L-83’s Scott Campbell wins the 2017 Midwest Modified Racing championship at the Springfield Raceway in Springfield, Missouri.
Scott Campbell captures 2017 track championship title
START WITH A dirt race track, add a few speeding cars, stir in the weekend, and you have the recipe for Midwest Modified Racing, the passion of Scott Campbell, Local 83 (Kansas City, Missouri). Dirt track racing is not just a passive hobby for Campbell. He has credentials that include individual race wins and the 2017 Springfield Raceway Track Championship in his class.
Campbell, a past president at Local 83, says that racing is a popular summer sport because “almost every little town across the U.S. has a dirt track.” He loves the family atmosphere and competition between friends.
While the races and friendly rivalry is a highlight, competitors in Midwest Modified Racing — also called Midwest Mods — do more than simply race on the weekends. In order to compete, they have to build their own cars. They also need to know how to fix their own vehicles because “crashes happen,” Campbell says. “Every once in a while, you’re going to get in a wreck, and part of surviving in the competition is to be able to fix that car for the next race.”
Plus, there’s ongoing maintenance. Racing only takes place April through November but the car needs attention year round, from repairs to building a new body over the winter. To date, Campbell has fabricated three cars.
Before his first year of competition, he built everything in his car except the chassis. He pieced together the motor and transmission and topped it all off with a body. He says being a Boilermaker comes in handy.
“I do the layout for a new body every winter,” he says. “There’s a lot of measuring and welding to get it where I want it.”
Campbell’s girlfriend encouraged him to get involved in racing about four years ago, but that wasn’t the first time he’d raced.
“I raced dirt bikes as a teen and rode for Suzuki for two years,” he says. Suzuki sponsored him by giving him his bike and his gear. “I raced at amateur level.”
He also kept his bike and other racers’ bikes humming. He’d tear down motors then put them back together, the same thing he does now for Midwest Mods but on a bigger scale.
“My dad was big into racing,” he says, admitting he caught the bug at a young age.
But the reason he got back into racing as an adult is simple. “I like to win,” he says with a laugh. “And I truly enjoy working on the car throughout the week. I also like the atmosphere at the race track. It’s a family deal.”
SCOTT CAMPBELL HAS been a Boilermaker for 16 years and recently crossed over to contracting. He and two partners launched Sho-Me Fabrication to help Boilermakers get more work. Sho-Me Fabrication is a signatory contractor to the Boilermakers. The company’s focus is small and medium-size jobs. Campbell says an average job might take up to 18 workers. The company is R Stamp certified for code work on pressure vessels.
“All the big companies won’t go after the small work because of their overhead,” Campbell notes. “Boilermakers are losing work to the pipefitters; that’s why I decided to do this.”
Find out more at www.shomefabrication.com.
