Josh Olheiser's first night behind the wheel at the Southwest Speedway could have been better. However, the 28-year-old rookie racer from Dickinson knows there's a lot of things that didn't go wrong that easily could have.
"I was pretty sick before the first race," said Olheiser, who races WISSOTA Street Stocks. "It's pretty different behind the helmet. It looks easy from the stands but you get out there and cars are moving around all over the place. You feel things in the car you don't see in the stands. It seems like a million different things going on at a time."
Olheiser strapped in behind the wheel of a car with his name on it and began his first season May 19. Although he finished fifth in his heat and eighth in the feature, Olheiser was pleased that he escaped without a wreck.
"That was the goal for the night, not to get wrecked right away," he said with a laugh.
Olheiser has been around local racing most of his life. His father, Wayne Olheiser, was a pit man for longtime driver Brad Meidinger. Josh Olheiser became part of Meidinger's crew when he was just 12 years old.
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After 16 years as a pit man, Olheiser felt it was time he stopped driving someone else's car in pit-man's races and stepped into a ride of his own.
Meidinger - taking a break from racing after winning three consecutive Street Stock titles in 2003, 2004 and 2005 - now leads Olheiser's pit crew.
"I figured if I didn't do it now, I was never going to do it," Olheiser said. "It just worked out that Brad wasn't racing."
The five-time Street Stocks champion turns 46 today, but he's not expecting an Olheiser victory as a birthday present.
Instead, Meidinger believes this season is about his protege getting a feel for the track and gradually moving toward the front of the pack.
"He's got a lot to learn and he's taking his time, which I like," Meidinger said. "If he goes out and overdrives and ends up wrecking the car, then we've got a lot of work to do."
The Southwest Speedway's second night of races is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. today at the race track south of Dickinson. However, track officials said Friday there's a chance the races could be pushed back to Sunday because of rainy conditions.
Olheiser hopes the cars can run tonight so he can get back to business and past the first-race jitters that held him back.
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Olheiser said Meidinger and the pit crew relieved any pressure he was feeling prior to racing.
"I was pretty nervous the first night, so I had Brad and everybody else there," Olheiser said. "They've been around long enough, they did what had to be done. I didn't have to tell anybody to do anything."
