Published: July 22, 2014
Graczkowski wins 1st feature in Bees division
14-year-old beats title contender
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
SLINGER — TJ Graczkowski has learned more about his father,
Mike, in the last two years than he ever thought he would.
TJ Graczkowski, 14, who will be a freshman at West Bend West
High School, in the fall is in his second year in the Slinger Bees division at
Slinger Superspeedway. In that time, TJ Graczkowski has learned his dad knows a
lot about racing.
“He talks about stuff I don’t even know what it’s about,”
the young Graczkowski said with a smile. “But I’ve learned a lot.”
The elder Graczkowski, the 2006 midwest sportsman champion
at Slinger, has taken his son under his wing and taught him the ropes of
racing.
“Every time he goes on the track we critique how he drives,
we critique how Dad had the set up,” Mike Graczkowski said. “The last couple of
weeks the communication has been getting really good and he’s been telling me
exactly what he wanted.”
That has taken a lot of work.
So finally, the hours each week spent in the shop during the
summer and in the offseason paid off Sunday.
TJ Graczkowski won his first career feature, winning the
25-lap Slinger Bees feature at Slinger Superspeedway, holding off one of the
division’s top drivers.
You can bet there was pride at the Graczkowski trailer.
“It just lets me know that the Graczkowski name isn’t dead
and we’re going to keep winning features until I retire,” TJ Graczkowski said.
“Very proud,” Mike Graczkowski said. “Almost as proud as I
was when he was born.”
TJ Graczkowski’s first victory was an impressive one. He
chased down, caught and passed Steve Dickson for the victory.
Dickson is tied with two-time defending track champion Nick
Schmidt as the division’s all-time winningest driver (14).
“I didn’t expect to catch (Dickson) like that,” TJ
Graczkowski said. “He was in front of me and I was going to finish another
second. Then I started gaining on him and I was like, ‘I can win this.’” With
only a handful of laps to go, TJ Graczkowski pulled off a move like a veteran.
He used a slower car as a pick to help get ahead of Dickson.
“Somehow I came out of that with the lead,” TJ Graczkowski
said.
Once he passed Dickson, TJ Graczkowski opened up a gap to
Dickson right before the checkered flag dropped on the 25-lap feature.
“Usually, he just runs away from me,” TJ Graczkowski said.
“I thought it was going to be a photo finish,” he added. “I
just got a little ahead of him and I’m like, ‘I’m in the lead. Oh my God.’”
Mike Graczkowski gave up his hobby to help his son get started on his own.
The biggest obstacle at the start was breaking down the
language barrier.
At 14 years old, car terminology was a foreign language to
TJ Graczkowski. That was especially the case when dad started throwing around
terminology only a race car driver would understand.
Mike Graczkowski, like any crew chief in racing, could only
do so much. He had to rely on his son to relay important information on how the
car was responding to certain set ups, conditions and so forth. To help
simplify that, Dad came up with a scale, 1 for car is close to being right and
10 being so terrible the car should be in the wall.
In the weeks that followed, TJ Graczkowski got a better
understanding as to how the car was reacting to certain things. In return, Mike
Graczkowski has made the right adjustments.
On Sunday, it was TJ Graczkowski that was making the right
adjustment calls.
And because of that constant communication between the two,
their bond as father and son has gotten stronger.
“It depends on the father-son relationship,” Mike Graczkowski
said. “When you have bad days, it really gets tested. But when you have good
days, that’s the highs everybody looks forward to.
“Him and I have a really good relationship and he actually
enjoys hanging out with Dad and working on the car. For me that’s the greatest
gift I could get.”
Early on, the car was set up in one way as baseline. From
there, the two have worked hard and closely together to find the right
combination.
“He was like, ‘Every time you come off, I want you to tell
me what I feel, what it feels like,’” TJ Graczkowski said. “So I did that and
it seems to work every time.”
“It wouldn’t be as fast as it is,” he added. “He buys all
the parts and gets it set up for me. We just communicate and talk; ‘how does it
feel?’ ‘I don’t know. Loose.’ ‘All right, we’re doing this.’ It works every
time.”
TJ Graczkowski started racing just a couple years ago in
go-karts.
His racing career at Slinger got going in rather surprising
fashion.
“We went down to the shop and he forgot something,” TJ Graczkowski
recalled. “He parks his super late trailer and he’s like, ‘TJ, it’s in the
trailer. Go get it.’ I look in the trailer and I was like, ‘Is that for me?’”
Inside was a Slinger Bee, a fourcylinder race car. “He was like, ‘Yeah,’” TJ
Graczkowski said. “You can’t say no to that.”
He started up the car and he said it “smoked like crazy but
it was awesome.”
Mike Graczkowski raced fulltime at Slinger up until the end
of last season. He sold his No. 12 super late model to a driver at Jefferson
Speedway.
While bummed his dad gave up his driving hobby, TJ
Graczkowski was thrilled his dad would sacrifice something like that for him
and knew he couldn’t let his dad down. He wanted to make him proud.
When TJ Graczkowski got the checkered flag, his dad was
waiting for him with a congratulations and to slightly embarrass his boy.
“He was like, ‘That’s awesome you ran down (Dickson). I’m so
proud of you,’” TJ Graczkowski said. “Dad stuff.”
Not all was kosher for the Graczkowski family.
In the spectator eliminator race, Mike Graczkowski entered
his wife’s green Ford Mustang in the event. During his race, another car made
contact with Mike Graczkowski, leaving a noticeable mark on the car.
“She already told me I better pay for it or I sleep on the
couch,” he said with a big smile.
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