NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) - A family legacy that began with Pat Wiezorek continues with his grandson Uriel Wiezorek.
The love of cars passed from Pat to his son, Eric Wiezorek, who passed it to his son Uriel.
Rebuilding cars and drag racing are a major part of life for the Wiezoreks.
Uriel began a new racing season last Saturday in Kearney and hopes to repeat his state championship run from last season. The 16-year-old North Platte High School student said he has a great love for the sport.
“I’ve been around cars pretty much since I was a little kid,” Uriel told The North Platte Telegraph. “I remember learning how to drive on my grandpa’s lap when I was 2 or 3 years old. I learned how to steer and he would do the pedals.”
Eric raced a Plymouth Duster when he was in high school.
“My dad had a big picture of his old drag car,” Uriel said. “The picture is actually above my bed right now. I’ve been looking at that since I was a little kid.”
Uriel’s interest was sparked by watching his grandpa and father working on cars.
“I learned by just growing up around cars, muscle cars, and seeing them be built, and I wanted to go fast,” Uriel said.
His dad told him about the Junior Street and Junior Dragster racing offered at Kearney’s Raceway Park and the Julesburg (Colorado) Dragstrip.
Junior Street Class is for 13- to 16-year-olds. Uriel started in that class at 15, but has since aged out, so he’ll be racing in the High School Class.
Uriel said he has a hard time describing the feelings he has when racing.
“Honestly, when I’m in a car, it would take me 10 minutes to describe 10 seconds,” Uriel said. “You get up to the line and you watch the lights come down from yellow to green.”
He said everything he does is repetition, which creates the positive results.
“As soon as I get in the car, I buckle up and I lock in my roll bar, start the car up and check the fuel gauges,” Uriel said. “When I’m pulling up (to the line), I’m laser-focused.”
A lot of drag racing comes down to reaction time.
“I mean, I lost a race last year because of 1/1,000th of a second,” Uriel said. “That’s not anything, pretty much, but in racing even 1/10th of a second means everything.”
After he finished the regular season in the top two, the championship was decided in a best-two-out-of-three format against the No. 1 driver.
“Colton Herfel beat me the first round and I beat him the last two rounds,” Uriel said. “It was very exciting. This kid was beating my butt the whole year, but I went out there and I was like, ‘I can’t lose.’”
He said the main ingredient for winning a championship is keeping your focus.
“Once you’ve got your mind focused on a trophy, a medal or a cash prize,” Uriel said, “and everything from there, you’ve got to keep your eye on the prize.”
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