By Chris Faulkner
For John Oliver Jr., racing is in his blood, and not just because his father, grandfather, and uncle are also racers.
It’s almost an addiction to him, and that’s why he races not just one but two cars every Saturday night at his home track, 34 Raceway.
He also races his stock car at Columbus Junction every Friday and Vinton every Sunday.
Oliver Jr. competes in the Modified class at 34, a car owned by Dennis LaVeine, as well as his own stock car, and has been successful in both classes.
Oliver Jr. just finished claiming another Stock Car class points title, the 27th in his career, and he placed second in the Modified class.
He also has more than 280 feature victory trophies along the top shelf of his race shop, and they’ve been in different classes.
He is also vying for a title in the IMCA circuit nationwide. Because the certified tracks are uniform, drivers can build up points without having to race in tracks across the country.
At 50, Oliver Jr. knows he’ll have to quit driving eventually.
“It’s not an old man’s sport,” he said, and it’s not just slower reflexes.
“By the time you work your full-time job, and then you come home, and then you just stay up too late working on stuff,” Oliver Jr. said, and he owns his own business, Oliver Heating and Air.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy to know when to quit.
“They don’t have a counselor for racing,” Oliver Jr. said, meaning, “It’s worse than drugs. At least if you get into drugs, you might be able to get out of it.
“Once racing is in your blood, it’s there. Don’t get into it unless you know you want to.”
But his wife, Diane, spurs him on.
“My wife loves racing,” Oliver Jr. said. “Honestly, I’d have probably been out of it a few years ago if she didn’t like racing as much as she does.”
But also, “I’ve driven for multiple people, and it’s been a lot of fun driving for them.”
Following Family
Oliver Jr.’s grandfather, when he lived in Wisconsin, started racing in the early 1950s. In the 1970s, he moved back to southeast Iowa. That’s about when John Oliver Sr. began racing.
They raced at Lee County Speedway, Keokuk Raceland, and in Memphis, Mo., Oliver Jr. said.
Then Oliver Sr. quit, not returning to the driver’s seat until the 1990s, when his son was graduating from high school. He raced until 2010 when he was 50.
“He and my grandpa got me into racing in ‘98,” Oliver Jr. said. He raced at Lee County Speedway in Donnellson as well as at 34.
His grandfather never really quit. “I drove for grandpa in the 2000s, and I really didn’t drive for myself much until 2010 or so,” Oliver Jr. said.
“It’s 30 laps a night that I don’t have to think about nothing but driving a car,” Oliver Jr. said as to what made him get into racing besides the family connection. “I don’t have to think about the business. I don’t have to think about anything.
“So is it a lot of work? Racing is a ton of work. It’s more than sometimes my full-time job,” he said.
“But it’s what I enjoy to do right?”
Although feature winners get paid, Oliver Jr. said it doesn’t pay the cost of racing.
“All, at the end of it, I’ll have to show for it is trophies and coats,” which are the prizes for the season titles.
Oliver Jr.’s sponsors are: X-treme Impact, A&B Roofing, LaVeine Sanitation, Cash 4 Junk Cars, B&B Racing Shocks, and Mid-State Machine.
His pit crew consists of his wife, his father, Justin “Popeye” Stevenson, and the Timmermans: Devon, Amy, Tasker, and Teager.
Corners Are Key
For those who don’t follow the sport, it may be difficult to go from the middle or especially the back of the pack at the start to work your way up to the front.
“You’ve got to have a good handling car to start with,” Oliver Jr. said.
“You drive your hardest and try to drive your cleanest, without anybody getting upset, right? You just try to pass whatever cars you can.”
Handling the corners is the key.
“The IMCA Stock Car class is so even, you’ve got to try to drive faster through the corner,” Oliver Jr. said.
That’s where he has the most fun, he said. “You just see how hard you can bury that car in the corner without spinning it out.”
That’s why he would never do drag racing.
“I’d have to go to the end of the drag strip, slam on the brakes, and come back the other way,” Oliver Jr. said.
As for his fellow auto racers, “There’s a lot of drivers I have a lot of respect for that have come up,” Oliver Jr. said. Besides his father and grandfather, he mentioned LaVeine, Darin Thye, and John Schultz.
“I grew up watching (Schultz),” Oliver Jr. said. “That guy, no matter what he drove, he was on the cushion, and he was fast.
“It’s sad to see that a lot of these people that you grew up watching aren’t racing anymore, but you also understand why,” and that’s where the age issue came up.
Oliver Jr. said he’ll never completely get out of racing. He’ll just join a pit crew for another driver.