By Shawn Brouse
If young sprint driver Cody Darrah is any indication of what sprint car racing in Central Pennsylvania will have to offer in the coming years, then the sport’s future is in good hands indeed.
Darrah is the newest in a line of new-age sprint car pilots hitting the scene today in this racing-rich region.
A graduate of Red Lion High School in June, Darrah strolls through the pits before the races sporting Abercrombie & Fitch clothing and Puma sneakers, entirely unassuming and not the least bit pretentious.
He is who he is. He just loves to racing. It’s in his blood. He’s been racing since he was 5.
Darrah is quiet, polite, down to earth, well spoken and professional. And, he’s already a darned good racer for somebody so young — now 18.
After moving from micro sprint success straight into 410 sprints as soon as he was 16 in 2006, Darrah suffered a broken arm mid-season last year and missed 15 weeks. But he never skipped a beat upon his return this year.
May 10 at Lincoln Speedway was a monumental night for the York County driver. It was the night he won his first-ever sprint car feature, and his second, too!
On a night when the track hosted a makeup event and a regular show, Darrah bested them all, twice.
Cody Darrah had arrived.
What’s in a name?
It was likely inevitable that Darrah become a racer, and a darned good one at that. After all, he comes from a family of speed freaks.
Veteran sprint driver Fred Rahmer, who should know how to identify not only talent but another driver who can take food out of his kid’s mouths, said of Darrah in the latter’s rookie season in 2006, “He ain’t a 16-year old driver, he’s an Eckert.”
That’s right, an Eckert. As in Kitty Eckert’s son.
The York County-based Eckert name has long been identified with racing and victory in the region.
Both Kitty and sister Candy placed their name on stock car win lists at Selinsgrove Speedway and others over the years along with brother Rick, who notched several track titles locally before moving on to national touring late model circuits and championships. Sister Lori and brother Oz were also racers.
Eckert patriarchs Irvin Sr. and his son “Junior” started the Eckert racing phenomenon in stock cars decades ago at Lincoln and Susquehanna speedways.
And today, Darrah represents Eckert generation four to tour area tracks.
“It’s an absolute privilege to be in such a wonderful family,” he says.
“They support me so well. You see all these pictures with checkered flags and it’s a privilege to be able to carry on such a tradition.
“There’s a lot of personal pressure. There’s no pressure from my family,” Darrah admits.
“They support you no matter where you finish or what you do. The pressure is on my part, thinking of how great they were and the great things they’ve done, there’s pressure just to try to do what they have done.”
Enter Lee Stauffer
Thanks to Darrah’s crew chief in the micros being friends with second-generation sprint mechanic Lee Stauffer of Thomasville, Darrah gets off on the right foot every time he buckles up.
“We were lucky enough to be good enough that he came on board,” Darrah says of acquiring Stauffer’s talents in 2007.
“Every success that our team’s got goes straight back to that man. He’s been through so many experiences and so many different great drivers that he brings them to me and teaches me.
“He’s not only a master at setting up cars but he’s a master at seeing how the car works and that he can teach me, and see that, and relate to me what the car’s doing and what I’m doing in the car,” Darrah said.
“Lee’s the one that got me time-trialing. Before I broke my arm, we probably logged 800 test laps.”
Stauffer grew up as the understudy of one of the greatest wrenches this area has offered — his late father, Ed.
Over the years, the father-son team wrenched for drivers such as Doug Wolfgang, Keith Kauffman, Fred Rahmer and so many more. They helped form Apple Motorsports in 1987 and when the team retired in 2006, Stauffer was free to move into Darrah’s camp.
Darrah credits others for his success as well, aside from his family.
“I’ve gotten input from all the drivers. Fred (Rahmer) talks to you, even though he’s a competitor he helps me out. “And Greg’s helped me on and off the track — getting in shape. He got me into riding bikes and getting cardio fit,” Darrah says of the impact fellow driver Greg Hodnett has had on him.
Let the wins begin
All the ingredients finally came together at Lincoln Speedway on May 10 when Darrah scored his first career sprint win anywhere in a makeup main held over from April.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Darrah went out and did it again later the same night to notch his second career victory.
“Just kind of the Lincoln night was surreal. I can’t event put that in words,” Darrah says. “The emotion that came with that.”
Nearly two months after his fabulous Lincoln night, Darrah brought the fans to their feet with an exciting first career Port Royal Speedway win worth $7,000 in a 30-lap Pennsylvania Speedweek feature in early July.
“To think that two years ago I was sitting on the fence at Williams Grove and dreaming about these guys, my heroes, like Fred and Greg,” Darrah says.
“And to stand on the front stretch and be on top that night, it’s a wonderful privilege.”
“Each win that we’ve gotten in sprint cars is just pretty amazing.”
Que sera sera
Aside from perhaps some continuing education business classes, there is no post-secondary schooling like college in Darrah’s future.
He knows what he wants to do — race! And there is no master plan.
“I want to turn it into a career. I’d like to just be able to do this for a living and make my way like this,” he says.
“In 10 years, if I’m in sprint cars and being able to do this each week and this be my job, that’s what I dream for and live for.”
However, Darrah does have some other money coming in.
“My dad has me working with his company from six in the morning until 9:30 or 10.
“Every day I don’t have a race, I’m working next to him,” Darrah says proudly of his position at J&K; Salvage in York, an auto scrap shredding business his father Joe began in 1997.
“The best way to promote you is sitting behind the steering wheel and to win every race possible, that’s our goal, our team’s goal, that’s my goal,” Cody Darrah says.
“Obviously that’s not achievable but, if you’re not striving for it, you’re not doing 100 percent.
“It would be a privilege and accomplishment to race with the prestige of NASCAR or the truck series or Indy,” Darrah admits.
“It’s definitely surreal to see these guys like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart come up like I am, at tracks like I’m racing. But if I stay in sprints, then that’s the way it is and I would love that.”
