Home > Blogs > Local Auto Racing > Archives > 2008 > July > 31
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Renner ready for Big Bird 94
Okay, the rules of my profession say I’m not supposed to root for teams or people … at least not openly. But when the Big Bird 94 takes the green flag today, Aug. 1, I’ll be pulling for Donnie Renner. And I’m thinking I won’t be alone.
Nothing against guys like John Vallo, Tim Allensworth, Justin Alsip or other drivers I’ve gotten to know covering Kil-Kare Speedway, but nothing would be more special than Renner celebrating in victory lane. The Big Bird 94 (formerly the Dayton 100) is a tribute race for Robbie Dean, Renner’s best friend.
“The Dayton 100 was always a big deal at this track,” Renner said during the Wednesday race at Kil-Kare on July 23. “Robbie even drove one of my cars over here in the early ’90s and we did very good in it. He was always good at this track. He would want me to soldier on. If I didn’t he’d kick my butt. It’s been hard the past few weeks.”
Dean, 55, passed away July 3 after a battle with cancer. Renner was with him all the way. Renner took Dean into his home after Dean was diagnosed with terminal cancer a couple days before Thanksgiving in 2007. They did doctors visits together. And, when Dean moved back to his home and then started spending more time in the hospital, Renner was there with daily visits. One of those came a month ago on June 14.
“I didn’t want to leave the hospital on a Saturday,” said Renner, who didn’t feel much like running at Columbus Motor Speedway that night. “He held his hand out and he said, ‘Here’s a helping hand. Go win me a feature.’ Just so happened I went out and with 14 laps to go I lost my power steering. The set-ups we run anymore it’s very, very hard without power steering, even though I’m a 300-pound guy.”
Renner held on to win. When Renner returned to the hospital, Dean had a racing story to tell as well.
“(Dean) said, ‘Oh by the way, the nurse had me out walking in the hallway with a walker.’ There was a wheelchair sitting in the hallway. He slammed into it and the nurse was like, ‘What are you doing, Robbie?’ He said, ‘Renner get out of my way!’ Everybody that knows him that’s just the stuff he did. Even with the situation he was in and the odds he was against, he still had that sense of humor. He’ll be missed.”
I never met Dean. But talking to drivers at Kil-Kare that Wednesday, car owner and driver Gary Estes told me a story that I get the feeling sums up Dean. Estes was leading at Columbus a few years ago and Dean was on the outside. Dean couldn’t get a run and banged Estes’ right front tire which jerked the steering wheel out of Estes’ hands. Dean claimed that wasn’t his goal. But Estes figured Dean knew exactly what he was doing with the maneuver and confronted him in the pits “grabbing him and screaming and yelling at him.”
“(Dean) said, ‘I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.’ I thought uh oh, he’s going to hit me. He said next week if I’m leading or in front of you I’ll move over and let you go. The next week he was leading and I was second. He pulled up and I dropped in front of him.”
The only thing that prevented Estes from winning was a broken part on the car.
“Anybody that knew Robbie had a Robbie Dean story,” Renner said. “No matter what track you’re at or who you are, he was always the king of the clowns. But when it come to racing he was very, very serious.”
“He was always tough. I think one year in 80 or 85 percent of the races we ran 1-2 between the both of us. We made everybody mad,” said John Vallo, who was Dean’s biggest competition during the 1980s. “A good-hearted guy, but you didn’t want to mess with him. You weren’t going to have a winning battle.”
Renner said he expects about 20 drivers from different classes to come over from Columbus today. Among other touches today, the Kil-Kare pace truck will sport Big Bird decals. Renner also hopes to have a special trophy made. Ultimately, Renner wants to have a three-race series — perhaps the Robbie Dean Cup — at Columbus, Kil-Kare and Shady Bowl Speedway. Dean often ran that trifecta on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“It’ll be special. It’ll be really special,” Renner said of today’s race. “We lived it to the fullest until the last day.”
