Losing A ‘Stray Cat’: Clint Smith Parts Ways With Mechanic Brad Baum

A month-long springtime break from World of Outlaws Late Model Series action hasn’t been uneventful for Clint Smith. Last Friday he split with his chief mechanic Brad Baum, ending a relationship that began in 2010.

While in-season driver/crewman breakups are never easy, this one was done on good terms. Both men Tweeted complimentary words about the other after Baum made known his decision to depart.

Clint Smith (r) and Brad Baum.

“Parted ways with Clint Smith Racing,” Baum wrote on his Twitter feed (@thedirtone) on April 13. “I have to thank Clint, Kim and Jenna for everything. Couldn’t ask for a better family and team to be with. Wish CSR luck as we move on.”

Smith announced the news first on his Twitter account (@clintsmith44): “Brad Baum has moved on from Clint Smith Racing. Headed back North. Good luck to Brad on his new journey.”

The 36-year-old Baum, who has worked in the dirt Late Model industry for most of the past 13 years, won the 2007 WoO LMS Crew Chief of the Year Award while employed by Chub Frank. He joined Smith’s operation in 2010, relocating from his native Sherman, N.Y., to Senoia, Ga., to serve as a second CSR crewman alongside Darrell (‘Don Vito’) Cooper. Baum and Cooper soon became known in the WoO LMS pit area as Cat Daddy’s ‘Stray Cats,’ but Cooper left the team during the 2011 season and Baum assumed the role of Smith’s primary mechanic.

“I had a great time working for Clint,” said Baum. “Clint and his family really did take good care of me. They’re great people. It was just time for me to go and do something different, and now we’ll see what the future holds for both of us.”

Baum’s next racing gig is with a former employer, chassis builder Bob Pierce, who has hired Baum to work with his son Bobby, a 15-year-old dirt Late Model talent who just two weeks ago turned heads with a career-best WoO LMS finish of eighth in the Illini 100 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway. Baum previously served as a mechanic for the elder Pierce in 2002.

Baum is currently back at his family’s home in New York and spending the week doing some work for regional dirt Late Model racer Rick ‘Boom’ Briggs, who shares a shop in Bear Lake, Pa., with his cousin Chub Frank. Baum plans to head to the Midwest on Friday and meet up with the Pierce team at Peoria (Ill.) Speedway on Saturday night. He’ll live in an apartment near the Pierce shop in Oakwood, Ill., and spend the 2012 season on a barnstorming tour with Bobby, who plans to enter more than 70 events, including the month-long DIRTcar Summer Nationals.

Smith, meanwhile, has enlisted the mechanical assistance of Georgia dirt Late Model driver Duane Treadwell to support his continued WoO LMS efforts. Treadwell helped Tim Fuller during February’s racing in Florida and during the Illini 100 at Farmer City and has also been working with Smith this year.

“Duane Treadwell is gonna back off his racing just a little bit to help me on the road and we’ll form a teammate-type deal to race around the house here,” said Smith, 47. “He needs a trailer and I need a crew guy, so we’re gonna join forces to help each other. We’ll work out of my trailer when we race together around the house, and he’ll come out on the road with me to help out (starting with the WoO LMS doubleheader on April 27 at North Alabama Speedway in Tuscumbia and April 28 at Tennessee’s Tazewell Speedway).”

Smith went racing on April 14 at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga., with a family member listed as his crew chief: his 19-year-old daughter Jenna.

“She done pretty good,” said Smith, who finished fifth in Dixie’s ‘Spring Championship’ event. “We didn’t run too good – too much motor for the site we were at – but we had a good time. She gave me hand signals (during the race) and helped me out in the pits.”

But did Jenna give dear old Dad any setup suggestions during the night?

“No,” laughed Smith. “None of that.”

Tim Fuller: He’ll Be Missed On The Road With The Outlaws

The news filtered out first in a Tweet from Clint Smith. Shortly after the completion of the Illini 100 on March 31 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway, ‘Cat Daddy’ informed his 1,000-plus Twitter followers: “Tim Fuller just announced out of money and dropping off tour…losing a great travel partner!!”

Tim Fuller with daughter Ainsley & wife Lori.

Indeed, Fuller, a 44-year-old DIRTcar Big-Block Modified transplant from Watertown, N.Y., had reluctantly come to the end of his World of Outlaws Late Model Series road. A regular on the circuit since winning the Rookie of the Year award in 2007, Fuller had told his good buddy Smith that – in the wake of a disheartening Illini 100 DNQ – he simply couldn’t continue following the demanding schedule and was on his way to let WoO LMS director Tim Christman know of his decision.

Considering Fuller’s penny-pinching racing effort and nightmarish start to the 2012 campaign – he exhausted his supply of four emergency provisionals in the first six races of the season, leaving him no pathway into the Illini 100 starting field after failing to transfer through a heat or B-Main – it was no surprise that he found himself forced to reevaluate his plans. But it’s still difficult for his friends, colleagues and fans to accept that, barring a dramatic turn of events, he won’t be in the pit area when the series resumes action on April 27 at North Alabama Speedway in Tuscumbia, Ala., and April 28 at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway.

“Tim Fuller is definitely going to be missed,” said Christman, who began his stint as WoO LMS director during Fuller’s rookie season on the tour. “He has been a loyal supporter of the World of Outlaws, and he established himself on the national dirt Late Model scene while racing with us. He’s a proven winner on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.

“From my conversations with him, I know how badly he wants to continue racing with the World of Outlaws. But he understands that he can’t do it the way he’s been doing it, and I have to agree with him. He’s too talented to be struggling the way he has the last couple years.

“Hopefully stepping back from traveling across the country will help Tim get his Late Model program back where it needs to be,” added Christman. “We’ve seen the great things he’s capable of accomplishing on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and I’m confident that we’ll see him making more headlines with us in the future.”

Fuller at speed. (rewingphotos.com)

What’s so frustrating for Fuller is that it was just three years ago that he had appeared to cement himself as a WoO LMS championship contender. After winning once in his rookie season and twice in 2008, he broke out in ’09, tying the tour’s consecutive-win record of four en route to triumphing seven times over a sizzling 11-race span. He finished a career-best fourth in the points standings and earned $172,150, including points-fund cash.

But Fuller was unable to maintain that performance level in 2010. A new in-house engine program installed by his Gypsum Express team owner, John Wight, seemed to nudge Fuller out of the comfort zone he had found with Custom Race Engines and he struggled all season, winning just twice (back-to-back in June) and recording just six top-five finishes (after bagging 17 in ’09). He tumbled to eighth in the ’10 points standings and his earnings fell to $118,875.

Then came the trying 2011 season. First there was an early-season breakup with Wight; Fuller left the only dirt Late Model owner he had ever known after Wight’s falling out with World Racing Group officials over DIRTcar sanctioning of his two New York tracks prompted the businessman to prohibit Fuller from entering WoO LMS events. Fuller was able to strike out on his own thanks to help from BPG Inc.’s Chad Sinon (the Pennsylvanian’s sponsorship check allowed Fuller to purchase one of Wight’s Rocket cars), former New York track owners Harvey and Joan Fink (the couple provided Fuller an engine) and other benefactors, but he was woefully under-equipped to compete against the nation’s top dirt Late Model drivers. He went winless in ’11, scoring just two top-five finishes and finishing 10^th in the points standings.

Fuller called his 2011 “pretty disastrous.” He earned just $73,070 – over 100-grand less than he pocketed just two years earlier – and admitted that the only thing that kept him on the road was his stubborn streak.

“I guess it just got to the point where I wanted to prove that I could do the whole series with one car,” said Fuller. “We did it, but it was a brutal season.”

Fuller was hopeful that he had weathered the worst in ’11, but after seven 2012 WoO LMS events he came to the realization that he can’t continue piling highway miles onto his hauler without getting results. Even with a backup car at his disposal this year thanks to assistance from former WoO LMS team owner Dale Beitler, Fuller has been unable to gain traction on the tour. After a season-opening Georgia/Florida trip that included a flip at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., and not a single top-10 finish, Fuller knew the Illini 100 weekend would be do-or-die. Falling short of the $1,500-to-start A-Main was the last straw.

Sitting 15^th in the points standings with just $4,300 in earnings to his credit this year (he had to forfeit last-place money each time he used an emergency provisional), Fuller had to make the right choice for his family (wife Lori and 7-year-old daughter Ainsley). That means focusing on a schedule of dirt Late Model specials closer to his home – including WoO LMS shows when the tour visits the Northeast – and selected DIRTcar Big-Block Modified events with the New York-based J&S Racing team.

“It was a hard decision to make,” Fuller said in a press release announcing his plans for the remainder of the 2012 season. “I’m just so far behind right now (on the WoO LMS). We dug ourselves too big of a hole already and there’s just no way that we can catch up.

“We really needed to make some money while we were in Georgia and Florida to be able to continue with the series and that didn’t happen. The second night out we wrecked pretty good and that put us even further behind. I think it’s time to sit back and reevaluate where we are as a race team.”

Good luck, Tim Fuller. We know we’ll see you back at the front of a World of Outlaws pack, partying like it’s 2009.