Plainfield Teen Realizes Dream

by David Allen (Inside Auto Racing)



This racing season didn't go the way Nick Baran planned, and that turned out to be a good thing. BBoyz Racing owner Len Baran had an ASA Late Model Ford Taurus ready for his grandson Nick to race at Madison International Speedway, the half-mile track in Wisconsin, for 2005.

But the track switched its stock car schedule to Friday nights, which meant that the Baran family had to stay close to home. That meant a return to Grundy County Speedway in Morris where Nick enjoyed great success on the way to consecutive Junior Pro Series championships in a Legends car.

The 17-year old Baran, who is about to begin his senior year at Plainfield South High School, made the jump to the Late Model Series at Grundy, where his is going head-to-head with some of the region's short-track superstars, including former track champions and ASA drivers Eddie Hoffman Jr. of Wheaton and Brett Sontag of Joliet.

"I was excited to race against very experienced people," Baran said. "It's always run to race against the people you watched out there, actually being down there racing with them is a neat experience. Everybody's been very helpful."

It was a much bigger jump for Baran than if he would have raced at Madison.

"Madison was running an ASA Late Model series on Saturday nights, and I thought that was a great learning area to get some seat time, rather than jump into a super Late Model and competing against the Hoffmans of the world, Len Baran said. "We raced here at Grundy a couple of times with our 420 horsepower motor and basically found out we weren't really competitive. Even though we had some decent finishes, there was no chance we would win here. We got way behind the ball with everybody."

But that changed.

"We ordered a super late model motor at the end of last year, and decided to put it in. (for the July 30 race)," Len said. "That was the first weekend we put it into the car."

The new engine was an immediate success as Baran held off Hoffman for the 30-lap feature win in a race that was packed with quality and quantity.

"I definitely saw the difference right away, it was a completely different feeling when you stand on the gas pedal," Baran said. "I wasn't getting down before because I was having a great time running with everybody. I was getting experience, car control and getting used to how things worked."

"I was very confident we'd win shortly. But the first night, I didn't think it would come that quickly. I didn't pay any attention to what lap it was up until I looked up and it was Lap 27 and I looked up and saw (Hoffman) was behind me on the scoreboard. I looked up again and it was (Lap) 28 and clicking down and (I'm thinking) don't screw up, don't change what you did the whole race, 29 comes around and all right, here we go this is it, I couldn't believe it when I saw the checkered flag there. It's hard to describe that experience because I've wanted to do it since I was a little kid, winning at Grundy was always a major goal when I was growing up. It was like the movie 'Friday Night Lights.' Out there at Grundy, those are my 'Friday Night Lights,' out there doing that."

Len Baran was a successful owner throughout the 1980s and into the '90s and formerly had Larry Schuler, a winner at tracks throughout the Midwest, driving for him. But this win was something different.

"I've been the owner of a car that has won, I mean, tens of dozens of times, Larry Schuler is on the winningest drivers around the Midwest here," Len said. "But this on was real special."

Len, who is 61 and owns Pry-Bar Inc., which manufacturers point of purchase displays and racing air ducts, got back into racing after 10 years out of it when Nick started go-carts at the age of 8. Scott Baran, Nick's dad, is the crew chief.

"I've been wanting to do this probably since I could walk," Nick said. "They've got photographs of me sitting at Grundy, sitting in this tire, that was my crib when I was a kid. When you're 7 or 8 years old, nobody else races go-carts, so I thought that was pretty cool. I've always thought it was a lot of fun."

He and others, including his younger brother Tyler, his spotter, are almost always at their grandpa's house in Shorewood working on the car.

"We're down here almost every night," he said. "Go-carts was just having fun and racing with your buddies and having a good time, but I got really serious this year. It's almost like a second job out here working on the car."

Baran has no other choice in this day and age of auto racing but to get serious about it. Drivers not much older are already finding top equipment in NASCAR and ARCA.

"All the guys that are out there (on local short tracks) that are in their 30s and 40s and 50s are having fun," Len Baran said. "If you don't start out early, it's over. If all people are equal and everybody's dealt the same hand, the only difference between the guys that make it and the guys that don't is how much time the guys that make it have spend and how early they start.

"Early in the year, we basically don't race," Len said. "His function is he stays home, does all his homework and the things he's got to do and his dad and I will work on the car. If we can get out there and it doesn't interfere with school, then fine, we'll go racing. But if it interferes with school, then no racing. When school starts, that's it. Education is a little more important than racing, and he's got ot keep up a B-plus average. That's a necessity."

Baran also added football to his schedule this year. He is participating in the sport for the first time.

"I didn't want to regret never playing or never experiencing that whole team camaraderie thing," Baran said. "I wanted to experience that and have a good time when doing it. I already talked to my coaches and they understand that racing will have to come before football and they're all right with that and very supportive of that.

"You got to have dreams if you want to do something, and I'd love to move up. Right now it's one week at a time and run good each week and hopefully get somebody to notice you. But right now it's just having fun out there running with the guys you watched since you were born."

BBoyz Racing
No. 87 Ford
Taurus

Len Baran - owner
Nick Baran - driver
Scott Baran - crew chief
Tyler Baran - spotter
Ray Matel - mechanic
Jeff Thompson - tire
Jim Chronister - chassis
Karl Ludwig - engine
Alan Delius - shock

Sponsors: PBI Air Ducts, Highland Plumbing, Sole Happiness Reflexology, J&L Auto, Rod Baker Ford, Lefthander Chassis.