Team From Simi Valley Older But Not Slower

The Simi Valley-based racing team of Steve Nickolai and Rick Hansen proves two adages.

Life did begin in their 40s for them, , and in Nikolai’s case, when he shut the door on his racing career another door immediately opened.

The pair, who have won three track championships, connected late in the 1999 season through chance, and 47-year-old Nickolai stands a good chance of driving 48-year-old Hansen’s late model stock car to the points title at Irwindale Speedway.

Nickolai finished seventh opening night when the late models were a supporting class in a program that featured the Home Depot 100 for Super Late Models. Saturday, the late models will be the featured class for the first time.

Nickolai started his career at Saugus Speedway in 1986 and won the track’s street stock points title in 1989. He moved up to the sportsman class and won a championship in 1996 at Kern County Raceway, then converted the car to a road-race setup and competed two years at Willow Springs International Raceway before retiring and selling the car in August 1999.

Hansen also started at Saugus, as a crew member for now-retired sportsman racer Rick Hopkins of Simi Valley.

“I started off just helping a friend and somehow ended up owning a car,” Hansen said. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”

Hansen purchased a sportsman midway through the 1996 season and his first lap at Kern Valley was enough to convince him to leave the driving to others.

“I came down the backstretch, put my foot in the throttle and turned left, and the car did what it was supposed to do,” Hansen said. “It turned left, but that was enough to scare me.”

Robbie Hewitt of Simi Valley drove the car and and Hansen joined forces with two other sportsman drivers for the 1997 season. One of those drivers, Kenny Kranzler of Simi Valley, won the track championship that year.

Dusty McDonald of Simi Valley, who set the late model track lap speed record at Irwindale while driving for Hansen, was the crew chief for Kranzler’s championship, and Kranzler was McDonald’s crew chief in 1999.

Nickolai and Hansen met when McDonald called on Nickolai’s expertise when the team was having difficulty finding a suspension that wouldn’t wear out the tires.

“I sold my car, and literally two-and-a-half weeks later I got a phone call from Rick and the crew to help set up the car because they were having problems,” Nickolai said.

“Dusty called me because he knew I had scales. I came over, went down the line checking everything, we went racing, and Dusty didn’t like the setup I put in the car. We tried another setup, everybody liked it, and Dusty won the main event.”

Nickolai called Hansen the next morning with the intention of walking away from the operation.

“I told him I had just sold my car and just couldn’t handle being at the track without a car,” said Hansen, who didn’t know that McDonald and Hansen decided to go separate ways the night before after Hansen had gone home.

“I was going to pull out,” Hansen said, “And he asked me, what are you doing in two weeks?”

Nickolai, who had decided to retire thinking his body was no longer up to the demands of racing, accepted and won the trophy dash in his first appearance for Hansen.

“I’m getting older, my eyesight’s going away, my depth perception’s going away, arthritis has been setting in, I’m not an 18-year-old kid anymore like the kids I’m running around with on the track,” Hansen said.

“When we went out that first night and won the trophy dash, I started thinking ‘Well, maybe I’m not as bad as I think I am.’

“That victory made a lot of old feelings go away. The old man’s going to see if he can [beat] the young kids this year.”

Nickolai said he will probably retire after this season, regardless of the results, but he’s enjoying the ride.

“It is a front-running car, so it’s all on me,” he said.

Hansen said Nickolai is welcome to drive the car as long as he wants, and added that his 22-year old daughter, Kimberly, has expressed an interest in racing.

Hansen said he races for fun.

“It’s the pride of having the top car,” he said. “It’s the camaraderie out of being at the track, and my wife, daughter and grandaughter all feel like a part of it. I’m not going to make any money at it, but you can’t beat the fun you have for the money we spend.

“The key to the whole thing is having fun and winning, and having fun with the families.”

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Clark Templeman III won the 30-lap sprint car main event Saturday at Ventura Raceway, taking the lead in the middle of the 29th lap after leaders Randy Moody and Greg Taylor tangled coming out of the second turn. Rich Wolfe won the IMCA modified main event, Tom Stephens won the street stock main and Jack Fullerton won the pony stock event.

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Sunday’s episode of the television show “Malcolm in the Middle,” had a plot line involving the main characters attending a NASCAR race.

Although fictional names were used, the footage featured Sean Woodside of Saugus. Most of the footage was shot at the August 21 NASCAR Winston West Series race at Irwindale.