THE CLAUSON MARSHALL NEWMAN YOUTH MOVEMENT
By: Pat Sullivan - USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (June 21, 2023)………Following the Corn Belt Clash at Knoxville Raceway, 2022 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship Rookie of the Year Emerson Axsom was a respectable fifth in the season standings.
Just 16 nights later, Axsom was recognized as the USAC Eastern Storm champion and is now sitting atop the national standings. It was even hard for Clauson Marshall Newman Motorsports team leader Tim Clauson to grasp.
While standing in a busy pit area at Action Track USA in Kutztown, Pa., Clauson was savoring what his driver and team had accomplished. Many knew that Axsom had just graduated from high school, but what few outside the inner circle realized was just how young the supporting cast really was. All Tim could do was chuckle.
“Kirk Spridgeon (USAC Race Director) and I were chatting today,” he says, “and he said if I had a beard, I would be like Kenny Rogers in the movie Six Pack.”
The film spins a tale of a race team that is comprised of orphaned children. The folks that serve on Tim’s team are not wayward youth, but what they are accomplishing is turning heads.
Heading into the season, Clauson was forced to retool his squad. Adam Wallis, who served as a crew chief in 2022, is in Australia, and another key team member, Baylen Magennis, pursued a new opportunity. It was time to reload.
Clauson had known Pennsylvania native Bobby Lamond since he was 14 years old, and plans were already in place to bring him onboard. Team member Cam Schonfeld is just 17 years old, while in the context of this group at 21 years of age, Nate Schank is nearly a senior citizen.
The addition of Schank was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Nate had spent time behind the wheel and had tried to get things going in the Midwest. However, when plans unraveled a bit, his father knew who to call upon.
“I have probably known Terry Schank for about 50 years,” Clauson says. “We raced quarter midgets together. Terry was looking for a place for him to work. It was perfect timing. I told him if he stayed on the entire season, we would put him to work. He agreed, and he is a hard worker.”
Schank’s situation is not unusual for Clauson. Drivers like “Sunshine” Tyler Courtney, Isaac Chapple and Kyle Robbins all spent time in Tim’s shop.
“I told him that most kids who come here don’t want to do this side of the work,” he says. “They all want to race. But here is a chance to learn about all the tracks where you want to race, and if you pay attention, I think it will help you out. Everyone wants to be a racecar driver, but to me, it is neat to see these kids who want to be a part of the sport on the other side of it. We need them as much as we need great drivers.”
From the outside, it could seem that Clauson had taken a huge risk. When you go against established teams with veteran leadership from top to bottom, you can’t afford many errors. That’s something you cannot ignore, but Tim sees an upside to his approach.
“It is a little easier to be honest,” he admits. “This is really our first week together, but these kids are so enthusiastic about it. Sometimes when you bring someone in who has been around it for a while, they are stuck in their ways. You can end up knocking heads with them until you prove to them that we have been successful for several years, and this is the way we do it. These kids listen and learn. We have had a couple of snafus, but everybody is trying really hard, so we overlook that. It is so much easier to teach people who have passion for the sport than it is to teach people who see this as just a paycheck or a job.”
With so much on his plate, Clauson cannot afford to babysit any of his racing activities. Luckily, Jake Argo oversees his wing sprint car operation, and that alone is reassuring.
“I have watched him operate,” Tim reveals. “He has his head down at all times and just does his job. There isn’t a lot of ego there.”
However, because of the turnover he has endured, Clauson is now spending time in a familiar role.
“Honestly I stepped away from turning the wrenches for a year to a year-and-a-half because we were getting so busy,” he says. “The business side of it takes a lot of time. You must make sure all the pieces fit. We also have Driven2SaveLives and we have teams, companies and series that want to be involved with that. That takes time too. So, when Adam couldn’t come back, I had to pick up the 9/16 wrench again. It was probably the breath of fresh air I needed. Even Di (Tim’s wife) said after the first couple of weeks that she could see the spark in me again. I was missing that. The business side of racing is just that.”
Team building is always easier in an environment of success. During Eastern Storm, Emerson Axsom notched two wins and was on the podium each night. Even more significant was a win at Big Diamond Speedway on the late Bryan Clauson’s birthday.
“That was really cool,” an understandably emotional Clauson said. “As dumb as this sounds, I begged Bryan when we were going through the whole donation thing to just give me signs that he was there. I don’t think that is the first time we won on his birthday, but I always take it as a sign that he is there.”
The other key aspect of this entire journey is that it is unfolding with a young driver and team solidly pulling in the same direction and focused on winning races and championships.
“This is about the future of the sport,” Tim says, “and Bryan was all about that.”
Understand this. When the Clauson Marshall Newman youth brigade heads north to Wisconsin, they do so as the USAC National Sprint Car points leader. That is a position they have no plan to relinquish.
NEXT UP:
Emerson Axsom and Clauson Marshall Newman Racing now head to Wisconsin for a pair of USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship events this weekend. First up on Saturday, June 24, is a trip to Wilmot Raceway. The weekend capper takes the series to Sun Prairie’s Angell Park Speedway on Sunday, June 25.