OXFORD – For the past three seasons, Oxford native Rusty Smith felt like a slave to his own success.
The price he paid for winning was a weekly sojourn to the Rochester area during the summer months to Spencer Speedway – a roundtrip each race weekend of better than five hours.
From 2012 to 2014, Smith enjoyed the most sustained success of his better-than-two-decade asphalt modified career running at Spencer Speedway in Williamson.
Racing is Smith's passion, but driving – especially a 140-mile commute one way in order to race – proved a grind. "A couple weeks into the season (last year), and we were already burned out from the drive," Smith said.
Smith and his team often talked about pulling out of the points race at Spencer Speedway. But in order to that, something bad would have to befall Smith – or his car.
Fortunately, nothing bad happened to Smith - nor to his modified car - and he continued to run at or near the front. He won four feature races last year, and was never out of the top five. In three years, he had double-digit wins, and every single race over a three-year span, he contended among the top six.
After a third straight track title at Spencer Speedway, Smith decided he would stay closer to home in future years. "If you think about it, we're leaving with a walk-off grand slam," he said. "We ran every lap last year, and never finished outside of the top five. That's an impressive stat against the greatest competitors in all of New York. All of the big-name guys from Oswego to Buffalo run at Spencer. To take that crown three years in a row felt good."
Winning races is great, but that is not the sole reason Smith straps into his racing harness week after week. He loves a challenge, and that's why he decided to make a commitment to dirt track racing this year.
Over the years he dabbled on dirt tracks, but he could never sustain any momentum. Less than 20 miles from Smith's home resides one of the gems of dirt track racing, I-88 Speedway in Afton.
After three years running at Spencer Speedway on Fridays, Smith will now run Fridays at I-88 Speedway on a dirt surface. Because of the track's proximity, he now has the dual benefit of getting home at a reasonable hour, while also freeing up his Saturday to race somewhere else.
"We really wanted to race Saturday nights somewhere," Smith said. "There was no way we could do that running at Spencer and getting home at 3 in the morning.
"I remember looking at the I-88 Speedway website last year, and they already had their results posted before we had our feature at Spencer. If we were running (at I-88), we'd be home already before Spencer Speedway finished its modified feature."
The commitment to dirt track racing on Friday nights will have Smith home in bed much earlier, but the sustained success he enjoyed at an asphalt driver will likely take some time. Years of racing against the same people allowed Smith to accumulate knowledge of each driver's strengths and weaknesses. Because his experience against dirt modified drivers is limited, he will need to learn as he goes.
"We're always going into the season with the goal of winning a championship," Smith said. "We were never set up for success when we ran dirt races before. We'd run two or three weeks in a row, then we'd have to miss some time for the asphalt schedule. Getting into a new class, you have to run it weekly."
Running consistently week in and week out, Smith said, will help build consistency. On a stage where as many as 60 to 80 drivers attempt to qualify for a modified feature, just qualifying for the main feature at I-88 Speedway is a victory unto itself. And winning? "I need to acquire the inside knowledge, and that comes from running every week," Smith said. "That's something you take for granted when you're running against the same guys for 15 years."
That said, Smith reiterated his team is "in it to win it," and he knows he doesn't have to win races to do that. He just needs to place consistently high week after week. Heck, his dad Gordie won his final track title 20 years ago, and didn't win a feature race that year.
"I can't say we won't be disappointed if we don't win," Smith said. "We have the resources and a car we know we can drive. But it's tricky. If we do finish outside the top five in points, that would be a discouraging season for us."
Smith will also tour the Race of Champions asphalt modified tour, a 14-race series running races from Buffalo to New Jersey. Without the move to Friday racing in Afton, Smith and his team could not entertain the thought of competing for the ROC points title.
"We could only pick and choose those races the past three years, and you're not going to win a points championship running only two races," Smith said. “It didn't make sense (to run the ROC) once you've missed a couple of the races."
Now with his schedule cleared and the stress of a long drive to a track in his rearview mirror, Smith can focus on mastering dirt track racing, while maintaining his typical excellence on asphalt.
"There are a lot of good drivers over there (at I-88)," Smith said. "If we have to grind out top five finishes, that's what we'll have to do."