Best seat in the house

Johnny Wood’s day got instantly better the moment he learned he was going to ride in Jimmy Sills’ two-seat sprint car around the Marysville Raceway Park.

“I was stoked the day the called me and said my name had been drawn,” Wood said. “I was having a bad day before that. Anyone who’s been around sprint cars knows who he is.”

Born Sacramento, Sills, 54, is a three-time National Silver Crown sprint champion.

He started his racing school, The Jimmy Sills School of Open Wheel Racing, in 1994 and began running his two-seat sprint car five years ago.

“Everyone has a blast in the two-seater,” Sills said. “You can tell the minute they get out of the car that they had a good time.”

Sills recalls taking a 94-year-old woman for a ride in Elma,

Wash. He was nervous about driving with a woman of her age in the back seat, so he only went at about 60 percent on his jaunt around the track.

“She was quite a woman, she wanted to go faster,” he said.

Wood, 40, of Marysville, and Gordon Dahlman, 77, of Yuba City, were the two lucky race fans who won the drawing to take a few laps around the quarter-mile dirt track with Sills Saturday night.

“It was a one-in-a-million chance I’d win and this is my chance,” Dahlman said, adding that he has seen Sills several times on television, but this was the first time he got to meet him.

Dahlman raced modified midgets at the Marysville raceway in the 1980s, back when it was an eighth-mile track.

“It’s different today - a bigger track with bigger engines,” Dahlman said.

Wood was the first to put on the fire-retardant race suit and strap in behind Sills.

After his spin, the look on his face said it all.

“What a rush!” Wood exclaimed as he got out of the sprint car with a smile from ear to ear. “It’s too much fun - you got to try it.”

The ride also made him appreciate what the drivers do when they are behind the wheel.

“It didn’t feel as fast as I thought it would, but I felt the power,” Wood said. “That wall comes up real fast and you don’t realize how sideways it’s pitched around the corners until you’re in it. It was awesome.”

When Wood returned to the garage area, Dahlman’s wife, Cheryl, stood by her husband as he suited up and slid into the back seat for the second ride of the evening.

“He’s been so excited about this for the last two weeks,” she said. “He’s been like a little kid.”

Dahlman raced back in time with his ride.

“He whipped that rear end around on the first turn and it brought back some memories. I didn’t hold on - I just sat back and let him go,” Dahlman said.

“It was like the old days and I enjoyed every minute of it, but it was too short.”

Dahlman’s time on the track was shortened because of a mechanical problem with the car, which also prevented two others from taking their spins around the oval.

Sills said Wanda Hill and Chris Purdue, both of Marysville, will get their turns during one of his classes within the next three weeks.

Sills has instructed drivers from around the U.S., including Nextel Cup driver Casey Kahne, when he was a young sprint-car driver out of Washington.

In recent weeks, drivers from Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Italy - not to mention the president of Darlington Raceway - have attended his school.

“It’s the only school that has advanced classes,” Sills said, adding that about half of his students are drivers while the other half are guys trying to break into the sport.

“There’s a lot more to it than just driving around the race track. To be a successful driver, you need a little bit of everything,” Sills said. “You have to be confident with the speed and be able to read the race track. The brake, the steering and the throttle all have to work together.”

“The only thing you change is your driving style during the race, because the track conditions dictate how you drive.”

Others who take Sills’ classes are just fans, like Wood, who has an itch to go racing.

“I tried to build a race car when I was younger, but they started getting real expensive,” Wood said. “Now, I’m waiting for my wife to let me take the class. The drivers seat - that’s where I want to be.”