Bryan Clauson Races A Marathon Beyond The 500

Bryan Clausen in the garage at Indianapolis. [Russ Lake Photo]

By Allan Brewer

The thought of competing in 200 car races across America in a single year, including the centennial Indianapolis 500, seems absolutely off the chain but four-time USAC national champion Bryan Clauson is already a quarter of the way (plus some) toward making that unlikely goal happen in 2016. He calls it the “Chasing 200 Tour: Circular Insanity.”

Clauson, a California-born specialist in dirt track and short oval racing, has been behind the wheel of quarter-midgets, winged and unwinged cars, sprint cars and more in his spectacular career—becoming a legend among the peripatetic, barnstorming heroes who travel to and run at small, unheralded tracks around the Midwest and beyond. In time he has moved up to the NASCAR Nationwide series, through Indy Lights and now is poised for his third Indianapolis 500 with Dale Coyne Racing in the No. 88 Jonathan Byrd’s Racing/Cancer Treatment Centers of America car.

While most kids today come up to IndyCar through karting, Bryan has done it the old-fashioned way—in the seat of front-engine cars racing on oval tracks in far-flung towns around the United States. He started at sixteen years of age and quickly became the youngest driver to win a USAC national event (the Open Wheel Oktoberfest in Columbus, Ohio). He gets his love of short-track racing honest: his dad raced in 360 winged cars in California where he met Bryan’s mom, and both will be in attendance to watch him qualify at Indy this weekend.

Clauson’s quest is built around the support he receives from Jonathan Byrd’s Racing and Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Both have shown heavy involvement on both sides of Bryan’s marathon plans, IndyCar and short track, and have become sponsoring partners year-round. The running total of races run for 2016 to date for Clauson is fifty-six races. By the end of next week that number will rise to at least fifty-nine with the addition of the Tony Hulman Classic in Terre Haute, Indiana on Wednesday night, and the Hoosier 100 dirt-track race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on Thursday, and the Indianapolis 500 next Sunday.

“It’s about racing at the marquis short tracks, at places I might never have seen before or couldn’t get to before; and it’s about getting out, seeing the country,” the 27 year old Noblesville, Indiana resident said as he waited for practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier this week. “I wanted to see how many times I could race in a year. The idea evolved and eventually I came up with 200 as the number. I figure by the end of May I can be at 60 races, and then the summer months are when the number will really explode.”

For example, Clauson has committed to 36 races in June alone, a month of only 30 days, which means some double-headers and little time to travel to race sites in between. The chase is not just about numbers, though. “The idea is to be at marquis events,” he said, “and I’m not running from competition just to be at a race.”

“It has allowed me to get to some new places and into different cars than I might otherwise,” he adds. Among those events he lists the World of Outlaws Gold Cup in Chico, California; the Chili Bowl in Albuquerque, the Volusia dirt car Nationals. “The experience is spread out over a lot of different cars: winged cars, non-winged cars, sprinters, midgets….even some pavement winged stuff.”

“It’s just me, my fiancée Lauren and our two dogs in the motorhome,” Clauson said of life on the road to the next race track. “We’ve had fun, and done some sightseeing between races. One of the best was in Casey, Illinois. They have the world’s largest rocking chair,” he said with a grin. “We’ve also been to the Wal-Mart museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, and gone to the Professional Bull Riders rodeo in Des Moines.”

“I knew it would be challenging, physically and mentally,” he admits. “At first, I was traveling all over and racing and the end wasn’t in sight. It is a real mental challenge, having to stay sharp, with no real break, always on the go, getting to the next track,” he said. “There’s no time to savor the moment, but there’s not much time to linger over a loss either. You race one and then you have to forget it, and go do it again.”

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