By Tony Veneziano 

Ever since he was just a kid, Cory Eliason dreamed of racing sprint cars for a living—preferably with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series. That dream became a reality this year when the 26-year-old hit the road with the Roth Motorsports team.

Eliason, who is from Selma, CA, currently has perfect attendance with the Outlaws in 2018 and has also achieved another major goal this season, which was winning a main event with the series. He checked that off his bucket list at the Stockton Dirt Track on March 17, starting on the pole and leading all 30 laps to pick up the win over Ian Madsen and Shane Stewart.

“You have to keep moving forward and try to get more than just one,” Eliason said. “That’s our goal here. The Outlaws race in California for three weeks at the beginning of the year and two weeks at the end of the year, so the chances to win at home are slim. It was good to actually get one close to home, where everyone who watched me growing up, coming through the ranks racing, was able to see.”

Eliason, like the rest of the drivers competing with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series this season, has endured numerous rainouts. While in his home state of California, Eliason only had the chance to race three times, as the five other scheduled events were affected by rain. Just one of those races was rescheduled, with that event being shifted to the fall when the series returns to the Golden State. After heading back to the Midwest, Mother Nature continued to impact Eliason and his fellow competitors, postponing another four races. During this downtime, Eliason focused on staying in shape.

“You keep working out and keep training,” he shared. “You do as much as you can physically for your body until you can get out there and race. There is no substitute for laps and being in the seat. All you can do is try to eat healthy and keep your body in shape.”

Eliason is making the most of his first year on the road, racing full-time. Along with his win, he has a total of six top-10 finishes, with five of those being top-five performances in the first 16 races of the season with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series. Last year, Eliason won twice with the King of the West NARC Series, en route to finishing third in points, while he also won a pair of races with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour. In total, Eliason had 11 victories in 2017.

“I get to race with the best, as well as travel and do what I always dreamed of doing,” Eliason said of being on the road. “It’s definitely trying and challenging at times, especially when you have a problem or are struggling. There is not time to figure it out like you can with a local or regional series. Out here, if you have one little problem, it can hurt you all night.”

Of the tracks he has been to thus far in 2018, Eliason had only previously raced at two of those. Both were in his home state of California. The first was the Stockton Dirt Track where he won, while the other was Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare. Among the tracks coming up on the schedule are the famed Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio—site of the #LetsRaceTwo event taking place this Friday and Saturday—and the historic Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania—which hosts the Spring Classic and Morgan Cup next weekend.

“I approach every track like I do back home,” he explained. “We see how it goes the first lap in hot laps and hold it wide open and go as hard as you can for the next couple of laps to see what you can do with it. It’s been real fun to see the other tracks on the schedule. Just about every track has been a new one for me. It will continue to be that way until we get to Knoxville (Raceway in Iowa), where I have been before.”

Driving for the always potent Roth Motorsports team, owned by Dennis and Teresa Roth, Eliason has an experienced crew, which helps with the steep learning curve that he is facing on the road this season. Leading the way is crew chief Troy Welty, along with veteran mechanic Brandon Ikenberry.

“When everything is right, it makes my job so much easier,” Eliason said. “Then, all I have to do is keep it in the right lanes and I should be running somewhere up front most of the night. We are looking for top-10 runs this year and to learn as much as we can. It’s definitely different. I know exactly how every track races back home. Out here, you are wondering: How does it race? What lanes or grooves change, throughout the night? Until I get to run a track personally, I can’t answer those questions. I’m hoping that we get to come back out again and have a second chance at these tracks. We are taking a rookie approach this year, just learning.

Eliason’s team is taking a “wait and see” approach to this season when it comes to its schedule. While Eliason has competed in each and every one of the first 16 World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series races and sits ninth in points, he and his team haven’t made a definitive choice on their direction for the entire season. 

“We keep running with them,” he said of racing with the World of Outlaws. “We really haven’t made a decision of what our schedule will be. We are just taking it race by race. So far, we have continued to run with the Outlaws, so we’ll see how it goes. Staying in the top 10, wherever we go is our main goal. Wherever we are at, we want to be in the top five and top 10 and learning this year. Hopefully, we can get a few more wins and that will set us up for next year and that would be pretty good.”