The crew chief for Johnny Clark, who won Sunday's Ray Haskell Ford 125 at Wiscasset Raceway, usually hides away behind the race hauler, stressed out beyond belief. But without Green having come on board at Johnny Clark Motorsports prior to the 2007 season, Clark admits he would have had a hard time regaining championship form. The 2-time PASS North champ said Green is the straw that stirs the proverbial drink.
One of the hardest people to find during a PASS North Series race is Robert Green.
"I've always felt like our preparation program has been pretty good, but now that we've got Robert around, it seems like all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed," Clark said. "He's just been unbelievable." Green's selfless work on the team has meant the difference between merely making it to the race track and challenging for wins once they get there. "We don't have a lot of people in the shop," Green said. "And this is not my full-time job. I'm a person that if we need to work all week on the car, I'll take a week off from work and go down and do the work to get ready for the next race." In the shop is where Green is most valuable. He spends virtually no time at all on the radio during the races -- letting Bobby Clark handle that duty -- and with tire changes not allowed in most PASS races, there's not a lot of strategy involved. In fact, once the car lines up on the starting grid for the main event, there's not a lot Green can do but wait. "And smoke a lot of cigarettes," he said. "I'd like to hide in the trailer when the race starts. There's nothing I can really do then, so I just hang out. "Once it's over, I'm fine." A year ago at this point in the season, the team was running through race cars like most people run through pairs of socks. Tire failures and subsequent crashes left them scrambling to complete the middle segment of the season with only one working car. For a team accustomed to having a couple of choices in the shop as they embarked on different races, it was Green who helped pull everybody together and keep them focused on competing week-to-week. Clark said last summer that he'd not wanted to run a weekly Super Late Model feature at Wiscasset when that track brought the division back, but Green was of the mindset that race cars were meant to be raced. So they raced -- and won -- that Aug. 4 feature. "I think we're better prepared now than we were last year," Green said. "Johnny and I are starting to work a little bit better together." Green joined the team late during Clark's 2006 championship season. Now he's getting ready to unveil his biggest project with the team, a brand new No. 54 Chevrolet that he's built from its Port City Racecars chassis. Clark thinks the car can help put the team on track for title No. 3 -- believing it to potentially be even better than the ride that led every lap from the pole on Sunday at Wiscasset. "He's been working full-time for the last 6 weeks, and he's got a brand new race car sitting in the shop ready to go," Clark said. "I can't wait to break that out -- that's his baby. He's done it all." Doing it all, Clark said, is exactly what makes Green so valuable in the big picture. "He's willing to put in the time and effort that it really takes to run up front in this series," Clark said.
That's my Dad, Robert Green! =) Isn't he awesome?!
Posted by: Joslynn Green | 19 August 2008 at 01:13 AM