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December 16, 2005
Section: sports
Edition: BRADENTON
Page: 1D
BUCKLE UP
HELFRICK, 52, GETS HIS KICKS AS A SCHOOL BUS RACING CHAMP
Scott Lockwood, Special to The Herald
If it's got wheels and a motor, chances are 52-year-old Ernest "Gene" Helfrick of
Myakka City has raced it. After nearly 40 years of banging fenders and inhaling
exhaust fumes --- and winning exactly zero track championships --- he's finally
found the vehicle that suits his talents best.
A school bus.
After a modestly successful career racing stock cars, motorcycles and even swamp
buggies, a friend bet Helfrick he couldn't cut it racing school buses on a figure-8
style race track.
"On a stupid bet, somebody said I couldn't race one of these," Helfrick said. "They
said I couldn't, and I said I could --- watch me."
With the gauntlet laid, Helfrick and his friends prepared a school bus for
competition. In his first race, Helfrick made good on his end of the deal by bringing
the massive vehicle home in second place.
"When I stared that race, I thought 'How nuts could I be?' '' Helfrick said. "Looking
at the other people coming at you from different angles, it was flat out scary."
For the last five years, Helfrick has been a regular in the hugely popular bus races
at DeSoto Speedway. This season, he won his first track championship in any
division, winning two feature events and never finishing worse than third.
"Man, I'll tell you what, it's a great feeling," Helfrick said of his title run. "You look at
yourself and say 'everybody says you couldn't do it,' you know you could, but you
just had to prove it.'"
"I just wanted to win a championship once, and I did."
Racing in such close quarters with these vehicles means the competitors need to
have a high level of trust.
"He's a good racer, and he does a great job," Timothy Gilbert said about his
on-track encounters with Helfrick. "He's been out here since they started doing
these races, and he has all the experience."
"He's just a gentleman, and he wouldn't take anyone out intentionally," added
fellow racer Robert Coon.
That last sentiment might be true about Helfrick --- most of the time. However, on
the final night of the season, with the championship already locked up, Helfrick was
looking to have a little fun on the track.
"I always want to race hard if I can, and if somebody rolls over, well, that's just too
bad," Helfrick joked before going out and racing a clean, mishap-free race and
finishing third.
Flipping a bus is an easy thing for the drivers to do, especially on DeSoto's high
banked tight turns. The buses are famous for getting up on two wheels in the
corners, creating excitement for the fans and an element of danger for the drivers.
The wildness of the racing is what makes it enjoyable for Helfrick, too.
"It's just a riot racing against other people," he said. "In these things, you never
know what they're going to do, especially when you get new guys, and you don't
know if they're going to slow down for you in the center. It's always a rush when you
come to the center of the track."
One thing that separates the buses from the rest of the other racing divisions at
DeSoto is they're relatively cheap to run for a full season. Helfrick estimated he
spent around $2,000 to keep his bus race-ready this season, whereas some teams
that run in the Late Model divisions, where engines alone cost over $35,000, can
spend hundreds of thousands to run a full season.
"It's very cheap, easy, entertaining racing," Helfrick said. "But if you wreck one of
these, then you may spend $3,000 or $4,000."
The buses are also a lot more time-friendly than their car counterparts, according
to Helfrick.
"If I don't wreck, it only takes a few hours to get ready for a race," he said. "If you
wreck, it could take you every night until the next race to fix it. . . . it's just a lot of
work when you wreck."
Last season, Helfrick had the misfortune of being in a major collision in the
intersection of the track. While he was uninjured, the same couldn't be said for his
bus.
"We came through the center, and I thought I had missed everybody," Helfrick
recalled. "Then, my buddy was coming the other way, and I broadsided him. It tore
the whole front end off my bus. I was never able to fix it right, and now it's sitting
over in the junkyard."
As bad as that accident was, it still wasn't the worst Helfrick has witnessed during
his time at Desoto. Helfrick recalled one accident in the intersection in which one of
the buses was hit so hard it lifted the entire vehicle four feet off the ground. The
wreck also tore the undercarriage from the bus. Miraculously, the vehicle was
repaired in time to be able to participate in the next race.
The fact the buses don't race every week works out great for Helfrick, a
construction worker with Manatee County.
"For me, I don't have to do this every weekend," he said. "I'm so busy with my kids,
working, taking care of my horses and with my motorcycles, that since we only race
every couple of months, it gives me a chance to be able to work on the bus if I
need to and still have fun doing it."
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