Lansberry wins main event

Chad Lansberry won his first-ever auto racing main event with a win in the 600 cc Modified Midget class October 1 at Barona Speedway.

Lansberry led for most of the 20-lap main event, and he also won the eight-lap heat race October 1.

“Everything came together. No one got in my way. That’s half the battle, it seems like,” Lansberry said.

Lansberry, who began racing in 2003, posted his first top-five finish in 2004 and had obtained his first second-place finish in a main event earlier this year. “I’m pretty consistent in getting better,” Lansberry said.

The starting position inversions in the heat race are based on the point standings, and Lansberry began the heat race on the outside of the second row. He was in front by turn three of the first lap.

“I had drifted high and managed just to get around everybody and held onto it,” he said of leading the heat race for the final seven and a half laps.

The 600 class had three heat races, and the main event starting positions were also based on inversions of the drivers who finished in the top four during their heat race. Lansberry began the main event on the outside of the fourth row.

Once again he gained several positions by turn three of the first lap. “I went high again. I kind of like being on the outside,” he said.

A restart after the first lap returned him to third place after he had moved into second during the initial second lap, but by the fifth lap he had passed Dawn Sparland for the lead.

“She stuck with me for a while,” Lansberry said.

Lansberry, who noted that the outside groove provides him with more room to pass drivers, had overtaken Sparland on the outside. After passing Sparland for the lead, Lansberry was able to run his own line for most of the rest of the race.

“Some lapped traffic kind of holds you back, but that’s more learning curve,” he said. “You’ve just got to time everything right to get by them.”

Lansberry’s learning curve began in 2003 when he made his racing debut with the 600 class. Lansberry, who was born in Van Nuys in 1971, has lived in Fallbrook since 1974. As a youth he attended races with his father, Dale. “I always wanted to do it,” Lansberry said of racing.

Other priorities delayed his racing career until 2003, when he could afford the racing expenditures. He minimized those expenses by choosing the 600 class. “This is a pretty economical class,” he said.

Lansberry destroyed his initial car during a race, and he now drives a 2003 Stallard with a Yamaha R6 motor. “It’s basically been a three-year learning curve,” he said. “I’m constantly improving.”

Lansberry had previously won a heat race, and he led the first ten laps of the September 4 main event.

His father usually helps in the pits, although Dale Lansberry was at the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield for the October 1 race. “This is the one race he didn’t show up,” Chad Lansberry said.

Warren Roll, who is also often in the pits helping Lansberry, was also absent October 1. Steve Trombetta was Lansberry’s only pit crew member on the night he won.

Lansberry is sponsored by 3 West Surveying and Mapping, which is his company, and by Lansberry Land Surveying, which is his father’s company.

He can’t improve upon first place, but he’ll still seek to win as often as possible. “Now that I’m here I intend to stay here,” he said. “Every time I get the car better, I’ve got to drive a little better.”