Former racing champ's sons carrying on tradition

By Harold Raker
The Daily Item

July 03, 2009 10:13 am

— Scott Dunham Sr. loved having his boys in the grandstand while he raced his stock car at Selinsgrove Speedway in the 1990s. When those boys, now in their 20s, decided it was their turn to compete, the retired driver knew he needed to return to the pits.
With Scott Jr., 23, and Marlin, 21, racing as rookies in the speedway's roadrunner division this season, Scott Sr., is getting a close-up view as the their crew chief.
Scott Sr., who won the daredevil division (forerunner to today's pro stocks) championship at Selinsgrove in 1996 and last raced regularly in 1998, admitted he had mixed feelings about his sons following in his footsteps.
"I thought I would like to see them race, because it is a lot of fun. But, I didn't want to see them get hurt," he said last week as the Selinsgrove-based team got ready for warm-up laps.
"When they decided they wanted to race, I told them I would help them because I wanted them to have good, safe cars," Scott Sr., 50, said.
Scott Jr., driver of the No. 77, bought his father's old race car and the Dunhams picked up a street car in Philadelphia and built it into a roadrunner-legal car in the offseason for Marlin, who drives the No. 69.
"That first week, we were scrounging to get everything here," Scott Jr. said.
Not only did the Dunhams make it out to start the season, they ran well and have stayed in the hunt for the track title as the second half of the season approaches. Marlin is fifth and Scott Jr. is eighth in a tight points race.
All three said they were surprised to have done.
"A lot of people have commented about that," Scott Jr. said. "I've been very surprised as well, but I felt that I could get a little bit better if I wouldn't have had some bad luck to start the year. I had some tire issues, some distributor problems, but we are overcoming that and becoming better."
His father added, "I am very surprised and I'm not the only one. We have (received) a lot of compliments from a lot of different people who say that they can't believe how they are running."
Scott came agonizingly close to getting his first career win when he led the first 11 laps of the 12-lap feature a month ago before a tire blew out coming through the second turn.
"That was a rough night," he said, adding, "You just keep stabbing at it and eventually the win will come."
Scott Sr. was equally dejected. "I could have cried that night. It was really heartbreaking."
He said Marlin later discovered the tire problem: they were running the wrong wheels on the No. 77 and the problem was quickly corrected.
Meanwhile, Marlin was off to a flying start and led the point standings for a while before some problems dropped him back in the pack. He is also looking for his first win, although he did set fast time and a track record in time trials for the annual Roadrunner 20 the third week of the season.
His closest bid for a win came early in the season when he was racing wheel-to-wheel with veteran Ricky Bender with many of the Big Diamond roadrunner drivers on hand, and Bender prevailed. "It would have been really neat to win that one," he said.
"My year started out awesome," Marlin said. "Then a couple things went wrong with the car, bad set-up and all that, and I dropped back a little bit. We are staying pretty even right now and we are going to try and keep working on it every week until we get it right."
Despite their inexperience, both brothers have lofty goals for their first season behind the wheel.
"My goal is the track championship," Scott Jr. said. "A lot of people tell me not to count on it because I am a rookie. I would like to do it to show everybody that it can be done. I'm working on that right now and I'm working my way back up through."
Scott Sr. said he isn't sure that either of his sons will win the title this year, but he predicts that one of them will do it next season.
"I am pretty proud of them," he said.
Marlin said he also wants to win the title, but that there is no rivalry between he and his brother. "We work as a team on the track, we try to keep it a fair thing between both of us to make it competitive. If either one of us would win, it would be awesome. We would be happy for each other," he said.
Scott said the boys heeded his advice, especially when he had to admonish them when Marlin bumped Scott during a race. "It made him a little nervous and he tried to run a little harder and spun out. Dad had to step in there and tell them not to be banging on each other because it could make for more work for us to keep the cars running," Scott Sr. said.
He added, "They've listened to me and they have given each other room to race and I think it brought my boys closer together. They work on each others' cars. Marlin is more mechanically inclined than Scott from helping me all the years on my car."
Although he teases them that he is going to get on the track and show them how it is done, Scott Sr. has no desire to race against his sons. He fears the possibility of taking one of them out.
"I would really feel bad if I went out and smashed one of my boys' cars up because when I drive race cars, there is only one way to run it and that is wide open," he said.
Scott Jr. said he owes everything to Scott Sr. and his mother, Stephanie, and to his brother for all the work he does on the car. "Without them, I wouldn't be doing this."
All three Dunhams are truck drivers, the sons for Reinhart Food Service and Scott Sr. for Lear.
If things work out well in the roadrunner division, both have aspirations of moving up to something bigger and faster.
Scott Jr. has always been a sprint car fan, rooting for 410 driver Cris Eash as a youngster and current 358 driver T.J. Stutts today, and his dream is to driver a sprinter. "Sprints have always fascinated me," he said.
Marlin rooted for Billy Pauch when the modified racing legend was a regular in a sprint car at Selinsgrove. Marlin admired Pauch for more than just his prowess behind the wheel.
"I was having problems when I was in school (at Selinsgrove) and Billy really inspired me to (work hard) in school so that I could make something with my life," Marlin said.
Marlin also said he would like to eventually drive a late model or a sprint car.
But Scott Jr. said, unless someone offers him a ride, he believes the right way to do it is to have success in your own division before you move up.
"I would like to get a track championship in this division before I move up. I believe it is better to keep going in your division before you spend the money to move out of it, because you haven't accomplished anything," Scott Jr. said.
But then he hedged. "Sprint cars have always been my passion and I'd give this up tonight to go run a sprinter. It would be great."

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