Tijeras, New Mexico Resident Josh Hodges Takes the Sprint Car Scene by Storm
- 24 Jul 2017
“My dad has been involved in sprint car racing as a mechanic, crew chief, and racer since he was in high school,” said Josh. “He drove a couple of years for Joe Herrera when Rickey Hood raced for that team. When I was born my dad came off the road, but he shared his passion for sprint racing with me.” When Josh turned 5 years old, he wanted to get involved in quarter midget racing and his father encouraged it. However, one member of the family wanted them to take things a little slower. “My mom had me wait until I was 7, then I finally got into quarter midgets,” he said. Josh won his first race in his second event. “There were just a few cars there, but I got to race against some pretty neat people in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico, near where we lived,” he said. “In quarter midgets I was able to get several local and regional championships. I believe one of my track records still stands in Tucson, Arizona, which I achieved sometime around 2004.” He then graduated out of quarter midget racing when he was 10 years old and moved on to mini sprints and sprints. “My first sprint car race was when I was 13 years old in Aztec, New Mexico. My first full year in it was 2009,” he said. His father founded Hodges Motorsports in 2002 when Josh started racing quarter midgets. “When I first got started in quarter midget racing my goal was to drive sprint cars like my dad did and like the people I watched growing up did including Rickey Hood and Johnny Herrera,” said Josh. In 2009 he was named the National Winged 360 Rookie of the Year and was the youngest person to win an ASCS feature. Josh’s best year in racing was 2016 when he won eight features against primarily USAC caliber drivers. One was the $10,000 to win USAC Fall Nationals on October 1, 2016, at Lawrenceburg Speedway. He said that so far three wins in his career standout most. “In January 2016, I got two wins in Phoenix, Arizona. What was so special about them was that I got a chance to race against the late Bryan Clauson. That was a big deal. Clauson was attempting to run 200 races that year. The win at Lawrenceburg was the next biggest thrill because it was my first USAC National win.” Hodges Motorsports brings four people to most of the races –- Josh, Jack, Jake Argo, who is the crew chief, and Jerry Gibson, who is the engine builder. The Team Has Two Shops. Although everyone other than Argo lives in New Mexico, the team’s base is in Brownsburg, Indiana, where Argo lives and works at Competition Suspension. The team is renting space at another sprint car racer’s shop in Indiana, which allows the Hodges team to piggyback on the resources available there. Jack Hodges has a business in Albuquerque and Josh has a regular 9 to 5 job there as well. Every other weekend they fly to Indiana, get the racecar ready and then they go out and race. They try to schedule three nights of racing in a row on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. After the races very early on Monday morning, they return to their full-time jobs in New Mexico. “If it looks like there may be rain forecasts for a weekend of races, then we don’t fly out,” said Josh.
“The cool thing about being in the southwest is we don’t have an off season,” explained Josh. “Typically, when racing gets done in Indiana in October or November, we bring our stuff back to New Mexico and we hit Phoenix and then California. “In December, when there isn’t a whole lot going on, we may attend the PRI trade show and meet a few people and look at some new things in racing. Then in January, there is a racing series that runs in Phoenix and Tucson that we try to hit. In February, we go down to Florida and race to March or April and then we go back to Indiana and leave our stuff there,” continued Josh. The members of the team go through an extensive pressure packed turnaround between races. “We like to think that we are a very organized and clean race team,” noted Josh. “We take pride in the maintenance of our car. Just about every night after a race, especially if we run seven races in 10 days, we find a car wash even if it is 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning and we get the car washed. We prep the engine and do the maintenance the next day including changing the torsion bars, and checking and adding grease. Every four or five races or so we clean the air filter and filter outerwear, and we run the valves on the engine every night. Every few races we drain the oil. We nut and bolt the car and do an inspection after every race to stay on top of things and to find something before it breaks.” Gibson handles the engine, Jake and Josh deal with the set up including the torsion bars and Jack oversees it all and ties up the loose ends. “He (Jack) has his hand in all parts of the car and and he’s the driving force that makes the whole thing go,” commented Josh. Josh also prepares for races as the driver. “I make sure my helmet is ready with tear offs and every once in awhile I change the shield. I make certain that I’m hydrated. If I’m going to be racing a new track I will find a video of a race at that track and watch it and I call people I know to get insight about the track. I look at the trends and how the weather is. The unique thing about a dirt track is that it can change with all of that. There are a million different variables. “A couple of years ago we did a test at a track. That helped out, but we don’t usually do that,” he added. Josh noted that he has no problem finding videos of races at tracks where he competes. His sources include YouTube, Loudpedal.tv, and jackslash.com. “They record a lot of USAC races and just about any race in Indiana,” he said. “Some of the videos we find online require a subscription, but it is worth paying for. I’m also a race fan. So I watch them on TV. I have recorded races I’ve watched on TV that are at tracks where I compete and watch them to help me prepare for the next race there. Josh has raced in about 12 events so far this year. “We’re now at the halfway point of the season,” he said. Big events coming up include Indiana Sprint Week when USAC runs seven races in 10 days. “I really look forward to that every year,” he said. The schedule also calls for him to compete in the Kokomo Smack Down at the end of August, which includes four races back-to-back-to-back-to-back. In November, the team will compete in USAC events in Phoenix, Arizona and in the Los Angeles area. “We will compete in Western World and the Oval Nationals. They’re the big wrap up events of the year,” he said. “We have quite a few bigger races coming up in the later half of the year.” Josh has been selecting the races he competes in for the last few years. “I just graduated from New Mexico Tech about a month and a half ago. So I couldn’t make all the dates on the schedule. So I pick and choose primarily USAC National Sprint car events. I hope to run the series full time in the future. Josh has a very loyal group of sponsors who have helped him progress in racing. For example, when he wanted to go to Indiana, an Albuquerque, New Mexico, sponsor named Chuck Jackson with Jackson Compaction helped him get there.
Another major sponsor is Ortega’s Appliance Service in Albuquerque. “I raced with the owner’s son and he has been a big supporter since I was in quarter midgets,” he added. He has also received a lot of help from Royal Jones, owner of Mesilla Valley Transportation in New Mexico. K&N has been partnered with Hodges Motorsports since 2010. “I use K&N air filters, cleaning products, air filter wraps, breathing air filters, and oil filters,” said Josh. “The products are great. In fact, we use the air filter cleaner to clean our motorhome. It gets the bugs and grease off. You could say it’s multipurpose and actually works pretty good.” The total list of companies supporting Hodges Motorsports include: Benic Enterprises NAPA Auto Parts K&N Wilwood BUTLER BUILT Keizer Aluminum Wheels Conroy Pneumatic Control Ortega's Appliance Service Hodges Automotive Repair Herrera Motorsports Cabinet Door Store Tim Palmer Graphic Design Maxim FK Bearings Hot Products Engineering Hinchman Racing Uniforms Smiley's Racing Products Momentum Racing Suspensions Mesilla Valley Transportation Ostrich Racing Engines | |||
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