Red Lion native Cody Darrah picked up a dream ride with the World of Outlaws on Thursday.
But before that news broke, the area dirt-track circuit lost a true champion when Thompsontown's Jimmy Nace lost his battle with cancer on Wednesday morning after a long fight.
Darrah, a popular young driver on the local scene, was hired Thursday for a full-time ride with Kasey Kahne Racing on the Outlaws' sprint-car tour. He will be driving KKR's newest entry, the No. 91 Great Clips/Sage Fruits/ASE/MOPAR machine as a teammate to Joey Saldana and Brady Short.
Darrah, now 20, started his racing career in micro-sprints at age 14 and moved to sprint cars at age 16. He has spent several very good years on the local tracks. Last year he won the Williams Grove National Open and a Speedweek race at Port Royal, along with several races at Lincoln Speedway.
Among his six wins this season are an Outlaws event at the Grove and "The Dream Race Extreme" at Port Royal.
After the Outlaw win at the Grove in early October, Kahne asked Darrah to fill in as the driver of the Direct TV No. 19 for several late-season Outlaw races. That led to the full-time ride for next season.
"I remember how excited I was when I left home to race sprint cars full time," Kahne said in a statement. "I'm thrilled to give that same opportunity to Cody, in whom I see a lot of similarities to me at
Darrah could not be reached for comment.
But, in a statement, he said: "I'm honored to be given the opportunity to run a full season on the World of Outlaws circuit with such a top-notch team as Kasey Kahne Racing, and sponsors Great Clips and ASE. I've been able to get to know Kasey by racing against him at Williams Grove, and now the crew at KKR over the past week, so it will be amazing to be a part of the team next year."
Darrah won his first two sprint-car features at Lincoln on May 10, 2008, and has since added nine more wins to his resume. He won five times in 2008 and six more in 2009. His record shows five wins at Lincoln, four at Williams Grove and two at Port Royal.
Nace dies at 55: For local dirt-track fans, Darrah's good news was dulled significantly by the sad news that Nace died at age 55.
He had been battling cancer for the past several years, but remained a racer to the end.
Nace started his career on the local tracks in 1974 with a six-cylinder stock car in the long-gone "bomber" class. After a year in the bomber, Nace decided to go super-sportsman racing at Silver Spring Speedway. Some technical problems with the construction of the car found Nace deciding to convert it to a sprint car, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Nace scored the first of his 70 super-sprint wins in 1976 at Port Royal's Tuscarora 50. He went on to win at nearly all of the local ovals. His 46 wins at Selinsgrove is still fourth on the all-time list there. He is a five-time track champion at Selinsgrove and also owns two point titles at Williams Grove and one at Susquehanna.
Nace also won the overall central Pennsylvania title, then sponsored by Pabst Beer, in 1987. Few will ever forget that title chase, which went down to the final lap of the final race. Lincoln hosted the final race, and Nace had never competed there on any kind of a regular basis.
The event featured triple 20-lap features. When the final race started, Nace knew he had to win the race to win the point title for the season. On the last turn of the last lap, Nace passed Lincoln master Bobby Allen to claim the win and take the overall title for the season.
Career stats show those 46 wins at Selinsgrove, 13 at Williams Grove, seven at Port Royal, two at Susquehanna and single wins at Lincoln and Clinton County. He is a member of the York County Racing Club's Hall of Fame.
Even when his health began to fail, Nace didn't give up. His last three wins came in 358 sprint competition, but he did race a 410 sprinter a few times after he knew he was battling cancer. When his strength began to fail, Nace hired a few other drivers to wheel his car. In 2007, Sean Michael won the very first Dream Race Extreme at Port Royal in the Nace car. This year Jason Sowold placed the Nace machine in the feature field at the Knoxville Nationals.
After working as a mechanic for years while racing, in 1989 Nace started his own business, Fast Tees. His family continues to produce racing T-shirts and other items for the racing community.
I first met Jimmy Nace not long after he began racing, at about the same time I began working in auto racing. Over the years we developed a strong friendship, and it is one I will always cherish. I can honestly say that I was proud to call Jimmy Nace a friend.
I, along with the entire racing community, will dearly miss him.
Nace is survived by his wife Chrystal and daughters Jamie Nace and Dr. Mindy Merritt. A memorial service will be held Sunday, Nov. 22, at 1:30 p.m. at the Brown's United Methodist Church in Cocolemus. Donations can be made to Hospice, the York County Racing Club's Injured Driver's Fund or the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Bryan Householder writes about dirt-track racing for The York Dis patch. He can be reached at sports@yorkdispatch.com.
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