IN BAD COMPANY
After watching the first night of races in the 2011 season, I quickly jumped on the Bad Company bandwagon. I will jump on any team’s bandwagon providing they race fast, hit hard and come out looking the demo equivalent of Baltimore Ravens linebacker, Ray Lewis; mean, aggressive with a possible manslaughter charge to their name. Having lived through the Smash, Bash & Crash era for the last two years (I believe the team color was die-at-the-starting line grey), I have come to have a true appreciation for any team with a hard-nosed, smash-mouth style of driving. And Bad Company has just that.
While pondering what would come next for them, I learned that Levi Turnbaugh and his father, “Sarge”, quit Seek-N-Destroy. On its own, this one action meant nothing; especially to Bad Company, given that neither of the Turnbaughs was going to join team 3. However, in a large sense, the Turnbaughs decision to leave Seek-N-Destroy started a chain reaction of events that ultimately lead to Bad Company substantially improving their lineup, chemistry and morale.
Let’s start at the beginning: Due to a relatively amicable difference of opinions, the Turnbaughs left Greg Mesich’s Seek-N-Destroy team after the first race. Across town, Bad Company’s Rich Wilson met with team sponsor, Mark Ziesmer, and chose to leave the team. “After talking to Mark,” Bad Company driver, Jason Ritacco, states, “Rich decided to walk away on his own. Rich told me directly that we might have to find another guy to finish the season with because he was hurting.”
The news saddens Ritacco because, as he says, “Rich gave me my start when no one else would give a rookie a chance. I try to be good to those who are good to me and Rich was good to me.” With Wilson leaving though, it gave Bad Company an opportunity to bring in some fresh blood. Ritacco had one thought: Seek-N-Destroy’s Matt Pierce.
“After I heard about all that stuff with Levi,” Ritacco says, “I called Matt and asked him if he wanted to come over to us.” Ritacco and Pierce had raced together on Seek-N-Destroy in 2010 and both knew and respected each other’s style of driving and car building.
“Jason offered me a chance to race for Bad Company in the off-season,” Pierce comments. “But I wanted to stay loyal to Seek-N-Destroy and Levi. Levi and I really clicked toward the end of last season. We got good together in the shop and on the track.” He sighs and continues, “The beginning of this season just got really cluttered though. Blame games were being played and fingers were being pointed at everybody. Money became an issue.”
In short, the atmosphere around Seek-N-Destroy became toxic.
It might be a bit of revisionist thinking, but this fact seemed readily apparent during the first night of racing. Seek-N-Destroy was not only short a few cars, but they seemed out of synch on the track, despite their win against Damage, Inc.
“I called both Levi and Sarge,” Pierce says, “to make sure they were actually going to leave—they were—and then I got the call from Jason. Bad Company’s a solid team. Kyle Shearer’s a solid driver. Jason, I raced with him last year and he’s really good. Brice Martin is getting better and better in each race. I know that all those guys are good and know how to build.”
Pierce pauses to reflect on the situation. After a second or two, he continues, “Staying with Greg and Seek-N-Destroy, there was absolutely no certainty there. I could have stayed and hoped for the best, but I probably would have ended up building a lot more cars than I should have. In the direction things seemed to be going, it didn’t look like it was going to get any better, so I told Jason ‘yes’.”
And, just like that, Pierce entered into some Bad Company.
“I’ll tell you what,” Ritacco tells me, “We just had a little party at Brice’s house on Saturday and morale and confidence for this team couldn’t be higher. We want to race tomorrow. I don’t see any reason why this team now can’t compete with Orange Crush or Reckoning. It’s amazing to me how much better we got with this one move.”
Pierce smiles when he hears this praise. “It definitely feels more like a team over here,” he grins. “On Seek-N-Destroy, it became, ‘I did this,’ and ‘I did that,’ and ‘I helped out with this. These guys have made me feel like part of the team already and I haven’t even stepped foot onto the track yet.”
A lot of athletes talk a good game and often spout meaningless platitudes when they can; “We just went out and gave 100% and are taking it one day at a time.” One element that separates Pierce from a lot of other athletes out there is the specifics he takes great pains to mention. “One thing I like about being on this team,” Pierce begins, “Is that we’re on the same page about building. Seek-N-Destroy takes the bodies off their cars. I don’t like to do that. I think it just creates more work for me. These guys? They build like I want to build. They don’t take the bodies off their cars! They accept me like I am and are very receptive about ideas I have.” Pierce then launches into a detailed explanation of the suspension he puts in his car, how it helps him when he runs, and what he’s going to add to that now that he’s switched teams.
From Pierce’s perspective, the biggest difference between the two teams is one of attitude. “The attitude over here… man…” he trails off. “You’ve got to let the other teams know, even if you’re going to lose, that you’re not a bunch of chumps! If you can intimidate someone before they get on the track, they think about that while they’re on the track and that can only help you.”
Swapping out Wilson for Pierce, the new Bad Company line up should feature Pierce and Martin as the runners and Ritacco and Shearer as the crushers.
And while adding Pierce to the team will definitely shore up the lap running side of things, I think what will truly set Bad Company apart from other teams is what is going on with their crushers. Based on the hits I saw Bad Company’s crushers deliver on Reckoning in their first round loss in the last night of racing, I don’t think there is a more heart-stoppingly fearsome tandem than Ritacco and Shearer.
The two aren’t necessarily the best crushers in the league—Orange Crush’s Johnny Ryan and Tom “Brickman” Lewis and Reckoning’s Chris McGuire and “Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht still rank above them—but I truly don’t see anyone that I would fear more than them if I was running. While Ryan and Lewis will deliver hard hits and effectively stop their opponents’ runners, neither one of them ever seems truly out for the kill.
When Ritacco and Shearer get onto the track, there is more than a little glint of crazy in their eyes; it’s hard to tell whether they’re completely in control of what they’re doing and that is a scary thought. They are fast, supremely aggressive and have absolutely no qualms at all about crashing into their opponents as hard as they can at any given time. I dare say that the two of them actually get an almost sadistic sense of enjoyment out of destroying another team’s cars… and that would unnerve me.
While this balls-to-the-wall attitude might come back to haunt them in a race against a team with a runner who is frustratingly effective against dodging hard hits (like Orange Crush’s Ryan Bleuer), for now, it seems like this approach will quickly turn Bad Company into fan favorites.
The only trick will come as Shearer tries to figure out how to top his hit on Reckoning’s Brian Anderson, where Shearer left his bumper inside Anderson’s car.
Suffice it to say, I am eagerly awaiting the new-look Bad Company’s first race on June 18.
POWER RANKINGS… OR NOT
When putting the broad strokes of this column together in the off-season, I was debating about what features to include. My initial thought was to do a once-a-month set of power rankings, the kind that so many writers do for baseball, football and basketball. Who rose the most? Who sank the farthest? That kind of thing.
As I began sketching this idea out, I quickly realized the futility of this endeavor, particularly in regards to the TDA. Without any different divisions, leagues or conferences, there was a default set of power rankings that was available 24/7: the standings.
If a team loses quickly in the first round, their position in the standings sinks quickly and if a team wins the night, they rocket to the top. Power rankings in their most pure and simple form. Using standings as a power ranking also eliminated that illogical and complete pompous element of writing when the experts are forced to explain how a team with a much worse record/point total is actually so much more powerful than another team with a much better record/point total.
I saw this latter element a lot with the Chicago Bears last season. After seven weeks of the season, a lot of NFL pundits had the 4-3 Bears ranked below the 2-5 Chargers. How any 4-3 team can be worse than a 2-5 team is beyond me.
All of this is a very long way of saying that there will be no power rankings in this column. If you want to know which team is the most powerful, just look at the standings and see what team is in the lead; they’re the most powerful.
Those were my thoughts before the opening night of racing. Then I saw the races and began wondering about the validity of these points. Case in point: Bad Company.
During First Night, Bad Company raced well. Really well. Their cars were built well (ignore Brice Martin’s on-the-starting-line hiccup), their drivers were extremely aggressive, and, more importantly, aggressive without ever going outside their game plan and they had a on-track joi de vivre that I loved seeing.* Kyle Shearer’s collision with “Speedy” Steve Vollbrecht right at the finish line was the type of never-give-up racing that you always want to see.
* This is the first time in the history of the English language that the French phrase joi de vivre has been used while describing a demolition derby.
But in spite of the many positive things they did on the field, Bad Company lost.
I’m guessing this is how the power rankings started in the first place. A team that played excellently lost and ended up in the standings behind a mediocre team that happened to win; attempting to right the standings’ wrong, some writers created power rankings.
In the end though, I am sticking with my gut and not doing anything with power rankings here. Yes, it seems ridiculous to consider that Orange Crush is in last place and, as such, can currently be labeled as tied for the worst record in the TDA, but that will change as the season progresses. As it stands though, Orange Crush, Bad Company, Damage, Inc and Stranglehold are in last place and can focus their energies on changing that designation on June 18.
POCKET CHANGE(S)
In August of 2010, the former owner of the TDA, Teresa Gabriel, sold the TDA to Sherri Heckenhast. It was the first change in owners in almost ten years, as Teresa Gabriel and her late husband, Jan, had owned and operated the league since the formation of the TDA in 2002.
The on-field strategy, style of driving and rules for racing are all almost exactly the same under Heckenhast as they were under the Gabriels; I won’t bore you with discussions of how three-inch welds on the doors became the industry standard, down from four-inch welds, this last off-season. There were several subtle changes to the TDA:
• Shayn McMartin, Heckenhast’s husband, is now the head of competition, replacing long time TDA official, Dave “Cheeseburger” Hauschild.
McMartin’s first race as the head of competition went as smoothly as could be. There were no fights in the pits, no driver’s door hits of note and no positions that McMartin had to weigh in on during his first night on the job. On Sunday morning, his role in the evening was almost completely forgotten, which, as an official, is the highest compliment you can be paid.
• Trophy girls/cheerleaders were brought in.
I know what you’re thinking: last year’s races were curiously and glaringly absent attractive female Foot Locker employees to lead the crowd in cheers. No longer is this the case.
The addition of the trophy girls was met with an interestingly mixed set of verdicts. Every driver I spoke to shrugged at the matter. Save for one comical moment when a driver (who shall remain nameless) wondered seriously whether they were the new officials because of their referee-like shirts, no one in the pits had any real thoughts on them.
On the flip side of things, every fan I spoke to, both male and female, noticed the trophy girls and commented on how well they got the crowd going and what a welcome addition they were. One woman told me that there was a lot of downtime in between races and she welcomed the ability to watch something, anything, other than cars being pulled off the track.
• The number of end-loaders used to clear the wreckage was cut down to one…
…and it made the whole car removal process really, honestly, truly, noticeably quicker.
There are two parts to removing the wrecked cars from the track after a race: 1) The cars are cleared from the field, and 2) they are brought back into their pit areas. These acts had always been connected. Heckenhast decided to split the process in two, using one end-loader with enormous forks to pick up the cars and deposit them on the outside of the track wall. Once there, a tow truck could pull the cars back to their pits at his leisure, without fear of delaying the next race. For the crowd, this was again a huge improvement from the gold standard.
Three changes, three major successes and one gloriously strong night of racing; the Heckenhast era of the TDA is off to a great start.