You may know him as the 2009 TBARA Rookie of the Year and you probably know him as the new TBARA President. And if you’ve been reading our website with any degree of regularity, you also know him as the poor soul that had to rely on this website’s staff to change his flat tire at New Smyrna during SpeedWeeks this year – a fate we wish on no one.

But did you know Dave has been around the block in sprint car circles? It’s true. Wait until you see the great pictures he supplied us.This one is a good long read, but we hope you enjoy it. So without further ado, quite possibly the most serious 10 Questions we’ve put together yet, ladies and gentlemen, we present new TBARA President Dave Shotsberger!

First off, congratulations on winning the 2009 TBARA Rookie of the Year Award. Would this be the high-spot in your racing career to date? Thank you very much. I still can’t believe the season we had. I really owe it to a whole bunch of people; Sonny Hartley, Dick Fieler, Gerry Myers, Brian Crews and so many more. And I’ve got to say something about Gerry’s car prep. Do you know we never dropped out of a heat or main for a mechanical defect? That is amazing reliability. But since my racing career is the sum total of this year, yes I would say the entire year was a highlight. The fact that the team made rookie of the year and we got a heat race win along the way was really unexpected. Prior to this my only actual racing experience was a few times on little dirt tracks on a KT100 kart. My last official race prior to running Sonny’s car was in a kart on the Carlsbad CA speedway bike track in 1986. I cut down my right rear and retired early.

I grew up around sprint cars and was always around them as a teenager. I’d started them plenty of times, you know, working on them and stuff but never put the throttle down. Then after Bo won the 2006 Championship Sonny thought it would be cool to let everybody that helped take a turn in the white car. So he rented Ocala and a bunch of us took turns. That was the first time I ever actually opened up the throttle on one.

Sonny and Bo thought I did OK so they wanted to go back and try it again. We rented Ocala again and we did 5 or 6 ten lap sessions. Then they decided I should race the car. I did not want to do that. I really truly had no interest. But Sonny’s middle name should be persistence. So I ran the car a few times after that. Boy, before that first practice I was as nervous as I have ever been in my life. I remember driving to the track and praying for rain! But you know it was actually not bad. Once I got over the willies I was actually comfortable out there. I just wanted to make sure and not get in someone’s way. That was my main concern.

How did you get your start in sprint car racing? When I was real young I was all into the Hot Wheels cars. I grew up in Central Pennsylvania but I would read all the cool California drag race magazines. My dad was not much of a race fan but he really hated drag racing and I was always bugging him to go to the local Podunk strips. There were no fuel cars in PA. So one day he comes home and tells me, “we’re going to the races.” And I was like where, where? And he says, “Williams Grove.” I asked him what kind of races are they? And he said, “you’ll see.” I will never forget that night. That was it. Sprint cars from then on. It was 1969 and I was 8 years old. Ray Tilley was still driving the 88 Bud Grimm Ford. This was right before he had his bad accident at Langhorne. My dad had a tip to watch that car. Now back in those days the high point guy at the ‘Grove started 18^th. To win in 25 laps you had to RUN! It was amazing. I still remember him tearing through the pack. My dad had no idea what he had started. My bugging him to go to the drag races was nothing compared to my constant pestering to go to Williams Grove. When I got to be a teenager I worked two jobs so I could have money to go to the races. We could go four nights a week then. I had some older friends that could drive so that’s all I did. Kept me out of trouble. Then when I was 14 the 21 year old guy across the street bought a sprint car. So from then on I was hands on.

When you were growing up, who was your favorite sprint car driver? Well I was real lucky as a child to grow up during the epic Kenny Weld and Jan Opperman battles. My parents were really conservative so we were Kenny Weld fans. They didn’t like that “damn hippie”. Pretty funny, huh? Man was that amazing to watch those two come from 17^th and 18^th. WOW!

I moved to California after college and became a CRA devotee. I remember when I first moved there I was bitching about all the wing races being up in Nor Cal. And then I saw my first Ascot race. Oooooh MAN! That was some amazing stuff. Dean Thompson, Bubby Jones and all those guys. I was really sorry to see that place go. But Perris Auto Speedway is awesome now. Everybody HAS to see a show there.

But in CA I really got into midgets. Sleepy Tripp was amazing. And then on Thursday nights at Ascot there was this Jeff Gordon guy. You know the rest of that story. I helped Frankie Pedregon on his midget for a while. We got second in USAC/Western States midgets one year.

After Frankie we hired Tommy Estes, Jr. for a few shows. Took the car and him to Belleville. We had trouble qualifying and ended up 8^th on the grid. The main starts and here comes Tommy passing cars on the bottom!!! You don’t pass on the bottom at the High Banks. And he was way down. With five laps to go he was pulling even with 2^nd place. My stomach was in knots. I thought we were gonna win Belleville! But he just didn’t have enough left and we finished 3^rd. Leland won in Andy Bondio’s car. But hey, after the week we had up there that was amazing!!! My car owner was so happy.

Next congratulations – Congratulations on being named the 2010 TBARA President. Will you be racing as well, or just focusing on your presidential duties? Thank you. But no, I am not going to run a car this year. Truth is I wasn’t planning on running a car in 2010, at least not full time. The deal I had with Sonny and Dick was for last year only. And it was a tremendous gift. I am so thankful for them letting me run the car. But now that I am in a leadership role, definitely not. Now that is my decision. And I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with a guy running a car and holding an officer position. But it won’t work for me. Being in a leadership role requires a tremendous amount of focus. I could not run a car effectively and fulfill the role as president. You can’t server two masters. I need to be able to fully support the other officers and volunteers that make the TBARA what it is. They deserve my complete attention. Most people don’t realize all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make this thing work. It’s real easy to sit at a computer and bitch on a chat board. Try getting involved and seeing what it really takes to run a good show. The TBARA is composed of many fine people. It is an honor to be associated with the group and to be given an opportunity to lead it.

The 2010 TBARA schedule looks very nice, one of the best ever. Did you have a lot of input on this? Yes and no. We had a significant amount of discussion on the new purse format which led to the new schedule. It was real simple, either restructure the purse or we would have no shows in Central Florida. Market forces dictated that change. Once we had a purse we could market, Lenny went forward and set up most of the shows. He did consult with those of us that were likely to be in leadership positions before anything was in concrete. He did a great job setting this up. We will have a very smooth transition of leadership.

Looking into the crystal ball, are more Pensacola, Mobile, Concord types of events the future of the TBARA? Well that will depend in part on the desires of the members of the TBARA. For my opinion, no. Too much traveling puts heavy demands on people that have jobs and careers. Right now I think we have a good mix of travel dates and local dates. In fact this is one of the best schedules we’ve had. I think it is vitally important for us to be in Pensacola and Mobile twice a year but our core market is Central Florida and we need to make sure we are maximized there. A good car count is essential to putting on a good show. It is not the only element but it is a very critical one. We have to be very cognizant of this when building a schedule.

Are costs out of control in the TBARA? Do you see any future rule changes to reign in costs? No more than any other elite form of motor sport. Let’s face it, other than a 410, most of the TBARA cars are at the elite or premiere level of the sport. Sprint cars are the kings of the short tracks and that comes at a price. However, having said that, I think the TBARA has done a good job of managing the costs as good as can be expected. Not allowing any rotating titanium is one really good example. Every elite division wrestles with cost. My God, look at Formula One. So I think overall there is a good balance here between cost, performance and a level playing field.

Do you think the TBARA format is a package that would work on television? That is a question as old as TV and short track racing. History would tell us that short track racing really doesn’t play well on TV. Some of my colleagues in sports marketing say that it does not. But was does play well is an update/news format type program with clips, highlights, interviews and such. We’ve explored those for the TBARA but the cost of a quality production is just so high we can’t afford it. It’s the old chicken and the egg thing. We need the TV so bad to get better sponsor revenue but we can’t afford the TV to get the better sponsor revenue. Or maybe Catch 22 is more appropriate. That’s why I am so glad to be back at New Smyrna and Orlando. Those tracks do an excellent job with their weekly series updates on the BrightHouse Sports Channel. We need to be a part of that. 75% of our shows are in BrightHouse coverage areas (hear that BrightHouse?) so we really need to work with those two tracks to get what ever airtime they can spare. That is our only near term solution for TV and as I said I am so thankful that we are back at those two tracks several times this year.

What is your favorite place to go to score some buffalo wings? Gators and only Gators. Was there tonight. Mondays are all you can eat wings you know? Funny thing is I never cared for wings until Jerry Mathis made me some of his about 10 years ago.

Sonny Hartley is not to be messed with, is he? No, because he is an expert at messing back. Sonny and I spend quite a bit of time thinking up ways to pick on each other. It can get quite elaborate sometimes. I’m tempted to do a little expose here on him but what he knows about me is probably worse. The minute I say anything there will be a special edition of the Monthly Mullet Wrapper come out featuring all the dumb stuff I’ve done. And there is plenty of it. Seriously, in all my years of racing I have met very few people with the quality of character that Sonny has. His stout integrity and willingness to help others is a gift. He is an excellent ambassador for the TBARA and sprint car racing in general. We are extremely lucky to have someone as dedicated and talented as Sonny in the TBARA. And I am very fortunate to have him as a friend.

So there you have it – a very fine read if we say so ourselves. As you can see, Dave is a racer and that’s the highest compliment we can pay someone.

We wish Dave nothing but the best in 2010 with his duties as TBARA El Presidente.