BonnerSprings.com

With strong finish after strong finish, the points began to accumulate, and before he knew it, Ethan Isaacs had sealed the victory of track champion in his class of modified stock cars at the Central Missouri Speedway in Warrensburg, Mo.

The 2009 Bonner Springs High School graduate was recently named the top racer in his class using a car he built from the ground up for his senior project. The nearly year-long project was worth it as Isaacs clinched the title of champion.

“I just get in the zone and try to be better than the guy in front of me,” Isaacs said of what goes through his head as he races around a track.

Throughout the Central Missouri Speedway’s season — from mid-April to September — Isaacs was standing in a solid second place. His constant competitor, Jake Beaver, was just always slightly ahead.

That was, at least, until Beaver failed a pre-race inspection. Isaacs went on to win the race, making him the driver with most overall points for the season.

“We just capitalized on his mistake,” Isaacs said.

Isaacs has been racing cars since he was 9 years old, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who has been racing since 1969, and his father.

When it came to deciding on a senior project, it was a no-brainer.

“Racing is in the blood,” he said.

Isaacs, with the help of his family, built a stock car, piece by piece, that would later take him to victory.

“I started with a pile of tubing and built the whole thing from the ground up,” Isaacs said of his project.

While his family members have built cars in the past, this was a first for Isaacs. Throughout the project, he said he learned a lot about the fabrication of a car and about time management.

While other racers were out buying new, expensive parts to improve their cars, Isaacs said he stuck to the basics with minor adjustments here and there that his family had learned over the years.

“We just try to do the best with what we got,” he said.

Isaacs is already looking forward to the next season, where he will continue to race his senior project car. He will be awarded a trophy, a racing jacket and prize money for his championship season at a Dec. 5 awards banquet.

Until then, Isaacs will concentrate on his schoolwork at Johnson County Community College. He is attending the community college to get his general education requirements out of the way, before transferring to Kansas University to major in mechanical engineering.

Comments