other places such as Oregon, Wyoming, and Alberta. He lets points take care of themselves when running a full schedule.

Again using a J&J Chassis and an Ostrich engine, his longtime preferences, Ramaker and his team have put together a new car for the 2015 racing season. RSI Concrete, Kronobusch Electric and J&J are sponsors for the Ramaker Racing team. After years in Boise, Ramaker will be back in Montana regularly this year. Twenty of the 21 scheduled events for the ASCS Frontier Region are in Montana, the other in Wyoming.

While winning six times in last year, one of them coming after a fantastic late race duel with 2013 series champion Phil Dietz, Ramaker still felt the sting of losing a few at the last moment as well. Aside from Hartman's victory at Electric City, he also got passed for the win at the last moment by Trever Kirkland at Gallatin and by a hard charging J.J. Hickle in a wild one at Billings during the season. He's hoping for a little less of that in 2015.

"I'm looking forward to racing with the new car we spent the winter building, and having my three-year-old son Teddy with me at the races," Ramaker said. "We also lost a few races in the last few laps and we'd like to put an end to that. This year is also different as for the first time since 2008 I'm living in Montana, allowing me more time to work on the car and be closer to the races. We won the (BSST) championship in 2008 so maybe we'll have a good year in 2015."

Ramaker has already seen competition this year, racing in the Washington Summer Thunder Series season opener at the Central Washington State Fair Raceway in Yakima in April. The reigning Montana champion was second fastest in qualifying and then impressively won his heat race from the sixth starting position. Despite damage in the rear end housing in the main event ending his otherwise promising night, Ramaker still turned many heads in the Washington state crowd in what was a possible 2015 preview for the defending ASCS Frontier Region champion.

The ASCS Frontier Region sprint car tour kicks off its third season of competition with a two-night show at Billings Motorsports Park on Friday and Saturday, May 8th and 9th. That is followed by a two-night stand at Electric City Speedway in Great Falls on May 15th and 16th.

The Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series, presented in part by Speedmart Inc. is a winged 360 dirt sprint car tour racing around the state of Montana and beyond. More information on the ASCS Frontier Region can be found online at frontier.ascsracing.com or you can follow the series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ascsfrontier. The national website of the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour presented by MAVTV American Real is www.ascsracing.com.

American Sprint Car Series - Fronter Region
2015 schedule subject to change

May 8 - Billings Motorsports Park - Shepherd, MT
May 9 - Billings Motorsports Park - Shepherd, MT
May 15 - Electric City Speedway - Great Falls, MT
May 16 - Electric City Speedway - Great Falls, MT
June 12 - Gallatin Speedway - Belgrade, MT
June 13 - Billings Motorsports Park - Shepherd, MT
June 19 - Electric City Speedway - Great Falls, MT
June 20 - Electric City Speedway - Great Falls, MT
July 17 - Electric City Speedway - Great Falls, MT (with ASCS National Tour)
July 18 - Billings Motorsports Park - Shepherd, MT (with ASCS National Tour)
July 31 - Gallatin Speedway - Belgrade, MT
August 1 - Billings Motorsports Park - Shepherd, MT
August 14 - Gallatin Speedway - Belgrade, MT
August 15 - Billings Motorsports Park - Shepherd, MT
September 4 - Electric City Speedway - Great Falls, MT (21st Annual Montana Roundup)
September 5 - Electric City Speedway - Great Falls, MT (21st Annual Montana Roundup)
September 6 - Electric CIty Speedway - Great Falls, MT (21st Annual Montana Roundup)
September 11 - Sheridan Speedway - Sheridan, WY
September 12 - Gallatin Speedway - Belgrade, MT (Gibson Guitar Big Sky Supernationals)
September 18 - Billings Motorsports Park - Shepherd, MT (Dan Laber Memorial)
September 19 - Billings Motorsports Park - Shepherd, MT (Dan Laber Memorial)